Need some advice

[BroMiCs]

Hey guys.
I have been taking photo's for a number of years now, but focused maily on wild life and scenery. One of the reason's I was able to justify spending money on my new camera was because I would like to get into wedding photograpy a little bit. Just like how DJing has paid for all of my records, I figured I could make a bit of money taking photo's and put it back into equipment. What really made me decide to do it was my wedding photographer. He took nearly 600 photo's and I don't have one single good portrait of my wife and I. He took a few good shots of her and and her family but I paid 1600 (for photo's only, no prints) and have very little to show for it.

I figured that if I got a decent camera (mine is better than his was) and learned some tecniques I could do just as good of a job or better.

My friend is going to get engaged soon and I said I would love to take his engagment photo's. The is a shot of them I took of them a couple of weeks ago. The lighting was very dark and I had a hard time getting a clear shot without having to ramp up the ISO

What can I improve on here to get more wow factor?

http://i748.photobucket.com/albums/xx130/BroMiCs/kissingtreessmaller.jpg

[Richard]

Hi Bromics,

I think a lot of us would love to make money out of photography.

In terms of your shot, I would be temped to think about trying to find a simpler background, maybe getting closer to the couple to create a more intimate shot.

I would have a look at the work of established photographers in that field, at have ago at replicating some of their shots. The more you shot and get used to your camera the more you will develop your own style.

here is Cliff Mautner's site (http://cliffmautner.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/08/liz-and-travis-the-essex-house-new-york-city-ny.html). He has some pretty spectacular wedding photography.

From what I've read wedding photography shouldn't be looked at as an easy buck, it can be stressful and a lot of hard work. (in this game mistakes are not an option).

[Marko]

.... is a shot of them I took of them a couple of weeks ago. The lighting was very dark and I had a hard time getting a clear shot without having to ramp up the ISO

What can I improve on here to get more wow factor?IMO - Before we can get to wow factor we need to get some basics straight.

First off, if the light sucks - it's up to you to wait for it, or create it with flash. (Lighting is one of the KEYS to wow factor)

Eyes - always focus on the eyes. The eyes/faces of both subjects are soft here.

Distractions - The tree right behind their heads is a distraction for me as is the man entering the trailer. A slight angle change on your part, and waiting 1 more second could have eliminated this.

I do like the path that leads to them and I like the fact that you show the environment...I'm assuming this environment has importance to the subjects. If it doesn't, I would not have used this environment.

Hope that helps - Marko

[BroMiCs]

Distractions - The tree right behind their heads is a distraction for me as is the man entering the trailer. A slight angle change on your part, and waiting 1 more second could have eliminated this.

I do like the path that leads to them and I like the fact that you show the environment...I'm assuming this environment has importance to the subjects. If it doesn't, I would not have used this environment.

Hope that helps - Marko

Yes I didn't notice the guy getting into the trailer till after the shot.
Kinda bugs me.. Lucky i was just having fun.

The enviroment was kind of important including the trailors behind. They wanted to get a feel of were they were.

Yes I agree with you the tree right behind is a bit distracting.
I took a bunch of photo's both closer and farther back. The closer one was nice because you could see them very clearly but it lost all of its charactor because you really didn't get a feel for where they were. I reallly wanted to get the path in the shot.

I had such a hard time getting a clear photo in this light. I wish I would have had a tripod. I bet the photo would have been a lot more clear.

Is the only way to get the camera to focus on such a small point to do it manually? I wanted everything to be in focus in this shot to give it as much DOF as i could. Obvously the problem with that is a lot less light. I didn't have my external flash at this point (now i learn it may blow up my camera cuz its an old vivitar)

[Marko]

Is the only way to get the camera to focus on such a small point to do it manually? I wanted everything to be in focus in this shot to give it as much DOF as i could. Obvously the problem with that is a lot less light. I didn't have my external flash at this point (now i learn it may blow up my camera cuz its an old vivitar)

It's probably the best way for subjects at this distance - you could always try moving the focus point (if you have such a camera) to the eye.

YES - be very careful with attaching old flashes to new digital cameras! Some will still work, some will fry the camera - depends on which flash to which camera.

Hope that helps - Marko

[BroMiCs]

Its a Vivitar 550FD with auto thyristor
I am trying to find out if its good or not at the moment.
I used it a bunch of times already and haven't seen any smoke coming from the camera yet lol

And yea I can select a focus point if i want. I can't remember if I did that or just left it to pick for itself.

[jlabel]

One thing people tend to forget is that the background is part of the picture, if you dont think about the background yo can never achieve a good picture. In this picture you clearly have a perfect place but a terrible noise (things that disstract the eyes) in the background, a closer picture with a shallow depth of field could help or changing slightly the angle. Usually wedding couple want them big less surrounding and sloser shot, more intimate, so wide open will only work if theres a story to tell, why they are at such place otherwise theres no need to show that much