Perspectives #11
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?
Tyler Wirken
This one is interesting to me. Again, we're going to start with light, moment, composition. That's what we always have to do when we build pictures. Does it have good light? Yes, it's decent light. There's some nice side light on the bride. Does it have a moment? Absolutely, it does have a moment. And does it have a composition or does it have a compositional potential? I think yes.
The good news is there's enough stuff there that we can start working through this. The tricky part for me is I'm trying to make a decision on where focus should be. I think in the focus needs to be on the guy, making the funny face because he's the biggest in the frame. That's where our eye keeps going to every time no matter where we look. If we look at the bride and the groom, we go back to the guy making the funny face.
If it keeps happening as you're shooting through this moment, maybe you have enough time, to switch your focus back and forth to both the guy making the funny face and the bride laughing. That way you'll have a choice later. The bride's got the light on her face. If you're going to make the decision between the bride and groom, the bride is absolutely the right choice on where to put the focus. But I think bumping that focus to that guy would make that feel better. There's not much we can do in terms of the composition because we're dealing with a reflection.
The hard part about this technically is is that the bride and groom are much brighter than the guy inside. We have to figure out how to push and pull that exposure - darkening the bride down a little bit and then lightening the guy with the funny face to balance that exposure.
It's a really fun moment and it probably didn't last very long. Good job by the photographer to capture the moment. But as we keep looking at this and I keep going back to that guy, which means he needs to be the one in focus. You're still going to be able to see the bride and groom reacting in the background. That's what I would recommend for this photo. Keep up the good work on being able to react and capture those wonderful moments.
Vlad Lodoaba | Education
What a great shot. I actually laughed the first time I saw this. It's a solid moment, solid execution. I love the editing. It's very hard to get action and reaction in the same shot. The photographer did a great job here. So congratulations to you.
I see though that from the EXiF of the file that you were struggling with low light and with high ISO settings and slow shutter speed. I applaud the photographer for knowing the camera and knowing how to best use it in difficult situations. One thing I would consider though, when shooting with an 85mm, is close the aperture even more. This was shot at a f4.5. If possible, if light permits, go for a f5.6 or a f8.
One thing that could be slightly improved is a tighter club crop from the top left and a tiny bit from the right as well. Other than that, great action and reaction. Great moment. Great editing. Kudos to the photographer. Great job.
Melissa Suneson
This is a very fun photo that I am sure the bride and groom like very much as they are both smiling. They're laughing at the other person doing the silly face. To make this a better photo, first of all - I like that the photographer is looking at things in a different way. He's working with reflections. We can see that from the lines of the shirt of the guy making the silly face reflecting on the groom's head. I would darken the bright spots in the lower right because they're competing with the brightness of the bride and groom. Also, I would darken the dots in the top right to not distract from the silly guy.
Maybe this photo is confusing for the regular viewer to understand how the photo was taken. To help out with this, I would have taken the photo from a longer distance and incorporate the window or the door. Having this could also incorporate the element of framing in the photo and showing where this photo was taken. This will help us not having the arm of the groom cut off also.
I see that it's funny that there's the shadow of the silly guy between the bride and groom that looks like a centerpiece on the table.
What I like is that the photographer is right there in the moment and not reacting to moments. When we are in the moment, we're able to capture them. When we're reacting to the moment is when we miss the moments. I encourage the photographer to keep on being there and just try to make this photo better.
From the three elements for a great photo - light, composition, moment - we have two of them. The most important here is the moment. We have good light on the bride and groom. The reflection has enough light. Just work a little bit more in the composition when doing these kind of reflection photos. Maybe incorporating some other elements in the composition will make better photos.
Patrick Engel | Education
I like the scene. I like the moment. It's some sort of layering for me because he is inside and they are outside. I like the idea. What I don't like is the grain. So I would like to improve this by doing a little grain reduction but not too much. We can do something with cropping to make it a bit tighter and burn some areas in the edges. I don't want to have black space. Burn the groom's arm a little bit.
