wedding day hands, what would help?

[soundguy03]

I took this at the 2nd wedding that i had shot. Overall, this was my favorite shot of the day, but to me, it just does not POP! What could i do/have done to make this really stand out as a great picture?

Olympus E-620
f/5.6
42mm
ISO 200
Exposure program biased towards depth of field; therefore no shutter speed info sorry.

if any more info is needed, let me know and I will supply it.

[Benji]

First Corinthians chapter 13 is an excellent chapter to have open in the bible first of all, especially in a wedding! Secondly the bride's fingernails are beautiful, but as you said the image lacks POP. To me POP means a number of things. IMHO for an image to have POP the items or people or the parts of the people in the image must be dynamic. No boringness allowed! Also it must be lit in such a manner that shows creativity, and lastly it must be in focus. Your image is the standard pose used by most amateur image makers, and quite frankly it is not dynamic, nor is it creatively lit nor well posed. This is to be expected because you are not a professional photographer. The pose below is how I do "my" ring shots.

Benji

[CaptainNH]

To me, the thing that is stopping the "pop" is the lighting and DoF, not the pose.

Shooting from above at f5.6 has put the whole image image in focus, there's nothing drawing the eye to the couple's hands or rings. A shallower DoF and a different angle would have enabled you to get the rings and start of Corinthians13 in focus and throw the rest oof. You could easily replicate this with some post-processing.

It appears that the lighting has come from an on camera flash, which has flattened the image and thrown some harsh shadows. I tend to take these shots using ambient only, but if it needs some flash, it needs to be bounced off something.

Adding the bouquet to the shot might have added more interest.

Since Benji has offered up an image too, I'll offer come critique on that one too. To me, the pose looks completely unnatural - what bride rests her hand on the blooms of her bouquet?, the wrist angles look uncomfortable to me too. The lighting is great. It's my personal taste, but the vignette does nothing for me.

Perhaps Benji could post up one of his professional shots where a client has asked that the bible be included in the ring shot so we can make a fair comparison?

[windrider86]

The lines of the fingers are not "flowing" with the spline of the book. I totally see what you were going for tho. Also try and pose the hands so they look like they are joined together. With the womans sitting on top of the guys looks like she is holding him down

Benji, loved that pose!

[Pants]

I think you've gotten some great feedback so far. The one thing I can add about the picture is that you can see through the pages of the bible. Maybe a blank paper behind would help.

[soundguy03]

Thank you for all the feedback! It really helps to have another set of eyes looking and seeing things that I never noticed. Thanks! Definitely going to incorporate some of those ideas in the future.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by CaptainNH

To me, the thing that is stopping the "pop" is the lighting and DoF, not the pose.

Shooting from above at f5.6 has put the whole image image in focus, there's nothing drawing the eye to the couple's hands or rings. A shallower DoF and a different angle would have enabled you to get the rings and start of Corinthians13 in focus and throw the rest oof. You could easily replicate this with some post-processing.

It appears that the lighting has come from an on camera flash, which has flattened the image and thrown some harsh shadows. I tend to take these shots using ambient only, but if it needs some flash, it needs to be bounced off something.

Adding the bouquet to the shot might have added more interest.

Since Benji has offered up an image too, I'll offer come critique on that one too. To me, the pose looks completely unnatural - what bride rests her hand on the blooms of her bouquet?, the wrist angles look uncomfortable to me too. The lighting is great. It's my personal taste, but the vignette does nothing for me.

Perhaps Benji could post up one of his professional shots where a client has asked that the bible be included in the ring shot so we can make a fair comparison?

You're right, no bride wants her bouquet in her wedding shots and bent wrists look ugly and the vignetting is completely inappropriate. Do the other pose as it is much nicer and looks so much more professional.

Ben

[WooD]

Originally Posted by CaptainNH

To me, the thing that is stopping the "pop" is the lighting and DoF, not the pose.

Shooting from above at f5.6 has put the whole image image in focus, there's nothing drawing the eye to the couple's hands or rings. A shallower DoF and a different angle would have enabled you to get the rings and start of Corinthians13 in focus and throw the rest oof. You could easily replicate this with some post-processing.

It appears that the lighting has come from an on camera flash, which has flattened the image and thrown some harsh shadows. I tend to take these shots using ambient only, but if it needs some flash, it needs to be bounced off something.

Adding the bouquet to the shot might have added more interest.

Since Benji has offered up an image too, I'll offer come critique on that one too. To me, the pose looks completely unnatural - what bride rests her hand on the blooms of her bouquet?, the wrist angles look uncomfortable to me too. The lighting is great. It's my personal taste, but the vignette does nothing for me.

Perhaps Benji could post up one of his professional shots where a client has asked that the bible be included in the ring shot so we can make a fair comparison?

Originally Posted by Benji

You're right, no bride wants her bouquet in her wedding shots and bent wrists look ugly and the vignetting is completely inappropriate. Do the other pose as it is much nicer and looks so much more professional.

Ben

I didn't just spray my monitor with Pepsi.............seriously .