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Bridals

Here are some pictures from my first bridal shoot. My friend was my model and so we had a lot of fun together. Let me know what you think and what I can improve on.
1. Original
DSC_2122.jpg

2. Desaturated
DSC_2122desat.jpg

3. Original
DSC_2190.jpg

4. B&W
DSC_2190bw.jpg
 

Clayton Lofgren

New member
1,6, and 7 would be my favorites. On the desat on 1, it may work better to desat everything except the bride. 3 and 8 could have used a bit more light in the face, but in general I think you did pretty well.
 
Thanks for the reply. I didn't have a reflector with me at this shoot so I was working with available light only. I'll make sure I have one with me for my next photo shoot. I agree that the desat would have worked better if it was only the background. The program I have for photo editing is very very basic and doesn't allow me to select areas to change/not change (or at least not that I have found). I'm planning on getting a better program soon though and will play around with that when I do.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks for the reply. I didn't have a reflector with me at this shoot so I was working with available light only. I'll make sure I have one with me for my next photo shoot. I agree that the desat would have worked better if it was only the background. The program I have for photo editing is very very basic and doesn't allow me to select areas to change/not change (or at least not that I have found). I'm planning on getting a better program soon though and will play around with that when I do.
Hi Jessica,

Are you planning to shoot weddings? I ask because we might expand this discussion to deal with the whole subject of moving into this special field of bridal and wedding photography. OTOH, having a friend pose as a bride is a great opportunity to test out new ideas for lighting, posing and composition. I commend you for the enterprise.

Regarding an editing program, one needs at least photoshop 7 and better still Photoshop CS2. You might be able to get these older versions at a lower price from old stock if you do a search. Watch out for cloned copies and test for viruses. Getting CS4 as a starting program is wonderful but overkill. However, maybe that's all is available in a safe package.

Asher
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Hello Jessica,
Three quick off-the-cuff remarks.

1. You need to pay much more attention to LIGHT. These images are flatter than a pancake.
2. You also need to pay more attention to backgrounds and compositional surroundings. Each of these images has some dreadful distractions. Get your subject off the backgrounds.
3. Bulls-eyes are winning achievements for archery and target shooting. They're losers in photography.

Keep practicing. Good luck.
 

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Sorry but

I can see that you tried really hard - the poses are a good place for you to start. There are a few which are ok but your exposure and lighting are off. Some of these she needed fill. The color is off and the dress highlights are completely blown out.

In the red door, you have part of a light fixture in the frame and she had racoon eyes - you need to shoot that with fill flash it's the same in #7; In your favorite, you have a bunch of building that doesn't fit in with the image. It needs a different crop; The desaturated image doesn't work - the color is flat.

Sorry - I don't mean to be harsh, but, a wedding is one of the hardest things to shoot. You have to be on your toes, you have 100's of images to get right from the minute you pick up the camera. You have a lot of things completely out of your control. Your camera needs to be 2nd nature and so do camera settings and lighting. You have no time to react - you just have to flow with no room for error. There are no do-overs. Even if you are shooting as a favor. You have to get it right every single time without excuse. Sometimes you have to shoot into the sun without flash and be at the back of the church with stained glass interfering in your color.
 
Thanks for the replies.
Asher, I've considered doing weddings, but I know that I need to improve on a lot of things before I'm really ready for that. I did these for my friend since she didn't have money for a photographer and I wanted to work on my portrait work. I will definitely look into the programs you suggested. Right now, I have photoshop elements and it has some good basics but not really want in an editing program.
Kathy, I didn't notice the light fixture in the red door picture. I'll definitely crop that out. For the poses, I mainly let her do what she wanted to do and only asked her to change it a little if it looked awkward or bad to me. I know that I had issues with the lighting and would have liked to have a reflector with me. I probably should have used fill flash, but at the time it didn't occur to me since it was so bright outside. I am still new to this kind of photography and I know I need to manage the harsh sunlight better, but I haven't figured out yet how to do that. #7 was a candid shot. She was tired of standing so she squatted down and started messing with her dress. I thought it looked great so I took the shot. I'll have to play around with different croppings though to see if I can come up with a better image.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Getting the beauty into the Bride Picture means lighting and simply focusing on her!

So Jessica,

How bad are the images anyway? Well, all the points made are valid! Yes, it's true we need to get things organized in advance, but given what you have is it really so bad? No it isn't! The reason is the malleability of digital files using local corrections in Photoshop. For this all you need is Photoshop 7.0! Or else a retoucher whose services are unbelievably inexpensive!

DSC_2190.jpg


© Jessica Eldredge: Your Original Bride by the steps

Your pictures can be retouched for very little, probably $2.50 to $20 per picture depending on who does it for you. Just to show what sort of little changes can be made, let's look at one picture, the bride by the steps. In your original, the face is dark, the dress is dull and off color, (and likely blown too), and the patterns of the background disrupt focus on her. What is important is the bride! Tolerate no detailed or interesting distractions! not at your stage or for some time!


DSC_2190editedak copy.jpg


© Jessica Eldredge" "Bride By the Steps", edited ADK with permission


I have continued the steps to meet her dress so that the architecture of the steps does not create a separate important element in their own right. Also I've removed the pipe on the left.


So now what? Don't you think the steps and plants are all to defined? If we had used a long lens, say a 70-200mm zoom lens at f 4.0, she and her veil would be in perfect focus but otherwise the background, which is outside the narrow plane of focus, would be softly blurred. Well we could mimic that, but I simply applied a Gaussian blur which just evenly obfuscates the details of things you select to be less carefully drawn. The lens blur will add its own beautiful character or Bokeh, which I could try to introduce, but its not needed!




DSC_2190editedakblur.jpg


© Jessica Eldredge" "Bride By the Steps", edited ADK with permission


However, not everything is equally blurred! I finessed it and masked out some of that blur to allow some of the lower steps adjacent to her to be slightly defined. That helps build a sense of depth in the picture.

So while you lacked in technique, the images can be rescued and you have learned about many mistakes that can be made.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
A Simple guide to starting to get the feel of Bridal Pictures.

Here's some take home ideas to consider:

  1. Use a long lens at a good wide aperture to throw out of focus everything except the bride

  2. Use two camera flashes shooting through one white umbrellas above the bride to one side and trigerred by a master camera flash on your camera on a tripod.

  3. Use a grey card to establish WB (like Michael Tapes' WhiBal™)

  4. Use a Kodak™ grey black and white card to fill the frame to establish that you are covering the light well by having 3 nice curves spread along the histogram in your LCD. No curve should end lost in the edge but come down to the baseline, or close to it!

  5. Choose the position so that the bride cuts off the completeness of things behind her. She is the only one to be seen whole, even if she has a present of a Porche!

  6. Just print out what you do, make 5 copies in B&W, get a red pencil and draw on them instructions for yourself to make sure you improve next time. Put these in a ring binder and at the end of the shoot write a summary of the lessons learned.

  7. Get a Retouch artist you can work with! The skills of assisting a wedding pro and learning the setups are more important than retouching.

  8. Work as an assistant one weekend a month for free with an experienced wedding photographer.

This is not rocket science! In any case, these are some ideas what I have found helpful. With this approach, the RAW files and an expenditure of a small amount of $, she'll have pictures that she will treasure! Is it up to the best we'd expect, not at all. However, brides and mothers are looking at different things than some technically proficient photographers. The ladies want magic memories. You are capable of delivering that.

However, please, follow these steps outlined above before even thinking of doing a wedding! When you assist, write down everything you can remember after each shoot. Really they follow a pattern and each stage has pitfalls you have to learn to avoid or work around,

Kind wishes,

Asher
 
Asher,
Thanks so much for those suggestions. I will definitely keep them in mind. I've been trying to find a wedding photographer that I could shadow, but I haven't been able to yet. I'll keep trying. Utah is home of far too many weddings so I should be able to find something soon.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher,
Thanks so much for those suggestions. I will definitely keep them in mind. I've been trying to find a wedding photographer that I could shadow, but I haven't been able to yet. I'll keep trying. Utah is home of far too many weddings so I should be able to find something soon.
Jessica,

Look up wedding photographers in your area using Google or the Yellow Pages. Then do some calling. They'll probably start you off taking pictures at the reception and helping setting up lights etc. This isn't a "follow you around job", but work! Photographers do a wonderful job in society and are part of the magic that acts as a social glue in the concept of "weddings". There's a lot of satisfaction but it's money well earned!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
BTW, Jessica, I don't understand the apparent variation in the tone of the right cheek. Is that natural, lighting or what?
 
Asher,
I love what you did. I wanted to do a more blurred background, but I couldn't make it work with my current program. I also would have liked to remove the light post as well so I'm really glad you did that too. The stairs look great. What you did with the picture is what I imagined in my head when I took it so I love it! I definitely need to get a better editing program. I feel so limited with the one I have. I also need to keep in mind to use a different lens. Thanks for your help and your suggestions!

As for the right cheek, I was only using the natural light. I think it might have just been the angle of her face because part of the cheek was facing the sun and part was in shadow. Not positive on that though.
 

Clayton Lofgren

New member
No doubt a better program should be in your plans, but I would be surprised if the one you have can't do everything Asher did here. Have you worked with layers? There are some helpful tutorials on the web, and dozens of books available. Of the books I have seen I especialy liked Katrin Eisman.
 
From what I've been able to see, my program doesn't do layers. I could just be missing something though. I'll have to play with it more and see if I can get it do layers. I definitely will look into getting some books to help as well. Thanks for the suggestion!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
From what I've been able to see, my program doesn't do layers. I could just be missing something though. I'll have to play with it more and see if I can get it do layers. I definitely will look into getting some books to help as well. Thanks for the suggestion!
Adobe Elements 6 does layers and here's some tutorials.

Asher
 

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Jessica,

Look up wedding photographers in your area using Google or the Yellow Pages. Then do some calling. They'll probably start you off taking pictures at the reception and helping setting up lights etc. This isn't a "follow you around job", but work! Photographers do a wonderful job in society and are part of the magic that acts as a social glue in the concept of "weddings". There's a lot of satisfaction but it's money well earned!

Asher

Not to be discouraging, but, I don't know anyone who would take in a wedding-photographer-in-training for an assistant now. The market is upside down, Some pros are teaching classes to newbies for money or will mentor for a fee, or a few will lead a workshop. I would ask first people I know and trust to assistI an't affrod to hire that kind of help. You can get a very experienced pro for about $25 an hour to shoot with you.. I spend time networking for clients. I need to market my business - not train my competition.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Not to be discouraging, but, I don't know anyone who would take in a wedding-photographer-in-training for an assistant now. The market is upside down
People are still getting married! Yes, there's a lot of folk with cameras but that shouldn't stop you!

Although it's not easy, they'll be someone who's busy and is kind enough to give you a break! There always is for the persistent newbie. There are folk with no work and others with more than they can manage!

Asher
 
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