Some wedding candids!

[musket]

Great shots, keepers.........................musket.

[jerwilhelm]

Thanks for all the comments! I was playing with the settings trying to understand how to get the right brightness on the bride. With the on-camera flash it seemed to blow her out so I didn't turn the flash on.

What is meant by too soft? ..out of focus?

I appreciate all of the comments, even negative as these are some of my first shots ever, I could use advice!! Theres a lot to learn!


Thanks again


Jeremy

[memento]

Try to consider the background. the shot of your wife is great, but the background takes away from it, IMHO. If you could narrow that DOf significantly, it would help, but to have her back to some foliage and narrow the DOF would have made that one great.

The bride is dark. You were right not to use the flash, but then you should adjust the levels in whatever SW you have at your disposal. And on the backgrould of that, I find the concrete wall placement distracting. It's right at her face. That would have been very cool if you could have gotten it so that the entire background was all pavers and pulled her out of it by narrowing the DOF.

Of couse this is just my taste, and I'm far from a "portrait" photographer.

[jerwilhelm]

memento,

Thanks for the input. I agree with the background issues in the photos. I was just shooting as I saw things, but that is something I will keep in mind for the future. Most photos the paid photographer was telling people were to be I was just fortunate enough to be there to watch and learn!!

DOF is something I am trying to figure out. I only have the EF-S 18-55mm kit lens which I plan to upgrade (thats why I bought the XTI vs XSI or 40D - so I would have money to upgrade glass!!) - but am I correct to understand the the shorter the lense the harder to get great DOF if you are not very close to the subject? I found in some other shots I took (see link), that I could get the out of focus background (bokeh??), but with my wife ~15 feet away and the background semi close to her I couldn't blurr it out. Would a longer lens, say the Canon EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS help with getting better DOF is a situation like that.

http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...amp;forum_id=7

As for adjusting levels, I have both Aperture 2, and PS CS3 - any recomendations of websites or books to get info to learn photoshop to make these adjustments to better the Bride photos and others?

Once again thanks for the great advice - also after looking at your Flickr site I am very fortunate to have you giving me advice - great work.. Thanks,

JW

[Hawgwild]

Jeremy, hope you don't mind, I did about two minutes of PP on the bride pic, not my best effort, but it shows what a little PP can do.



Robert

[jerwilhelm]

WOW!! Thanks Robert! I really need to sit down and learn Photoshop. Even the little time you say you put in looks a million times better! I appreciate the work. Thanks.


Also, thank you to all who have looked and commented. Being some of the first pictures I have taken I am surprised by how many people took time to look and comment. Steve's is a great place full of great people.

Thanks again!

JW

[Trojansoc]

JW, for a first time out with a new camera and the kit lens, these are VERY good. The comments you've gotten on post-processing are right on target. Worlk on your skills in that area and you'll be well on your way. Nice job.

Paul

[jerwilhelm]

Paul

Thanks a lot for the kind comment. I have been looking at everyone's photos on here and admiring the skills and reading all the advice everyone has given out, trying to use as much as I can remember and figure out!

Thanks again!

JW

[robb01]

great work, they all look stunning

[thkn777]

Hey JW,
I'd like to chime in here - the pictures seem to miss the special "wow" factor, I mostly blame the light for it (maybe an overcast day?), but for a first day out with your new toy a wedding is definitely not the right place to try for perfect shots

Your images look rather soft, I can't tell if it's from the processing (RAW development or in-camera) or being not in focus, I tend towards the first one.

With a little postprocessing your photos would look even better, now while this isn't the "Digital Makeover" subforum I'll just show two small touch-ups on your nephew like a "before-after" comparison. Histogram, highlight/shadow, color and detail/sharpness was adjusted. As you can see these are not very big changes, but they pay off to my mind.

#1, #2, #5, #7 are my favourites! Thanks for sharing and happy snapping.

Regards,
Th.

#1 - Nephew before/after part 1