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Ceremony Critique

now ceremony is an interesting category. We had a lot like a lot of absolutely nailed it moments, doing the best that you can with really, really difficult situations. And we all know that ceremonies air tough because ceremonies are God, that's great ceremonies. Oh my God, that's great, huh? Ceremonies are when you have the least amount of control during the day. You can't control the lighting. You can't control where they're standing. Sometimes it is really bad, and there's nothing that you can dio to make it any different. So what a lot of people sent in with their ceremony pictures were What could I have done to make the light better? And what could I have done to make my angle better? And what should I have put in some off camera flash guys with a ceremony? Sometimes all you can do is all you can dio, and there are a lot of wonderful caught moments that is beautiful. I hate whoever made this because I didn't make it. That's like perfect, beautiful, wonderful found moments, wonderfu...

l handling of incredibly difficult light. You've got dark skinned people with massive backlight, and you handled it beautifully. Well done, I don't know how you got to stay on there, but I am jealous. Beautiful, beautiful. I mean, the ceremony. People really brought it. That's really hard and really well done. Awesome. Awesome. The theme is generally awesome. Nice capture of moments. That's great. That's gorgeous. That's phenomenal. That is hard and really well handled. That's like cheating because they're standing in exactly the right location, and that never happens. Perfect. Beautiful. Yep. Yep. That is a really excellent symmetrical composition on a really tough scenario. Gorgeous. Yep. Amazing. Amazing. That is amazing. Yep. I mean, as you can see, there were a lot of really well caught moments, really well composed scenes. That's fantastic, you know, in this person since this in and said, What could I have done to make this better? Nothing. It just is what it is. You know, it's a person lighting a candle and doing the rings during a ceremony in a location where you probably couldn't have added on any flash. It all on were limited and where you could stand What? What else could you have done? Nothing. This is fine. This is tough and this is good. That's good. That's amazing. Yep. Yep. You know, there were a lot of really wonderful found moments. Found situations. Listen, dude, it's dappled light. What can you do about that? Nothing. You shoot it just like that. It is what it is. You know, you have no control over this whatsoever. You can go to every single angle as best you possibly can, and it's still tough. I mean, you're literally set up to fail there. Look at that backlighting, and you're still doing it. That's amazing. Yep, yep. Says great. That is great. That is great. That is great. This is great. You can see a theme here. That's fantastic. That is beautiful. Yes. There were so many ceremony images that were sent in with fantastically captured moments. That's a hard situation. And that's gorgeous. That's great. That's very innovative. Yep. God, that's hard light. That's cheating thing. This is the part of the day where they were. The photographer really has absolutely no control control. Right? Can you generally can't light it? You're usually limited where you can stand. The venues generally universally look absolutely awful. Like what you gonna dio? All you can do is the best that you can. So that said, there were a few things compositionally that could have made some really nice images. Even better, For example, you know, losing the chairs in the bottom left. That's where my my goes first. Is that white here in the bottom, left zooming in a little closer because you've got a really great moment of the groom putting the bride's ring on. But then you have a woman in the back that looks like she's biting her nails, you know, adjusting your composition. So you lose the guy on the right because he's really distracting. Zooming in closer, closer, closer, losing that head room, you know, great moment of the women coming down the aisle. But the out of focus girl on the right pulls focus away from the really great moment. So a tighter crop, either in camera or in post you know there's There's just a lot going on here compositionally, and it's just a little bit too much. It's a little too distracting back up a little bit, you know, you've got a really nice moment going on. Take two steps back, show a little bit more of the seen less of a crash. Zoom on the people and you'll be doing great the head space thing again. Dope heads based thing again as we're seeing a universal trend of headspace headspace. You know, I I understand what you're trying to do here, but it just doesn't work because the light on the bride is so strong that you're doing this wide angle focus on this thing in front of her. But it just ends up being confusing back up just a little bit, a little bit too close. You know, it's I don't know what's happening here because you can't even see the groom. But you've got all of this space over onto the left, like if you had just angled it a few more inches over to the right. You know, I get what's going on here, but you lose the, um, use the focus on the actual scene. Ah, little crop down from the bottom would have really helped headspace. You know, there's just there's a little too much going on. I get that you're going for the reflection in the ground, but it doesn't really work. And then all of the things going on over to the left or just distracting and they don't help push your eye over to the subject a little bit too close Headspace back up a little bit more. You know what? You're at 163 millimeters, but it still has the look of a wide angle because people are cropped off the sides. You've gotta back up a little bit and back up a little bit. Be careful. I know you're shooting a 35. That was probably your only choice here. But the red hair of the woman on the right and all of the people's backs on the right, It just takes a long time for my eye to find the subject headspace, Headspace. You know, it's just takes me a few minutes to find what I'm looking at. You guys in your head space you're killing me. But honestly, I find that head space is a very common photographer problem. As you sort of put your focal point in the middle, you end up with a little extraneous space at the top, you know, great moment on these people's faces, but the people to the right there so bright, you know, it takes me a second to find the subject headspace. You know, you've got the groom, you've got the best man. And then you cut the other guy off in the middle, either including or don't include him at all. Cropped off people on the sides headspace. You know, I can't even see the bridegroom because they're covered by the person standing in front of them to close headspace Heads base, you know, kind of a universal theme. Headspace, headspace tilt when there does not need to be a tilt guy on the right, The suit coming in, you know, just a simple crop. Get rid of this guy over here, and then you're I go straight to this great moment headspace. You know, this is an instance where it's a little bit too much, getting a little bit closer. The distortion of the lin sort of won't sit out a little bit. You got to be careful when you're shooting a super wide angle lens because you start getting these people included in the sides of the frame that aren't helping tell the story and they start to get a little distorted headspace too much for space. You know, this person said, how do I know how could I have gotten in more on it. You get in more on it like you've just got to get yourself in there. And I noticed that with a lot of Indian weddings, sometimes you gotta throw some elbows right. Like you just have to get yourself into the scene. They know you're the photographer. They know you're there to shoot. You know, these two women that are standing in front of you get in between them a little bit and dropped down a little bit. You know, there is a killer moment going on here, but it's crops so loosely it takes me a second to find it. Wide angle, vertical killer moment. They're kind of I mean, it's not really a wide angle vertical, but the the the vantage point of the photographer being up high and looking down. It takes a second to get to the moment. If you had been down on the ground on the little boy's level, it would have been more powerful headspace, headspace, headspace. Move over to the left a little bit. You've got this guy on the right and this other guy cropped off on the right that aren't helping. Told the story, but you've almost got the bride's dad cropped off, you know, just too much faith. Tighter crop. You know, I understand that for things like this, you're going for the reflection on the ground. But the reflection on the ground is not helping, and it's not clear enough. Headspace, headspace. You know, some of the crops were just a little bit too loose, cropping just a little bit tighter. And then your eye goes to the moment a little tighter, a little too tight. You know, it's it's it's tough here. You've got videographers on either side. Crop him out. Some of the problems were coming from Lynn selection, right? And some of it is is settings in general. Um, but, you know, sometimes all you can do is the best that you can dio. If you have a 75 if you're shooting at 75 millimeters, I'm guessing that was 24 to 70. If you trotted it to eight, it might have helped eliminate your distracting back your background just a little bit. It would've been a little bit less distracting. You know, it's tough. This is what are you going to do, right? Like it would have been nicer. I believe if you could have gotten further back, you know, instead of being right up on top of them, maybe you could maybe you couldn't. But if you had more, I'll space. You know, another 10 feet back would have really helped the scene. You know, just tighter crop, just a little bit of a tighter crop. And either at 78 millimeters, I'm guessing it's a 24 to 70 or 72 200. Zoom in a little bit more, you know, get in a little bit closer. And then sometimes it's just again, just missing the moment. Great catch. Not a moment. You know, there's nothing happening here. It's it's faces smushed together, and she's got a great expression on her face. His eyes were closed and her either half closed, and you can even see her face right, like you can't see her face through the veil and you can't see their faces, but they're the ones that are in focus. But the minister, who has an actual facial expression, he's not the one and focus, and it's, you know, I shoot these things too, right? Like grab shots of people watching, but I try to wait until they're actually emoting in some way. Otherwise, it's just a really nice picture of a bridesmaid standing there. You know what's happening here. I'm not sure they look bad, right? Like and and I'm not sure what's what's going on. If it's a portrait, which it might be, they're not all looking at you and they're not in focus. But if it's a photo journalistic moment, there's not a moment. You know, I don't know what's happening here, right? Like there's a cross on the wall, but it's not a full cross, and then you can't really see your hands. I'm not really sure what's going on. It just doesn't work.