Perspectives #9
In this innovative exercise, some of the top wedding photographers in the world were asked to critique the same wedding photos independently on their own without knowing what the others think. Would they agree? How different or similar would their critiques be?
Jesse La Plante | Education
This one looks like a conga line during the dance party. Cool moment. About 40 to 50% of the frame is the back of this woman's head in the foreground there in the bottom center and she's out of focus. I want to see the camera moved a little bit to the right and up shooting down to make the reactions on people's faces a more prominent within the composition.
There's really great expression on the woman's face with the glasses. Focusing right on her face and raising the camera up shooting down a little bit more in filling more of the frame with the expressions in the emotion, on the faces.
It's kind of back-focused a little bit. The focus is on the two young men there behind the woman with the glasses. I don't like the eye contact with the camera from the gentleman with his fist in the air. It takes you out of the moment a little bit. It's almost like breaking the fourth wall because it's a candid shot. I don't want to see eye contact like that in a candid moment. Now I'm realizing that the guy to his right is also making eye contact with the camera. I know that wedding guests do that and sometimes not much you can do about that. You can't just stop everything and say "Excuse me, sir, please stop looking at the camera." But again, just shooting through the moment, taking a lot of frames, moving the camera around to fill the frame more with the emotion and the expressions would make this photo even better.
Rocio Vega | Education
The first thing that I see in this picture is this guy looking straight into the camera. When you're so close, it's really hard for people not look at you. But when you shoot many pictures, at some point, they're not going to look at you. If you're always close and you are part of the party, it's going to be easier for people not to be camera-aware.
You should use an aperture more closed (higher aperture) so that everything is more in focus. You have to be really careful with this little things. It's not so huge in the picture. You can bring it a little bit lower. The highlights is really high. The way you put the light is really important. If you are three or four meters away from your assistant with a monopod (and a flash on top), the light is going to be more evenly spread through all the picture.
Melissa Suneson
I like that the photographer is right there in the dance floor capturing the action. What could have worked a better is to shoot from a higher angle. That would help us reduce the head of the lady in the foreground which is the first place where the eye goes. From a higher angle, her head would not take that much space in the photo.
We can not see the face of the man on the right side of the photo. He does not have a lot of body action that would contribute to the photo. We could crop him out. His head is a bright spot in the photo so we could darken the back of his head if we don't want to crop the photo.
Looking through the photo and trying to understand who is the main actor or the important person is where we start questioning. Is it the man with his fist on the air or the older lady in the bottom? Then we find the other three people in the back. So you start questioning - what is the point of the photo or the story that the photographer wanted to capture. To make this photo better, I would definitely do the higher angle and just keep on being there at the center of the action and just wait for that great moment to happen.
Candice Cusic | Education
I love the line of hands on shoulders at the left side of the frame. That is just so nice. The photographer did a great job of getting right in the middle of the scene where he needed to be. There's a lot of great emotion in this shot and it's a fun moment. I'm intrigued by the woman's expression. I don't know if she's just got her foot stepped on or she's greeting someone or she's about to cry. And I want to know.
I would love to see the focus sensor on this woman so that she could be well defined and clear of the guys in the background. There are three of them smiling for the camera and that pulls away from the emotional impact that this has. Nice job getting the camera close, capturing a moment. Nice lighting. It's just, I want to see more about this woman.
David Murray
We have a situation in a conga line. The peak action shows the woman with the glasses in visual contact with a woman who's in front with her back to the camera. We need to be able to find a way to have more of a reaction between the woman in glasses and the woman in the foreground. Also we have an issue of back focus. Everyone in the background is in focus but the subject - the woman here with the glasses is not in focus. Another small thing is that these faces are all darkened. The five or six faces that we see in the background need to be lightened up. So once we've figured out the focus issues, then we can work with secondary issues such as darkness on faces in the background.
Patrick Engel | Education
This one is nice as well. It's a moment that is confusing. This guy here on the far right is not looking - I can't see his face so I would crop him out. And then I would burn some parts of the photos that are very bright because the bright parts of a black and white photo are where my eye normally looks at first. I like the face of the old lady here. I can see the flash here on the right. It's very bright. You can't burn it. It would be better if it was behind the man's head.
