C&C Please..

genie_us

Hi all

well I've been a lurker now for a long time so thought it was about time I plucked up the courage to introduce myself and try and get involved a bit more!

This was taken at my friends wedding where I was a guest. I've been learning photography now for about a year...
I would love to hear thoughts and suggestions about this picture... thanks

Borderfox

Hi genie_us, welcome to Boards.

I can give you an opinion from my point of view, picture looks really nice but a few changes will bring it up imo. I would crop a bit off the top of the picture to get rid of the bright point on top of the ceiling in the top left. I wouldnt be mad on the toning and would prefer a straight black and white conversion. it looks like a nice moment at the wedding day.

Now thats me, my partner who gives the last look to all my wedding pictures would point out the lines on her neck and to get rid of them.

Love the shot of your Dog too

genie_us

Hi Borderfox, thanks a mil for your reply! Really helpful comments, esp about the lines on her neck which I never even noticed before. I have Lightroom, I don't know if you can do it in that but even if you did I wouldn't have a clue how!

Ah thanks, that's Roxy. A rare moment of her sitting still!

AnCatDubh

That's a really sweet image genie_us,

- candid i presume?

In terms of processing, I'm not gone on the sepia in it, or at least I think you may need more contrast in it, possibly not a general application of contrast as you've a few highlights going on there that would become completely blown, but a bit of dodge and burn or selective contast might give it a little 'umph'. Thus, i'd go for a black and white conversion ditching the sepia, but meh, sepaia is cool if that's what you like.

The current result looks a little odd, in that maybe its my monitor but i'm seeing small artifects across the image - almost a bit of pixelation going on. Perhaps a little too much sharpening (or something else entirely) has caused this.

Was it a really tight crop of a larger image?

Anyhow, a really small bit of blur sensitively applied may get rid of that if its a problem for you.

Flowers on right hand side are quite distracting and serve no purpose - perhaps crop a little out if you are going to wield the scissors on it.

If it wasn't the candid that I think it may be (nothing wrong with candids by the way), the I think the bride turned ever so slightly to her left has the potential to yield a little more out of the image in terms of her profile.

I wouldn't have noticed the neck line - to me that is just natural, but Keith does these for a living so probably best to trust him on that one

Yeah, as I said, it is a really sweet image. Well done.

BengaLover

Would be nicer in black and white and softened just a smidge, bring down the tones so there isnt so much glare from the lights. And straightened.:D Just a little.

genie_us

Thanks guys, really appreciate it. I will convert it to b&w and do as you suggested re the straightening, and better crop and see how it goes!

AnCatDubh, yes it was completely candid. I was sitting at the table behind her. I cropped it in also as there was half a person at the edge of the photo!

The pixelation you mention, I'm not sure where I got it from. Would it be because I wasn't using flash but a high ISO, creating noise do you think? I didn't use any other processing other than crop and the sepia effect. The only spot I see is at the back of her dress towards the very bottom right, which I thought was a sparkly reflection from the dress?

ScumLord

You could have a slight sepia tint on the black and white image. I'd be careful removing the neck lines though, she could end up looking like thumb boy if you over do it.

If you had photoshop with camera raw you could bring the image into that as you can remove luminance artefacts really well under sharpening without softening your focus.

kelly1

Very nicely captured moment, I like it. As others have said, the sepia is a bit strong IMO. Personally I like a hint of sepia just to warm up the image. I think a bit of burning to tone down the wall light would help keep the focus on the bride.

genie_us

Thanks guys, I'll tone down the sepia for sure! Hopefully post up a better version of it afterwards

CabanSail

Hello & Welcome.

I like the sepia, but feel it is over cooked here. The highlights should also be white with proper sepia, or good digital imitations.

The mood you have captured is good but there are too many distractions, these can be cropped as suggested above. The problem is that the bride alone then is very lacking in contrast. The other issue is that this image is very soft, which suits the subject somewhat, but in this case it's too much and this shot needs something sharp.

Good effort and thanks for sharing.

genie_us

Thanks CabanSail

I just used one of the lightroom presets for the sepia, after this feedback I'll definitely take time to learn more about the post processing.

Feedback is really helpful, thanks again to everyone

genie_us

Hi again

as suggested I redid it in b&w instead of Sepia. I'm still not great in Lightroom (which is probably obvious by now) but I'd be interested to see if people think this is an improvement at all?

kelly1

You seem to have added more noise somehow. Maybe you over sharpened?
I also think it needs more contrast. Did you tone the highlights and shadows? I find toning the shadows alone works best.

Can you have a look at the attached and see what you think? I increased the black level, changed the toning and burned the wall light.

genie_us

Wow thanks Kelly that really makes a difference!
I need to study how to use Lightroom obviously. I have no idea how I managed to add more noise to it!

I love your processing on it

kelly1

Thanks Btw I also did some dodging (increased exposure) on the veil and parts of the dress.

genie_us

Did you use Lightroom for that?