Seoul Street Wedding

[Heide]

I took this picture on our last trip where we had a one day stop in Korea/Seoul.





And while I was wondering what the photographer would do to get a nice wedding picture for the couple.... I realised that the bride groom might not be totally happy with my interpretation




I took the original photo and added two layers.

On the background picture I brightened the mouth, teeth and earrings of the bride.

FDor the middle layer I used Topaz Adjust - psychadelic, after seeing the results, I decided to only use the bride's dress from this one, as I didn't like the changes to the skin colour.

The top layer I changed to 'black pencil' and later on to 'chrome'. (On that day I had read the old WWYD threads, and found #14 very interesting where a full street scene was changed very impressively to black pencil with just a bit of colour coming out. So I used some of my Seoul Street pictures to learn how to do it, which was very well explained by hpebley3).

Then I erased the head of the bride on the top two layers, and the dress of the bride on the top layer.

It didn't happen all in this sequence, so I hope I have not forgotten any important step :-).

As I am still very new to photo manipulation, I'd like to invite any comments for the purpose of improving my skills to create pictures that catch the eye by being 'different'.

Thank you!

[pbdweeeebie]

Hi Heidi. I think you have applied a very unusual effect to a picture that normaly conveys a special mood and arouses emotions. Imo, the effect does not bring the best out of your pic. "Separating" the groom from the bride - which the effect does - also cuts across the grain in my view.

But you pic has warm smiles on the faces of the couple and perhaps you could have worked towards showcasing that. If it were my pic, I'd have leveled it, brightened it, blurred the background and perhaps, given it a tonal treatment.

Thank you for sharing and also for daring to try something very different.

[AnnetteJ]

I love what you did to the dress and I like how the effect brings the bride right out of the background, but I wish you had included the groom. I suppose it says a wedding is all about the bride - as I told my husband who was nervous about being the centre of attention on our wedding day, it's not him they'll be staring at! But really a wedding is about joining two people together so I feel less keen on her marrying a big grey blob and would rather see him as a real person! But if you did him as well then it would be a big improvement over the original pic and very good work.

[Heide]

Thank you AnnetteJ and pbdweeeebie for your opinion!

I was wondering if people's view of a 'wedding' picture and how it 'has to' look would allow a change like this.... that's why I brought it up here.

I 'm glad about your thoughts, because I'm going to create many more pictures that don't fit what one would expect and I'll always be interested to hear how other people perceive them - that's what motivates me. (and yes, I was tempted to hide this first try and not put it up here, to avoid critique, but that won't help me getting better, will it!)


Well, I have got the husband back, but don't like it at all (on the picture, I mean :-), - I have uploaded it anyway to show my appreciation for your thoughts:

[AnnetteJ]

I do much prefer it with the husband in too! If you really want to change it in crazy ways you could always make his suit bright orange or something! Or even, to be really really off the wall, just keep the dress and make the bride a grey blob too!! Then at least it's one grey blob marrying another... But do keep the dress as you have it, it's cool!

[vsa]

I prefer the version with the husby included. But the effect is too much for my taste. It has that "Hey look what I found in the filters menu" kind of look to it. Maybe that's what you went for... I wouldn't know.

Perhaps pull back the effect to o say 30% while still keeping the area almost grayscale. The couple would still pop out enough but then the background wouldn't distract so much while still retaining the subtle effect.

Since I'm new here I don't know the etiquette for posting your own versions for suggestion in this section so I won't. ...but I messed around with your images for 5 mins to see what it would look like with my suggestions.

[Heide]

Hi vsa, please post it! It's about learning, isn't it ;-) - it's great that you went through the effort.
Thanks for your comments, all very good!

[vsa]

Layers from bottom up:
- original image
- black & white adjustment layer at 67% opacity
- edited version at 33%
- edited version at 100% (background masked out)
- solid color at 39% with "color" blending mode (everything but the dress masked out) ....just cos AnnetteJ suggested it

There's still too much of that effect for my liking but if you go any for any less you lose it.
Hope this helps.

[FGPhotography]

I like this one much better... although (just a thought) if you could soften the background instead of making it harsh and keep the dress the way you have it (I like that effect)... Maybe try Gussian blur on the background a bit? Just a thought.

I like the picture in the first place (pre-editing), it's a great shot

Originally Posted by Heide

Thank you AnnetteJ and pbdweeeebie for your opinion!

I was wondering if people's view of a 'wedding' picture and how it 'has to' look would allow a change like this.... that's why I brought it up here.

I 'm glad about your thoughts, because I'm going to create many more pictures that don't fit what one would expect and I'll always be interested to hear how other people perceive them - that's what motivates me. (and yes, I was tempted to hide this first try and not put it up here, to avoid critique, but that won't help me getting better, will it!)


Well, I have got the husband back, but don't like it at all (on the picture, I mean :-), - I have uploaded it anyway to show my appreciation for your thoughts:

[Heide]

Thanks a lot for all yoru comments!
I liked the shininess of the background and the blueish shiney way the dress has worked out with Topaz.... I might just start from scratch again :-)