wedding shoots

hangyong · 21st March 2004

hi all, just did a wedding shoot for a friend of mine as second fiddle this evening. My very first actual day shoot.

Please give some guidance for improvement.

More pictures are available at http://www.filmgrain.com/shinloong

tmc17479 · 21st March 2004

My vote goes to the first shot. Very nicely done.

Most of your pics look a bit soft or slightly out of focus. Is that done intentionally? I would prefer if you had concentrated on the couple rather than taking the overall scenery. Closeups would be better for a wedding shoot. Many of the pics would be better if you had not added the projection screen into it, confuses the subject of the pics.

my 2 cts.

roon2c · 21st March 2004

Ermm... u added in a diffuser/soft focus filter?

concuss · 21st March 2004

yup, all the pictures look soft, guess soft focus/diffuser was used.

Flash maybe?? Some of the pictures looks blurred. Too slow a shutter speed used i guess.Unless u want to get the blur look, then I stand corrected.

hangyong · 21st March 2004

hi, yup, the soft is intentional to make it have a more "romantic" feel when printed/presented on an album/webpage.

I was also thinking of using a flash, but I was afraid that that might make the pictures abit too "bright" and lose the yellowish/greenish tint that creates a more romantic feeling. And thus I did away with flash and pushed up the ISO.

Is there any way to have a picture that creates that feeling and at the same time have a fast enough shutter speed to prevent motion blurr? Please advise.

I will note on the closeups and the distraction from main subject. Thanks.

More advices, anyone?

sequitur · 21st March 2004

it's too soft, most, if not all, of the shots are underexposed, the subjects are shot from too far out so the softness actually makes it messy instead of nice/romantic.

the white balance.. adjust a bit.

i mean come on man a wedding gown is white not yellow. intentional or not, i have no idea, but if i were getting married i would surely want to see a white wedding gown in the photo than a yellow one.

clive · 21st March 2004

mood is there..shots are all well composed..the last one maybe can crop off more of the ceiling

zekai · 21st March 2004

The mood is there like what my brother clive mentioned.

I belong to the school of thought on using bounce flash.... so i feel the picture may be better with flash illuminating the subject.... bride and groom, the gown stay white... the rest (ambience) stay yellow never mind... it fact that what i always do.

As for the part of including the rest of the people... the flower girl and boys... i think thats his style and its does help tell us a photo story. A very feel good feeling.

I really cannot stand the 1st picture. Sorry to be different, but it is underexposed and the color cast look totally yellow. The picture is flat, no highlight inthe picture to catch attention. It is very off imo. I think PS still can save it.

For the motion blur, no choice its either that or flash. even if you use a F1.4 lens... you will still get motion blur at 1/30 unless you are shooting still life.

Your feel for mood and story telling is very good. Hope to see the next series.

clive · 21st March 2004

the first pic is an attempt at the classic "portrait of a still-life object". a bit wider angle lower lower angle can make it better in terms of mood.

for more technical aspects..maybe zekai is right.

hangyong · 21st March 2004

Originally Posted by sequitur

it's too soft, most, if not all, of the shots are underexposed, the subjects are shot from too far out so the softness actually makes it messy instead of nice/romantic.

the white balance.. adjust a bit.

i mean come on man a wedding gown is white not yellow. intentional or not, i have no idea, but if i were getting married i would surely want to see a white wedding gown in the photo than a yellow one.

point noted about the too soft, will take note.
underexposed is because I dun wan too much of a motion blurr, and I dun wanna use direct flash. Bounce is impossible because the hall is at least 20m high. And any higher ISO will result in grains. So really bo bian, will need PS I guess.

The yellow is made that way, its intentional. I personally find it more "romantic" lah. This is the first time I am shooting for others, and I would like to try some of my ideas and see if people like it.

hangyong · 21st March 2004

Originally Posted by zekai

The mood is there like what my brother clive mentioned.

I belong to the school of thought on using bounce flash.... so i feel the picture may be better with flash illuminating the subject.... bride and groom, the gown stay white... the rest (ambience) stay yellow never mind... it fact that what i always do.

As for the part of including the rest of the people... the flower girl and boys... i think thats his style and its does help tell us a photo story. A very feel good feeling.

I really cannot stand the 1st picture. Sorry to be different, but it is underexposed and the color cast look totally yellow. The picture is flat, no highlight inthe picture to catch attention. It is very off imo. I think PS still can save it.

For the motion blur, no choice its either that or flash. even if you use a F1.4 lens... you will still get motion blur at 1/30 unless you are shooting still life.

Your feel for mood and story telling is very good. Hope to see the next series.

thanks for the compliments from both Clive and Zekai.

Hope I can get something done about the flaws.

Will try again next round and share the pics with you guys again. thanks.

roon2c · 21st March 2004

Maybe you can try a bounce card instead.

Virgo · 21st March 2004

U may like to use the Stofen OmniBounce for a softer burst of flash.

Visit www.stofen.com for more details. These gadgets can be found in Cathay Photo.

Originally Posted by roon2c

Maybe you can try a bounce card instead.

deBakey · 21st March 2004

I find the captured expressions of the two children (right most) in photo #7 to be quite interesting.

Jed · 22nd March 2004

Originally Posted by zekai

I really cannot stand the 1st picture. Sorry to be different, but it is underexposed and the color cast look totally yellow. The picture is flat, no highlight inthe picture to catch attention. It is very off imo. I think PS still can save it.

(Emphasis added)

So is it a bad shot or not? Or can PS now also save bad shots?

justarius · 22nd March 2004

I like the soft effect, but the yellow color cast doesn't do it for me but this is subjective. As another poster mentioned, I also prefer tighter focus on the happy couple.

zekai · 22nd March 2004

Originally Posted by Jed

(Emphasis added)

So is it a bad shot or not? Or can PS now also save bad shots?

strictly speaking, can only help give it a bit of highlight.... so still bad shot

hangyong · 22nd March 2004

sorry people, I just figured out something.

when I am home looking at this page, the pictures look brighter and with bigger contrast.

But now that I am back in office, I noticed that the pictures are all darker and they look flat. and yes, the soft effect looks pretty bad.

but once I load it up using the calibrated laptop or Macs, the problem goes away.

hmm.... big problem man...

espn · 22nd March 2004

Actually, you shouldn't abuse the soft effect all the while... the soft effect would do better with a brighter background to achieve the dreamy effect or portrait shots. Taking journalistically shots that are soft all the while doesn't achieve anything. Esp when it's kinda dark & underexposed.

A fill flash with about -0.7 to -1.0 EV compensation probably would have helped you lessen the motion blur and at the same time brightened up the scene a bit. With a right AWB, you should be able to capture the details of the gown nicely and still not lose the ambient lighting + feeling, for me the tint of yellow/green doesn't work for me, the skin tones are lost and the gown details are overpowered. An omnibounce will work wonders for you if you get it right.

Also, a WA would have proved better in some of the shots, like the last one, the table shot with the parents would have been good to be shot in WA.

Were you the main photographer? If you were, you could have gotten up close to the couple more daringly and shot the facials when exchange vows and prayer, the additional humans around in the prayer.jpg shot don't compliment the couple. The little girl would have been better framed if she was right in the center with some head allowance. In short, I think you'd be better moving nearer most of the them. Unless you weren't the official.

Cheerz!

megaweb · 22nd March 2004

I find the shots are underexposed and yellow cast except the last one .. as for composition, try to capture the happiness and joy moment of the groom and bride.

21st March 2004	#1
hangyong Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Jurong West Extension Posts: 116	wedding shoots hi all, just did a wedding shoot for a friend of mine as second fiddle this evening. My very first actual day shoot. Please give some guidance for improvement. More pictures are available at http://www.filmgrain.com/shinloong

21st March 2004	#6
sequitur Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 2,828	it's too soft, most, if not all, of the shots are underexposed, the subjects are shot from too far out so the softness actually makes it messy instead of nice/romantic. the white balance.. adjust a bit. i mean come on man a wedding gown is white not yellow. intentional or not, i have no idea, but if i were getting married i would surely want to see a white wedding gown in the photo than a yellow one. __________________ my flickr.

21st March 2004	#8
zekai Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,737	The mood is there like what my brother clive mentioned. I belong to the school of thought on using bounce flash.... so i feel the picture may be better with flash illuminating the subject.... bride and groom, the gown stay white... the rest (ambience) stay yellow never mind... it fact that what i always do. As for the part of including the rest of the people... the flower girl and boys... i think thats his style and its does help tell us a photo story. A very feel good feeling. I really cannot stand the 1st picture. Sorry to be different, but it is underexposed and the color cast look totally yellow. The picture is flat, no highlight inthe picture to catch attention. It is very off imo. I think PS still can save it. For the motion blur, no choice its either that or flash. even if you use a F1.4 lens... you will still get motion blur at 1/30 unless you are shooting still life. Your feel for mood and story telling is very good. Hope to see the next series. __________________ http://alextan.net

22nd March 2004	#20
megaweb Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: East Posts: 8,106	I find the shots are underexposed and yellow cast except the last one .. as for composition, try to capture the happiness and joy moment of the groom and bride. __________________ See my Photo Gallery at the Clubsnap \| Pbase

21st March 2004	#2
tmc17479 Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Bukit Timah Posts: 714	My vote goes to the first shot. Very nicely done. Most of your pics look a bit soft or slightly out of focus. Is that done intentionally? I would prefer if you had concentrated on the couple rather than taking the overall scenery. Closeups would be better for a wedding shoot. Many of the pics would be better if you had not added the projection screen into it, confuses the subject of the pics. my 2 cts.

21st March 2004	#3
roon2c Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Johore Bahru, Malaysia Posts: 326	Ermm... u added in a diffuser/soft focus filter?

21st March 2004	#4
concuss Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Jurong West Posts: 351	yup, all the pictures look soft, guess soft focus/diffuser was used. Flash maybe?? Some of the pictures looks blurred. Too slow a shutter speed used i guess.Unless u want to get the blur look, then I stand corrected.

21st March 2004	#7
clive Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 2,573	mood is there..shots are all well composed..the last one maybe can crop off more of the ceiling

21st March 2004	#14
deBakey New Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 15	I find the captured expressions of the two children (right most) in photo #7 to be quite interesting.

22nd March 2004	#16
justarius Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Western side of Singapore Posts: 1,163	I like the soft effect, but the yellow color cast doesn't do it for me but this is subjective. As another poster mentioned, I also prefer tighter focus on the happy couple.

22nd March 2004	#19
espn Deregistered Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Planet Nikon Posts: 22,045	Actually, you shouldn't abuse the soft effect all the while... the soft effect would do better with a brighter background to achieve the dreamy effect or portrait shots. Taking journalistically shots that are soft all the while doesn't achieve anything. Esp when it's kinda dark & underexposed. A fill flash with about -0.7 to -1.0 EV compensation probably would have helped you lessen the motion blur and at the same time brightened up the scene a bit. With a right AWB, you should be able to capture the details of the gown nicely and still not lose the ambient lighting + feeling, for me the tint of yellow/green doesn't work for me, the skin tones are lost and the gown details are overpowered. An omnibounce will work wonders for you if you get it right. Also, a WA would have proved better in some of the shots, like the last one, the table shot with the parents would have been good to be shot in WA. Were you the main photographer? If you were, you could have gotten up close to the couple more daringly and shot the facials when exchange vows and prayer, the additional humans around in the prayer.jpg shot don't compliment the couple. The little girl would have been better framed if she was right in the center with some head allowance. In short, I think you'd be better moving nearer most of the them. Unless you weren't the official. Cheerz!