Anyone-critique on these shots?

Bump

Personally - I love them, I think they all look great!

8 mile run!! Nutter!!!

I think the sofa crease in the photo of the shoes/bouquet looks rather funky - it gives it a rough edge, if you get what I mean?

I'm not a photographer - obviously - but I'm an enthusiastic amateur, and I think these shots are generally very good! I agree that there are a lot more of the getting ready shots, but that's what you did shoot, and I'm guessing if the bride wanted getting ready shots, then she'll be pleased with them.

I personally am not a fan of getting ready shots, but that's my personal taste - she obviously is or she wouldn't have had a photographer there. And there are some lovely ones in there. I like the one where she has the veil on, and is looking in the mirror. I wouldn't take any out, there aren't THAT many!

I love the shot of the men walking away, with the groom looking back. That's the best shot there, in my opinion. I also love the shot inside the marquee with the couple smiling. I think that's great!

All in all, I think you should be proud of yourself! The only negative comment I have is that in some of the shots outside, I think you have a little too much headroom. The shot where they're sort of side-on on the bridge, I don't think has enough interest above their heads to warrant so much room.

But as I said - I'm just an amateur!

My top three photos...

1) Bride "telling off" flower girl

2) Shot inside the marquee with just B&G - really makes the room sparkle

3) Sunset shot of B&G by the birdcage

All in all - blooming marvellous! ( I am not a pro, am actually rubbish at taking pics myself, I really think you have done a great job!)

If you were my wedding photographer and they were my wedding photos i would be delighted with how they have come out - you should be really proud of yourself and alot less critical of yourself!

The final picture of the couple in the bird cage thingy in the dark is absolutly beautiful.

Well done

Hi Ellana, after a quick looksee, you should be very pleased with what you photographed. It would be good to see how these images fused with the images from the primary photographer.

Is there a link where we could see the remainder of the wedding images??

I'm a wedding photographer. For someone who isn't a prefessional your images are very good. I've just had to get rid of a wedding assistant that I was trying out, she'd done a photography degree etc and her images were rubbish. I'd much rather have had you!

I would perhaps tweak the white balance in a few of the indoor shots. The ones getting ready some are slightly too yellow for my taste. just a bit and I think that maybe one or two in the ceremony are a tiny bit pink. It may be hard to see if you don't have a calibrated monitor.

Your posing and eye is pretty good - if you do any more weddings you'll just get better and better and learn a lot.
I would have liked to have seen another picture unter the leafy archway, not sure of the brides eyes being closed - but that may just be personal preference. Did you take any more shots of that?

Well done you, for a good job. I've just seen a "professional" photographers images on another forum, who's done several weddings on her own, the images were not great. You are streets ahead of her! I bet the couple will be very pleased.

Oh, forgot to say that I tend to give the couple between 90-100 shots an hour. I take a lot more, and could give them a lot more, I find it hard to narrow them down. It's not a set amount, but it seems to be about the average.

Recent weddings:
shot for 5 hours - they got 430 images
shot for 9 hours - they got 740 images
shot for 3 hours - they got 350 images
etc etc

I have very good assistants that get me lots of good images too, so between us we take a lot.
I think the minimum to give is just a good coverage of the day. Make sure you get the important moments.

If you do big group shots its always a good idea to include 2 or 3 - just because one person might like the way they look in one image and another person may prefer how the look in another version of the image.

Wow, thanks for the positive responses guys!

Peter, do you mean the rest of my shots or the primary photographer's shots? I kind of became the primary photographer on the day. I think this guy more usually does the video and his friend who was on holiday does the photography. He does no editing either which is why he's passed them to me. Perhaps his friend does that too? I'm not sure of the eact arrangements. I have all his shots and I think there are only a handful that aren't the same as mine. His do seem a little sharper and you can zoom in further, but I think that may be the lens. I have a nikon D80 mainly with the 50mm 1.8 on, and he had a canon eos 10D. I took 570, he took about 200 and passed me 130, quite a few of which I think should be deleted, but not sure how to handle that. Because he had the flash on, a lot, esp. the indoor ones, have come out very 'unprofessional' looking, with blow out on the dress and shadows and red eye.
Let me know if you want to see the rest of mine, I can try and upload them onto flickr, not sure how many you're allowed to put on!

annabelle, thank you I had realised the white balance issue and I've corrected a few of them. I'm just getting to grips with that tool in the raw editor. I have tried a free monitor calibrator too, but it looks absolutely awful and the setting up was very subjective. I am a bit worried about that because the few times I've had prints made, they've come out darker than on the screen, so I've tried to over brighten the shots just a touch.
I didn't take another of the arch, she has got her eyes open though, just looking down. We had to be quick as we weren't actually supposed to be there! I did one with the groom in focus too, but that doesn't look half as good.
Thanks for the idea on numbers. I was there for 8 hours, so what I've got should be OK.

Thanks again everyone

I Ellena, I'm a pro photographer and have had quick look through your images. Generally I think these are great for a first time! Well done you!!

I have a few points for you: generally your composition is ok but on a few shots it's lacking, you need to develop this as it often makes or breaks an image, look at other photographers work to see how they compose their image - it's carefully thought out, not a random shot, you need to learn to compose better in camera and then crop after in editing to fine tune the overall look of the image. If you're not sure what I mean have a look on Google, you'll find loads of advice about 'rule of thirds' and 'leading the eye in' etc.

Another point to make is that although your Bride is very beautiful, you've caught her in less than flattering poses on most of these shots, the one that stands out is the hunched shot of her getting ready set, taken from the side - this is very unflattering, you'd be best directing her a bit more, straightening her up and turning her face a little towards you, at 45 deg angle.

Your B&W conversions are fairly good - MUCH better than most pro's I see! Try experimenting with your editing - increase contrast, 'dodge and burn' in selected areas, use curves etc, This is all stuff you'll get to grips with the more you experiment - it takes a long time so stick with it! I think you have the basic nailed though and have potential to be very good - with practice.

To answer your last question - I will not waste my time editing sub-standard images (I'm VERY critical of my own work!)- I spend an average of 20 mins editing each image, therefore I only edit the very best 200. This means only my very best work is ever shown and therefore the perception of my work is higher. I see no need to show 5 images of the same thing, it's boring to look at, boring to edit and tedious for the couple to have to choose the best shot from multiple copies of essentially the same thing. 2-3 hour coverage will give 130-150 images, full day will give 220-250.

Hope this helps you! Please feel free to email me if want to ask anything else,

Nicola

Hi Nicola, thanks for the feedback I tried to apply composition rules as I was going (I've been on a course about this, honest! ?) but I'll admit, esp. during the ceremony, I was panicking and not being as careful as I could. Are there any shots whose comp. could be improved with a crop?
I think the unflattering shot you're talking about is my favourite one of them all! I was shooting candid, the few where I did try to direct her look awful.
At the moment, I'm thinking I probably won't ever do it again, I just want to get this set looking the very best it can for her.