First real wedding

[Madison]

Last year I took some amateur pictures of my sister's wedding (she had a pro photographer, I was just a guest). However, the book I made for her as a present got a lot of positive feedback and people wanted to book me as a photographer. I said no because I was scared and unprepared. However one couple kept insisting, so now, one year later, I shot their wedding. My first real job. Well, I took it as a practice job so technically speaking there is no job to speak of. But still.

I think, for a first time wedding of someone other than relatives, I did pretty okay. The whole series was black & white documentary but there were a few pics I kept in color. Here are some of them:
What do you think? I see there is a lot of room for improvement but I don't think it's a bad start.

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82MM. ISO 200. 1/3200. F4 (24-105. 5D Mk II). No flash. Postprocessing: Color saturation.

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60MM. ISO 100. 1/1250. F4 (24-105. 5D Mk II). No flash. Postprocessing: Color saturation.

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105MM. ISO 100. 1/640. F4 (24-105. 5D Mk II). No flash. Postprocessing: Color saturation.


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50MM. ISO 3200. 1/160. F2.8 (50 MM 1.4. 5D Mk II). No flash. Post processing: Vignette. Noise reduction and re-adding (better) noise to diffuse gradients and colors.

[TheRoff]

Great start! Really interesting shots and not typical wedding shots. Nice job. The low angle is well done with the right DOF, Nice work on the light on the inside one.


Larry

[Madison]

And here are three shots from the rest of the series, which is b&w documentary style stuff.

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[Sean Setters]

Very well done Madison. I especially love the last color shot. Perfect timing.

[alexniedra]

Madison - These are all awesome. Like Sean said, you timed them perfectly.


Well done!

[Oren]

Amazing, really. Simply out of the box: you got special angles, special lighting, special timing and special evertyhing. Certienly not typical wedding shots, more like artistic shots... well done!

[Madison]

Thanks you guys. I was so incredbly nervous and insecure during the day. Seriously: I thought I was screwing up and I did need to do some serious postprocessing in some shots to fix quick but wrong decisions I made on the fly.


I am still not sure I should do this comercially (this I did not. It was expenses only). My sister's wedding was different but also black & white and very documentary/romantic. These shots were much more orchestrated half of the day (my sister's was all documentary without any posed shots). The bride and groom were very happy but in all honesty: I see loads and loads of stuff that should have been handled better by me and won't do it comercially until I am sure I can offer a kind of quality and stability. This, for me, is a good start but not good enough to start advertsing with hoping for more wedding clients. Good thing Photo Academy is starting in September :-)

[Rodger]

Madison, I like them. As Sean and Alex said, perfect timing on the last color one. The expression in the second B/W one is excellent. Whether posed or not, that shows you can make the subjects feel comfortable.


As for what you said about being nervous, I'd imagine so. I've heard weddings are really nerve-racking. But from my view (keep in mind with very little experience) I say you can still market yourself. If a couple insisted on you shooting their wedding then they trusted you. And what better way to grow than by shooting what you want to grow in?


A jazz band instructor at districts two years ago made me solo at the concert. Did I think I was ready? Heck no! haha. But somehow I landed first chair and the solos fell on me. Point is, I did it. Yeah I was forced, and yes I messed up (I finished playing with half a chorus left!). But I grew from it and was able to solo even better than before at the next concert. This concludes my motivational rant haha But I say "Go for it"


Here is the blog site of the #1 ranked wedding photogs in Panama City, Florida. You might check them out.http://www.vuephotographyonline.net/

[Dallasphotog]

Great work.


The only way to ever feel completely worry free at a wedding is to have solid back-up equipment and eventually a second shooter. When my daughter started shooting with me, it took a ton a strain out of weddings.

[Jarhead5811]

Those are some of the coolest wedding pics I have ever seen. I think you should feelvery comfortable charging for that level work.


(BTW - I just knew you weren't in the U.S. when I saw the smoking pic!)