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by **kurokaze204** on Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:31 am

Hi all,

I've been having lots of fun finding cool backgrounds, but struggling a little with adding a good foreground subject in. This one finally turned out from a wedding on the weekend.

I don't like the shadows on her face, but considering it wasn't a staged shot it was one of my better ones.

http://www.darwinonline.org/displayimag ... pos=-26199

I'd appreciaet your feedback and possibly ideas for improvement.

Thanks

by **Greg B** on Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:10 am

My first suggestion would be to avoid having a wedding band comprising trumpet and piano acordian.

The photo, however, is excellent. The expression on the bride's face is great, and the moment is beautifully captured. DoF works well.

Well done.

by **gstark** on Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:21 am

Greg,

I would have thought that adding a banjo to the band would have been the perfect foil.

I gree with Greg; the composition is excellent, and your timing, in getting the bride's expression, is right there.

It looks as if this was shot in some sort of atrium or greenhouse though, and this is showing as a cast in the colour of the bride's dress.

This seems to me to be a great example of where a preset wb setting may have been a great add-in to your toolset; while some fill flash can kill the cast, any shots that used only the available light may be similarly affected; was this the case?

How did you handle this?

by **sirhc55** on Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:18 am

I agree with both Greg and Gary

An excellent shot - if the green caste is too much try - Image - Adjustments - Selective colour - select white and remove cyan/magenta/yellow and leave black alone.

Well done

Chris

by **phillipb** on Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:01 pm

I agree with what's been said so far, I would also like to add that the other shot of the page boy is excellent too.

by **boxerboy** on Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:09 pm

I think both shots are excellent. I'd be happy to hav the first as one of my wedding shots (don't know what my current wife would think about me being in the picture with Fiona though).

by **lejazzcat** on Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:45 pm

gstark wrote:
This seems to me to be a great example of where a preset wb setting may have been a great add-in to your toolset; while some fill flash can kill the cast, any shots that used only the available light may be similarly affected; was this the case?

How did you handle this?

Yep - fill flash, would have also helped you alot with the harsh shadows from the direct/side light on the face, and to balance the blown out background to her upper left (dodge/darken it to stop it being the brightest part of the image).
You used it with the pageboy, notice the catchlights in his eyes (adds a nice sparkle :wink:

).
It also gives a nice soft texture and detail on the the shadow side.

IMO-
Composition wise ,

I suggest that you consider shooting more 'looking room' to the right of the pageboy.

In the group shot, ide also crop the left a bit to get rid of the lecturn, and on the right to get rid of the spot (they make the image too cluttered). Although you loose the nice aspect ratio, it becomes a more intimate portrait of the bride.

Nice vibe ...

by **kurokaze204** on Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:51 pm

Thanks heaps everyone. Yes, it was in the Trak centre in Toorak village and the slanted windows were blue. I tried my very best to bring the skin tones back without affecting the whites too much, but my PS skills weren't quite up to it.

The accordian and trumpet were only the start of it. The entire wedding and reception was all in Romainian. Couldn't understand a single word, biut had a great time and Feasting Romanians would have to be close to the most hospitable people in the world :-)

As for the shot of the pageboy, his friend stuck his head in the shot just as I hit the shutter release. Everything you see in the picture from his hair to the right is painted in photoshop and not real, but I couldn't go much further...I'm not that much of an artist :-(

I have to raise the red midtones on this shot too and then used the OptikVerve "Romantic" filter on ISO25 to do the rest.

The bride shot was taken with my 70-300G from about 20 feet away. I didn't think the flash would reach that far so I didn't try it.

The official wedding photographer was also using a D70 and we had a good chat. he relied mainly on his 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8 and also used the 18-70 and another black steel lens that looked like it would survive being run over it with a tank. I asked him about it andall he said was it was worth $3k. He also used an SB800 flash unit with external battery pointed heavenward with a small white card taped to the back of it. I think learning to use flash is my next little project.