Managed to take some pictures of a friend's friend Wedding Day. Still a newbie in this field. Appreciate some honest opinions

My flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kytz/sets/72157632066368110/
My blog: http://k-ytz.blogspot.com/2012/11/voon-kea...actual-day.html


#1
IMG_8235 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#2
IMG_8110 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#3
IMG_8182 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#4
IMG_8232 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#5
IMG_8222 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#6
IMG_8276 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#7
IMG_8290 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#8
IMG_8320 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#9
IMG_8323 by -kytz-, on Flickr

This post has been edited by -kytz-: Nov 24 2012, 01:02 AM

#10
IMG_8363 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#11
IMG_8387 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#12
Untitled by -kytz-, on Flickr

#13
IMG_8508 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#14
IMG_8689 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#15
IMG_8669 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#16
IMG_8614 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#17
IMG_8763 by -kytz-, on Flickr

#18
IMG_8789 by -kytz-, on Flickr



This post has been edited by -kytz-: Nov 24 2012, 01:06 AM

hi buddy how r ya?

just some opinions from me

first off, all and all i think u did a GREAT job. awesome, top of the line!

but none of us is perfect and we're always looking to improve ourselves every single day of our lives.

i had a chat with a good chinese fren of mine, we talk about chinese wedding, and both of us agreed that its not easy to photograph the games as shown in no8, 9, 10, n 11. from those shots i think no8 n 10 can be composed better

no3 n 4, the composition is almost the same. i wud suggest u change ur positioning or try the old but gold trick, capture it from the front with the bride looking straight at u, smiling.

like this pic on the right


i LOVE no6, pictures like that reflects fun moments, and pictures like that where people often will frame it. good job.

no5 could be better in terms of composition *but not blaming u, maybe the house itself is tricky to shoot*

no18 could be better - compo, maybe u can place all 3 of them in the middle perhaps? if u wanna apply rule of 3rds then try and get the red car in it as well

im FAR from a pro level photographer but i shoot weddings as well. malay weddings in particular. i know the nervous-ness level when ur shooting on the actual day, u wanted to get everything right and hope not to miss anything. well, that's the use of a backup photographer and with that barrier, one cant really be creative. keep calm n plan ur shots is a really good way.

what i did before any shoot, i wud look up LOTS of pics on the flickrs/FB/wateversitesthatilike and visualize it in my head. get as much inspiration and ideas as i want. if i got time, i wud go to the place that im going to shoot the day before to see what can i do/manipulate the scene.

anyways, giv urself a good pat on the back because u did a GREAT job capturing every moment. keep up the good work, and im sorry if any of my words are offensive. this is just my own personal opinion, if u dont like it, then feel free to disagree.

all the best!

is it me or is this set slightly underexposed?
other than that, i think u shudn't cut off the laughing guy in #10, groom's fingers in #13 and the bride n groom's head in #15 and #16

My personal opinion in general, as a photo viewer.

3rd photo seems too details, it not showing the beauty part of bride.

6 to 13 - I love the way you capture the moments, it was memorable, well done.

15 & 16 - something wrong with the angle, it look too stretching and distorted the main person.

In general, I love your wedding photo especially the fun moment.

job well done on the fun part certainly got the mood

#5 awkward bride face lol

#10 no comments on the photo but WHAT THE HELL WAS HAPPENING?! hahaha

#13 wondering what lens were u using? telephoto would be better to throw out the background. not exactly a luxury wedding of course

#16 careful with humans at the edge of a wide angle shot. the head on the right looks stretched

overall i like the composition. PP can be improve...the yellowish /retro tone is nice but perhaps not very suitable for a wedding

Hi Tony, thanks for writting a lengthy and informative post =)

Yup. Gotta agree that the 'games' part is a little chaotic there plus the very small space to move around. I was surrounded by all the heng dais and ji muis (read: friends) so it's a quite hard to move around. But yeah, I'll take this as a lesson learned and try to adapt to the situation better



Yes, you're right about the perspective part, I do have some 'repetitive' shots from the same sort of angle for some scenes. Will try to improve on that and get different types of angles. Hope to learn more
Gotta admit the composition of #5 is a little sucky, framing is a little weird also.

#18 is kind of a rush shot hehe. Will improve on this =)

Have to admit that I was quite unprepared for this wedding shoot as I got to know my friend is taking up the job as Official Photographer the night earlier, so I just asked to tumpang hehe

I do look up at wedding pictures from time to time and have a rough idea on what to shoot but on the actual day itself, semua jadi rojak hahaha. Should be due to lack of experience, this is my 2nd time shooting actual day wedding. Hope to get more experience =)

Thanks again Tony, really appreciate your constructive and honest comments. Your feedback really does help me think hard about the way I shoot things and I'll try to improve on it =)

Haha maybe it's a little underexposed =)

For #13, it's kind of a trade off between getting a wider shot but getting another *photographers* head in the frame or going close but missing the laughing guy But yeah, the place is really really cramped with people's backs, hands and heads moving around , I couldn't even move around, surrounded by hengdais and ji muis Then again, it's probably due to my lack of experience, so I'm not exactly sure of where to stand and all.

Forgive me on the edits on the bride's face. Still working on my photo retouching especially on the smoothening part =)

#15 and #16: I was using a wide angle lens (Sigma 10-20 f/4-5/6) to get a different perspective. You can really go close to the scene while still getting a wide scene but comes with a very distorted look. Agree with the distorted faces, might probably use less of UWAs hmmm

Thanks for the feedback, Andrew =)

Thanks bro =)

Actually the bride wasn't smiling much through out the actual day LOL but should be because quite tired hmmmm

#10 was slurp slurp moment hahaha

#13 I was using a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 non VC for most of the shots for that day, that particular picture I cropped it from a horizontal picture

#16 Yup gotta be more careful with UWA lenses. It gives really nice perspective when used right, but in this case I probably used it wrongly

Thanks for the comments bro. Appreciate it =)

I assume you were not the appointed photog by looking at pic #10 & #17?

For group shot, try getting their attention to look at your camera after the OP taken his photo. Just shout "hellllooo.. look here!" will do

Typical chinese actual day won't run away from gate crashing and all the tradisional tea ceremony... so more or less is the same from one wedding to another. Of course the composition / timing part is super important in order to get "feel" shot.

I won't comment much on pp, distortion, composition or cut here and there stuff la coz I'm also learning... lol... The more we shoot, the faster we improve...

And... To make you stand out from others... Try having portraiture shot of the bride before the groom come and newly wed couple. No need complicated one... just next to window using the natural light can already

I'm the 2nd shooter, helping out my friend

Oh yaa I'll try to yell out more often

Thanks for the tips, I will try to get some shots tomorrow Another last minute shoot!

Remember to direct and pose them ya. Good luck!

This post has been edited by yankiat: Nov 25 2012, 01:12 AM

everything has got a first time buddy, (well in ur case, 2nd time? )

i think when i shot my second wedding as a backup, its worse than urs. urs' so much better. i dont know how to control my speedlight, (i went cheap on my speedlight that time, got the 5D2 as the body n nissin 622 for the flash worse decision ever) i dont know how to make contact with my subjects, i dont know what focal length to use, i dont know what shots i want, i just kept firing away stupid frames.

what makes us better is progress, for one wants to get better, to learn more about lightings, composition, how to make contact with the subject, things that matter. and to me one of the most important thing is, shoot for the love of shooting. when u love what u do, u'll do it with love. means a photograph will not just become a photograph, it'll become something with soul in it.

as for me now, whenever i shoot as a backup or the main, i'll use my 50mm 1.4 95% sometimes 100% of the time. with one wide angle in my pouch. batteries for camera and speedlight i'll bring i set of spare in my pockets (i usually dont use them because i set my iso accordingly so that the speedlight battery will not drain as fast, and i dont use live view at all, and dont review the images as often as i can) and 1 memory card as well (but i dont usually change memory cards because most of my bodies now hav got 2 memory card slots) i empty my pockets as well, my phone and my wallet shud be in my camera bag which i keep safe somewhere in the bride's house (with permission of course), this way i will be distraction free and not much weight with me. oh ya, we got ourselves walkie talkie with headsets so its no problems contacting each other.

the reason why i shoot with 50mm is, when i have one n only one focal length, it tends to make me think more. what shot do i wanna get, how i wanna get it, when...bla bla. because if im using a zoom, i have so many focal lengths to work with n i dont know what i want. yes i cud spray n pray, but try thinking like the film days, the only have 36 exposures to work with at one time. so they really wait for the decisive moment and put ALOT of thoughts in that one exposure. i have no objection with zooms, but for me, using a prime makes me think more, opens my eyes to see things more. (it actually depends on the photographer as well, what he likes to work with )

anyways, i like the spirit ''Hope to get more experience''

follow a fren, tag with him, do whatever u nid to get it. learn from the pros, listen to what they have to say (different people different opinion )
and hopefully one day we'll get there!

im doing the same thing too, we're on the same boat here buddy

all the best brah

Agree.. It looks like a 70's wedding unless that is your intention

wrong section

This post has been edited by adam_lss: Nov 25 2012, 11:23 PM

my 2 cents ...

#3 needs some skin smoothing ... the bride's face looks like got so many micro wrinkles, not flattering.
#5 i dunno why but the mother doesn't have a happy look on her face, so the photo is a bit odd. she looks borderline like bochup lol.
#10 having another photographer cover almost 1/4 of the frame ruings the shot for me.
#13 poor choice of angle - can't see the bride's face at all.
#18 is not a shot i would publish at all ...

Total all is a great effort, well done!.. I don't want mentioned the color tones as everyone had their own preference.

I am just cameraman and noobies so my this all just my 2 cent opnion. I believe you are second photographer and 2nd photographer should help first photographer such in pose the crowd or make take control on situation but this does not apply all 2nd photographer la..

Photo 15, most of the cust not really like because they prefer they able to see who they serve the tea too. Relative sure ask about their pic and will never expected bride and groom picture every single times they serve tea or keep show reaitive back right? U can stand beside them and talk with the "sam kek em"(the auntie) that u will stand on the right and ask her to help serve tea on left so she won't block your frame. Also adjsuting the chair as well, try adjust right chair a bit behind the left chair so u can capture both person sitting there instead the right blocking the left person.

You also can work with first photographer see either he shoot group photo aka wide shot and you can shoot candid or else u both gonna having tons of duplicate shot or similar.

Thanks Tony

I'm actually thinking now to get a lens that can give me shallower Depth of Field or something that can go closeup to isolate the subject from the VERY distracting and ugly background. Perhaps a 35 f/2 IS USM or a Canon 50 f/1.4 USM? Planning to shoot wide open

Also, not too sure whether a 50mm on a APS-C body would be practical for a wedding day shoot?

Thanks deodorant.

For #13, how would you suggest that I shoot? If I shoot more of the bride, I get less of the groom. Vice versa

Thanks CPU

For #15, this is something I'm trying to look into.

Usually the background is VERY distracting and ugly so if you shoot wide, you see all the ugliness everywhere.

One reason why I prefer to go close up actually but didn't work too well. I'm referring to many photographers who usually go close up:

im using the sigma 50mm 1.4 all the way on weddings now, and it suits me really well. even in small spaces. but i do bring a spare wide angle with me all the time incase of anything.

i'd say the sigma 30mm 1.4 or the 35mm f2 canon wud do fine on crop bodies for allrounder (its closest to 50mm on FF)..the 50mm is also good for capturing candids from a distance for crop bodies.

thats just my opinion n my taste btw

Ya.. background might distracting so that why I choose stand on the left meanwhile auntie"sam kek em" on the right, relative sitting and bride infornt of them. It mean bride is on my left, relative sitting on my right, infront of me is the auntie and I frame them together so will less distraction at behind. What you mean at stories.my is candid shot, that why I mentioned before, you need discuss with 1st photographer see either who candid and who wide. If u choose to shoot candid, try get longer lens of(not 300mm f2.8 okay). Something that can zoom is the best. 28-70 is for my tea ceremony candid lens or sometimes I do use 50mm but subject sometimes will realize you shooting on them.

I am commenting in overall of the image.
1st,the colour.The tone don't seems works fine with wedding day.
2nd,Not all shot required details,kesian la the bride,don't let her think she looks old during her wedding day.Nik software did a good job smoothen the face texture.
3rd,you got alot of distracting background,you need shallow depth of field BOKEH!!!

Thanks for the comments

1) Still in the experimentation stage. I'm truly inspired by works from Heart Patrick who love to use such tones. However, I will be experimenting more on colour as I progress further

2) Ahhh still yet to grasp the techniques of skin retouching/smoothening. Will try to look more into it

3) Yeah, shallow DOF will certainly help to isolate the messy background. Just got my Canon 35 f/2 for more shallow DOF shots. Will use it for my next assignment for sure