What’s Your Preference?

LynnG · #1 (**permalink**) 11-29-2010, 10:39 AM

Friends who dislike having their photos taken asked if i could photograph their wedding, and I am terribly new at this...(what were we all thinking?!)

In my opinion, this is the best shot of the two of them relaxed and having fun, and of course my flash mysteriously doesn't fire on this shot!

I increased the exposure in lightroom. This is 800 ISO and pretty grainy when I zoom in and not sure how prints will turn out (dark lighting to begin with). Any suggestions greatly appreciated! Specifically I'm wondering if it's too dark, too light, too processed and if there's anything that might help the quality in printing?

Thank you so much!

MrJones · #2 (**permalink**) 11-29-2010, 10:48 AM

it's a bit too dark but that's not the main issue.
I like the sharpness and expression as well as the lightning but you have a serious problem with their eyes. they are both squinting as part of the joyful expression, but they don't get any light in their eyes sockets and that just kill the photo for me, as much as all the other technical issues are good.
it just feels so weird looking at them and getting such blacks where the eyes are suppose to be.
it's a shame cause otherwise it would have been a killer.

LynnG · #3 (**permalink**) 11-29-2010, 11:03 AM

Yes, I can completely agree with you on this, although I wasn't able to pick this out on my own....Unfortunately, many of the pictures were dark on their eyes, even with a flash, but not as pronounced as this one.

Thanks for the input and reply!

edbayani · #4 (**permalink**) 11-29-2010, 12:11 PM

can't help but do something about it although it is not perfect. hope this will do.

prabbit237 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-29-2010, 02:33 PM

I'm, by NO means, an expert here but I'll throw in my $0.00000002 worth (it's not even worth a full 2 cents.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrJones

it's a bit too dark but that's not the main issue.
I like the sharpness and expression as well as the lightning but you have a serious problem with their eyes. they are both squinting as part of the joyful expression, but they don't get any light in their eyes sockets and that just kill the photo for me, as much as all the other technical issues are good.
it just feels so weird looking at them and getting such blacks where the eyes are suppose to be.
it's a shame cause otherwise it would have been a killer.

Yes, their eyes (and also her mouth) was what jumped right out at me as not looking good. And I agree with all the rest of what ya said here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by edbayani

can't help but do something about it although it is not perfect. hope this will do.

This one does show what I mean about the mouth (with her mouth being that open, you should see SOME detail in there and not just a black void and in Edbayani's version, you do see some of that detail) but then their faces are WAY too bright/washed out. You might could dodge the eyes and mouth a bit to brighten up just them (actually a levels layer with a mask tends to work better for things like that for me. Dodging and burning tends to mess up the colors.) But, unfortunately, this picture might not be salvageable without a LOT of work.

BigFuzzy · #6 (**permalink**) 11-29-2010, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LynnG

Friends who dislike having their photos taken asked if i could photograph their wedding, and I am terribly new at this...(what were we all thinking?!)

In my opinion, this is the best shot of the two of them relaxed and having fun, and of course my flash mysteriously doesn't fire on this shot!

I increased the exposure in lightroom. This is 800 ISO and pretty grainy when I zoom in and not sure how prints will turn out (dark lighting to begin with). Any suggestions greatly appreciated! Specifically I'm wondering if it's too dark, too light, too processed and if there's anything that might help the quality in printing?

Thank you so much!

I think the glaring issue to me is the eyes. Not sure if there's anything you can do, but if you can, you have to get some light into their poor eyes, they're simply black with no detail which is sad.

not sure if you're capable of this, but if I were you I'd try (not saying it'd be successful or realistic looking) to cut and paste some of the eyes from images where the flash did fire onto this image because the eyes are just killing this for me. I'd be saddened if this were the best image of my wedding. I blame them for not paying for a pro, it's not your fault you're an amateur with no experience.

Do you have LR3? I ask because it has ground breaking new noise reduction technology. If you don't have it, download the 30-day trial and use it to apply the NR tool and get rid of some of that noise. Then try the "fill light" tool to try to bring some light out of the eyes. Please tell me you used RAW? If not, that is your fault because you've lost the chance to potentially save this image. Always shoot raw if the shoot is of any importance in my humble opinion, especially if you're "terribly new" at this.

i hope this helps

LynnG · #7 (**permalink**) 11-29-2010, 06:33 PM

This is my favorite pose where they are relaxed and happy, but as Murphy's law would have it, the flash didn't go off on this, so I do have others, but really wanted this one to work out. Thank you for the suggestions. I do have LR3 and did take it in raw, although still not happy with it. I'm either not that great with LR3 or it's just not enough to fix this photo.

Here is my attempt with your suggestions....THANK YOU! I had already used the VR but hadn't used the fill light. I also quickly used the dodge tool to lighten up some in the eyes and around the mouths to see if it was worth spending more time doing later. So much better but still not sure if this belongs in the trash??