<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"]<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; color: black;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]A way to do this (and there many), but separate the bride from the background via layers, for example, then make the background blurred or “washed it out”, or change the photo to a colored photo.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"]<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; color: black;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]This would help the bride to stand out more. Photoshop has these tools or you can use a “plug-in” to do a first class job.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"]<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; color: black;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]As the photo stands currently, the bride bends into the background.
<div style="clear: both;"]</div>
..or you shoot it properly at the right DOF to begin with? It saves you a lot of portprocessing and time.
I took the liberty of editing the image. Bare with me.
Even in total black & white, with a different contrast to see more of the bride's face, and with vignetting to steer the viewer away from the background which has too much going on,.. I still have trouble with this image. Let me explain:
In the postprocessed version, you cannot help but look at the flowers because they are the only spot of colour. Not only does this make the flowers the immediate point of attention, it also makes them more or less the main subject of the photo. In that case, I would have taken a shot where the flowers were more prominent as a subject, not a blotch of color without much detail and with too many distractions. When you shoot or postproces you have to know what you want to show people. In the case of the original photo: it is not the bride (because the flowers grab all the attention) nor is it the flowers (there is not enough information there to satisfy me as a viewer after you draw my attention to them by adding color). You know what I mean? (Again: I am having trouble desribing this in a language that is not my own).
That postprocessing choice is effects only. What does it really add? In my honest opinion, apart from color, not much. Is that enough? I vote no. This is a bride on one of the biggest days of her life. Adding stuff like this should be done with care and function and is often not even necessary if you ask me.
What is left when the effects are gone? Does that make the picture better? In my opinion that leaves us with a picture of somebody who is not making contact with the camera, in a staged position/mindframe that doesn't do much in terms of emotion. It's better though because (after some contrast tweaks) I am looking at the bride, who I think should be the subject of the picture instead of her colored flowers. However, even despite adding a mild vignette, she is still in surroundings that have loads and loads of lines that conflict with each other. That still gives this image something 'restless' (what I called messy). Read up on rules of thirds and lines and symmetry: you'll see what I mean. There's too much going on.
That is the bigger version of my critique.
Please note that I am just one person with one opinion and I mean this in the best possible way. Had I loved this picture I would have shouted it from the rooftops. I mean you no harm whatsoever. I was trained in art school, went on to become an art director and as such graded thousands of pictures of hundreds of photographers over the last few years. I may simply be overly critical.
http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/5347/img5f000107bwc.jpg