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After months of raw nerves, I shot my first wedding on May 28th for my nephew in Vallejo, California. The whole day kind of blew by with very little time to really get creative, but hey... I survived and the family is happy. Here are links to a few of the pictures that I've had time to do a little work with. (Your color may vary.) I'd be very pleased to hear your comments.

Bride Karina after applying her makeup:
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... fullsize=1

Balcony Overview: This was taken by my daughter. You can see me in the upper left taking a shot.
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... fullsize=1

Ceremony:
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... fullsize=1

18th Hole - This is a shot that was suggested by Killakoala:
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... fullsize=1

Standard Garter Removal Picture - almost:
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... fullsize=1

Saving possibly the best for last, Silhouette: This came from an indirect suggestion by Mark Cross.
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... fullsize=1

SoCal Steve,

I am personally not into portraits.

So based on that, I do like #2:

Balcony Overview: This was taken by my daughter. You can see me in the upper left taking a shot.
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... fullsize=1

Like most finiancial churches, well presented and excellent stained glass.

I am still interested in seeing more shot though.

Cheers,

Well done, Steve. There will be lots of happy memories for the bride and groom in your pix. BTW, you have done a terrific job with the metering in these shots, particularly balancing ambient light with flash. And the LS II seems to have been worthwhile - there is very even lighting with a 3D modelling effect.

last pic looks great

Well done Steve, good to see you survived the event, It's all pretty fast isn't it, with not too much time to think.

All are good, maybe a tad bright, but that might just be me.
The last is a beaut, a really feely feely shot. love it.

Mic.

I post a few of mine one day, when I finally get organised.

Steve,

If I may make a suggestion,

The light is sort of flat, I would recommend giving them more contrast and saturation, or possibly converting to BW. The Golf one would be a good one to convert I think.

The garter one has a great expression on her face, which is perfect for the photo. Well caught. Again I think you should add some saturation, maybe darken a little (play with levels because his sleave looks a little on the bright side especially). A crop perhaps? Not sure if you can darken the sky and somehow get rid of the reflections, but you may, I'd consider a blur on the window to eliminate the distractions.

The makeup shot is great and her eyes and teeth shine. I'd like a slightly tighter crop though, and somehow darken the backround while lightening her face (subtly of course).

I'm not sure about the last one, but it looks photoshopped. Perhaps you were trying to save the highlights, but especially on the faces I think just leave them as sillhooettes (I can never spell that damn word). It's framed beautifully. To select their bodies, make the selection, hit q on mac. Select a gaussion blur, probly between 10 and 15. Tweak it in levels if you want. Then add the subtle highlight tweaks and you should be able to nail this picture.

If you didn't want any critique then ignore this entire post and I'll go cry because it took forever to post. BTW, just made a pic post so feel free to unleash hell on them.

Thanks for your observations, Dave. I do want to hear them.
None of the pictures are anywhere near completion or ready to print yet, but it's been two weeks since the wedding and I wanted to get something up for some general comments. I appreciate you taking the time to constructively do that for me. I'll remember your comments as I continue to work on them.

I chuckle when I hear a newbie ask what post processing is and if they should be interested in it. Clicking the shutter is only step one. The party is just getting started.

Regards, SoCal

The one of the auditorium is great

Ceremony, wonder if it might be worth trying to blur the background a bit to focus more on the couple?

Were the couple pasted in from another image in the last one, or just playing with the light? The effect seems sort of halfway between sillohette and faintly lit...

Hi Steve,

I really enjoyed the wide shot of the ceremony and was curious what tradition does the white ?lace/rope? come from? Wedding ceremonies are so interesting when you capture the different traditions and cultures we have in this world.

On a personal taste, I would have liked the colour from the grass more vivid for the 18th Hole shot.

The Garter removal, is an excellent example of capturing the moment but the window reflections are a distraction.

nito wrote:Hi Steve,

I really enjoyed the wide shot of the ceremony and was curious what tradition does the white ?lace/rope? come from? Wedding ceremonies are so interesting when you capture the different traditions and cultures we have in this world.

On a personal taste, I would have liked the colour from the grass more vivid for the 18th Hole shot.

The Garter removal, is an excellent example of capturing the moment but the window reflections are a distraction.

Hi Nito - All of the pictures as still works in progress. With much still to be done to them. The PP party has just begun!

I shot myself in the foot on the 18th Hole pictures. They were my first outdoor shots after a lot of available light work with that camera and I had left my ISO on 500 and was getting a HI reading on the camera. I stopped down as much as I could, but since I was using SB800 flash fill the camera couldn't increase the shutter speed past 1/60th and I had no time to think the problem through. So Photoshop will have to be my savior on those pics.

The window reflections will definitely get taken care of.

The Bride was originally from Guatamala and the rope is called either a lasso, a lazo or lazzo, depending on who you ask. It or a rosary is wound around the shoulders of the couple in a Figure 8 pattern to symbolize their union.

Cheers, Steve

The silhouette shot is seriously cool, Steve.