My first wedding shoot

Hi Andy, well done on your first wedding... have you got the bug now?

I'll start with a comment on your photos - great set, I'm sure the couple will love them.

I feel that number one would benefit from some extra contrast or increasing the 'black' - it looks a little bleached out to me (could be my screen) - it's a gorgeous photo of the girl though.

The second one could do with a tiny bit of sharpening (on the reflection) - but you've shot that really well.

Did you by any chance get any other photo of girl with the camera? I just wondered if you got one with the camera slightly higher so you can see her eyes - just to compare!?





Now, I know the subject has been dropped, but just want to put my two pence in about the whole 2.8 issue (and I have read Joe's other thread about group shots - so this relates to that too)...

Although technically you are absolutely correct Joe, I don't think it's always practical to use 2.8 on group shots!

I shoot wedding group shots at f8, always have, always will. I've seen in a previous post that you've shot one wedding before and by the looks of it, it went well - but from my experience of weddings, sometimes you have 20 minutes (or less) to do around 15 groups involving 10 people upwards and get 100 people or more into a shot together. So there is simply not enough time to make sure everyone is on exactly the same 'plane'. Sometimes there are two or more rows. You'll have a different amount of room to shoot in per venue. Plus the couple spend all this money on their venue, they might actually want to see some of it in the photo - rather than have it all blurred out in the background.

So I think Carol was absolutely right to suggest shooting at f8 - particularly to someone who hasn't shot a wedding before and may feel rushed through the group shots. It's safer to shoot at f8 and know that your photos are going to be in focus (in terms of dof) than to shoot on f2.8 and get home to find out that the edges of the group are a little soft.
 
Aimee K said:
It's safer to shoot at f8 and know that your photos are going to be in focus (in terms of dof) than to shoot on f2.8 and get home to find out that the edges of the group are a little soft.
Click to expand...

not if shooting at f/8 means your shutter drops down to a level that makes camera shake blur the image when f/4 would have given enough dof and raised the shutter to an acceptable amount :)

Anyway, I do have some other comments but in the interest of not taking over the thread I shall leave it there, suffice to say I'm not saying you should never shoot at f8 but the comment that it should be the minimum when taking a group shot I just think is too simplified and incorrect. I'd rather use whatever aperture gave the best results in the conditions :thumbs:
 
You shouldn't be shooting on shutter priority in the first place for the shutter speed to drop! And if your on f8, 1/125, outside, then you wouldn't really be on anything higher than iso 800 too, probably 200-400 on a good day!!
 
Aimee K said:
You shouldn't be shooting on shutter priority in the first place for the shutter speed to drop! And if your on f8, 1/125, outside, then you wouldn't really be on anything higher than iso 800 too, probably 200-400 on a good day!!
Click to expand...

Shutter priority? Who said anything about shutter priority? If you were on shutter priority you shutter wouldn't change at all. Not sure what you mean.

Also not all groups are outside and on a dull day f8 can bring a shutter lower than 1/125 easily.

I do understand why someone who wasn't fully confident in their equipment or skills would choose f8 across the board though. But I shot my first ever wedding with 1 body and 3 primes so I'm not one to conform to the safe side. Looking at the shot above of the brides made and flowers girls if that was shot at f8 it would have been flat and uninteresting. The background is trees, it doesn't matter if those trees are in focus or not, they are recognisable as trees, and I prefer the pop of the subjects.
 
Last edited:
Sorry, I meant aperture priority! For your shutter speed to drop (without you changing it manually) I'm asuming that you're referring to using aperture priority.

I'm well aware that not all groups are outside, but in the four years I've been shooting weddings, i've only ever had three indoor group shots, and with those I used flash - so again I've never needed to go over 800 iso - same for dull days - the max I've had to go up to on a dull and shady group shot is 1000, f8, 1/125. You seem to be neglecting the fact you can up the iso rather than reduce the shutter speed! Surely this would make more sense as even the most amature of cameras can deal with 800 iso without noise.

Just so I'm clear - are you implying that I'm not fully confident with my equipment and skills or that giving this advice to someone who isn't confident with their skills and equipment probably isn't such a bad thing!?
 
I'm going to bow out now. This is taking over the ops thread again. Thanks for the debate though. :thumbs:

Oh and as far as your question went, yes the latter.
 
Last edited:
scottthehat said:
a flash is a must and a flash used right can look exelent, most weddings i have done 99% of the need flash, else to get decentish shutter speed you need extreme high iso like 6400 and up,
learn how to bounce flash.
flash used.
SJB_7913a.jpg

iso 10000 (d700)
SJB_7830.jpg
Click to expand...

Sorry to sound like a critical so and so, but why the water mark, why would anyone steal somebody else's wedding photos and besides these images are shockingly poor!
 
andyturner said:
Well job done and have to say I'm quite relieved!

Not everything went to plan and I learned a hell of a lot, but I got some shots I'm reasonably happy with and hopefully the bride & groom will be too.

Thanks to all who gave me advice - I'm so glad I got a flash as I would have been screwed without it!

Here's some of my favourite pics from the day;

1
Isabelle_1_530x795.jpg

2
Donna_Mirror_2_530x795.jpg

3
Isabelle_Limo_795x530.jpg

4
Donna_Beau_1_530x662.jpg

5
Isabelle_Bubbles_530x795.jpg

6
Donna_s_Dress_530x795.jpg


Technical imperfections galore i'm sure, but hopefully caught some of the good moments of the day :)
Click to expand...

Well done Andy, looks like it all came together :cool:
 
slimbean007 said:
Sorry to sound like a critical so and so, but why the water mark, why would anyone steal somebody else's wedding photos and besides these images are shockingly poor!
Click to expand...

when giving comments like this its best to describe what can be improved on an image, just slating it isnt very helpful
 
slimbean007 said:
Sorry to sound like a critical so and so, but why the water mark, why would anyone steal somebody else's wedding photos and besides these images are shockingly poor!
Click to expand...

Hi Slimbean007,

It's not considered good form on here to critque when it wasn't requested.

To watermark or not is another debate and there are loads of them on here:thumbs:

Andy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top