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Reception Critique

Lesson 44 from: Group Mentorship: Grow Your Wedding Photography Business

Susan Stripling

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Lesson Info

44. Reception Critique

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Mentorship: Introduction and Overview

20:49
2

Mentorship: Business and Marketing

30:42
3

Mentorship: Shooting & Post Production

15:21
4

Social Media Marketing

13:07
5

Google Analytics

29:16
6

Targeting Your Market with Social Media

25:54
7

Social Media Marketing Q&A

10:21
8

Common Issues and Problems

20:01
9

Student Questions and Critique Part 1

26:18
10

Student Questions and Critique Part 2

20:41

Day 2

11

Month 1, Week 1 (Sept 8-14) - Assignment Video

10:28
12

Month 1, Week 1 (Sept 8-14) - Feedback & Weekly Review

53:10
13

Month 1, Week 2 (Sept 15-21) - Assignment Video

09:43
14

Month 1, Week 2 (Sept 15-21) - Feedback & Weekly Review

43:05
15

Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Assignment Video

07:12
16

Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Feedback & Weekly Review

39:17
17

Month 1, Week 4 (Sept 29-Oct 6) - Assignment Video

06:41

Day 3

18

Office Hours Overview

13:42
19

Name Your Business Review

31:41
20

Where are You Running Your Business Review

09:41
21

Get Set Up Legally Review

16:12
22

Personal and Business Finances Review

26:58
23

Banking and Paying Yourself Review

15:42
24

Pricing Problems and Case Studies

35:12
25

When the World Isn't Perfect Review

23:56
26

Mission Statement and Target Client Review

25:46
27

Shooting: Macro and Getting Ready

17:26
28

Shooting: Portraits of the Bride

14:24
29

Shooting: Formals, Ceremony, and Cocktail Hour

16:30
30

Shooting: Reception and Nighttime Portraits

18:46

Day 4

31

Month 2, Week 1 (Oct 6-12) - Feedback & Weekly Review

57:47
32

Month 2, Week 2 (Oct 13-19) - Feedback & Weekly Review

55:04
33

Month 2, Week 3 (Oct 20-26) - Feedback & Weekly Review

57:13
34

Month 2, Week 4 (Oct 27-Nov 2) - Feedback & Weekly Review

47:48

Day 5

35

Details Critique Part 1

28:49
36

Details Critique Part 2

23:57
37

Getting Ready Critique

29:38
38

Missed Moments Critique

11:44
39

Bride Alone Critique Part 1

12:39
40

Bride Alone Critique Part 2

21:04
41

Ceremony Critique

12:36
42

Wedding Formals Critique

19:18
43

Bride and Groom Formals Critique

24:23
44

Reception Critique

18:33
45

Introductions and Toasts Critique

18:14
46

First Dances and Parent Dances Critique

17:47
47

Reception Party Critique

20:08
48

Night Portraits Critique

15:38
49

Month Three Homework

18:45

Day 6

50

Month 3, Week 1 - "Office Hours" Checkin

43:05
51

Month 3, Week 2 - "Office Hours" Checkin

28:11
52

Month 3, Week 3 - "Office Hours" Checkin

36:06

Day 7

53

Get Organized

30:40
54

Editing Q&A Part 1

28:57
55

Editing Q&A Part 2

32:18
56

Editing Critique Part 1

33:32
57

Editing Critique Part 2

31:48
58

Editing Critique Part 3

28:43
59

Editing Critique Part 4

29:33
60

Editing Critique Part 5

21:51
61

Final Image Critique

36:28
62

Album Design and Final Q&A

21:57

Lesson Info

Reception Critique

So you know, everybody's reception room experience varies, but there were a lot of people that sentence. I'm really very well composed, very graphically thought out, very well exposed, well executed and well handled. Images of very, very different reception spaces. Very tricky lighting scenarios, different types of setups, everything from candles, two cakes, two tables. That's really well done, and you can see it doesn't have to be fancy for it to be an impactful photograph that is gorgeous. This is gorgeous. That's beautiful. Simple can be very impactful as well. Well done. So you see, we're getting a variety of different spaces, a variety of different shooting scenarios. Hey, Philadelphia, how tough is that space? The Curtis Center. It's one of the toughest locations to shoot out in Philadelphia. It's basically the atrium of an office building, but this is You can see the great variety that all of the mentor ship students have to deal with and how incredibly well, most of you handled...

a lot of your reception room images really, really strongly composed, graphically dynamic, making excellent lens choices, very good composition, you know, doing the best you can with situations that were difficult lighting wise to situations that were nice and easy lighting wise to making really good lens and lighting choices. So these are the examples of really excellently. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's tough and beautiful. You know, people doing reception room spaces. This got really stretched out. I could not seem to fix it, but I assure you that all three of this one and this one and this one, the photographer that sent them in those air beautiful. That's adorable. That's a really well shot. Very simple space, you know, had a lot of really interesting cakes and different rooms and different lighting scenarios. That's gorgeous. You know, everything from a simple architectural shot to a simple ballroom shot. But then we had some issues, you know, compositionally. This is really tough. You know what's going on down in the bottom of the frame isn't in focus, so it's not helping with the overall picture, you know, standing up and shooting down on the table. I'm not really sure what the focus of the shot is, and some of these, like this and like this, and like this could have been vastly improved by changing your angle for example. You know, this has a lot of space on the right, but it cuts off the table on the left. This has a lot of space on the ground. This goes into the, you know, walls on the left. This has empty space on the left, but crops off the table on the right. This has empty space on the right and crops off the table on the left. This sort of crops off everything. You know, I'm not really sure what the focus of this photograph is supposed to be headspace, you know, this is outside and looking in, and it is an admirable effort, but I'm not seeing enough of the room for this to really tell me anything about what it's like. Inside, you know, is some people sending some shots in that we're trying to get reflections by looking outside through windows, and it just doesn't work. You know, just because you can see it doesn't mean it's a picture. There's too much going on. It's not entirely and focus. There's dappled light all over the place. The buildings kind of go through the cake. You know, it's the sort of thing that if I saw the reception. I'd be like, Oh, I want to get that and I'd get up and try and shoot it and be like, Ah, it doesn't really work the way that I wanted it to You know, too much headspace. The wide angle lens problem again sometimes starts to distort even things like tables. It's not just people you know. It's an awkward crop. You've got part of a table on the right part of a table on the left, pick one or pick the other. You know, either focus over to the rider. Focus over to the left. You've got to be careful when you're trying to shoot tables of people walking by in the background. Ah, lot of negative space on the right, but cropping off the table on the left. An overall shot, which is nice. But you've got a lot of extraneous stuff going on in the background. That's distracting. You know, you just got to be careful how you shoot these tables and how you compositionally crop the scene. It's tough. Sometimes it's a matter of getting down and shooting up. Sometimes it's a matter of getting up in shooting down, getting up and shooting down. You've still got a lot. You've got some chairs coming into the foreground in the bottom. If you just angled up a little bit more, you'd have lost that distraction. Same thing here. You know, you've got tables cut off. You've got a little bit of serving dish down in the bottom left. Just be mindful of the entire entire scene. Shift the scene over to the left. Zoom in a little bit closer. Shift the scene a little bit higher. Shift your view a little bit to the right, you know, and some you know, it's just 25 millimeters might not have been the lens choice for this one, because it's really hard to isolate this at a wide angle. A little bit too much ground space. You've got space on the right, but you crop the table on the left, really, really under exposed, and it's it's, you know, it's It's an odd composition you've got. You know, you've got mantelpiece coming in over here. You've got a table sort of jutting out that way. You got it's kind of crooked a little bit. Just be very mindful of how you're seeing the scene. You know a little bit too much carpet. And then if we're being utterly, utterly nit picky, you can see the columns coming up on either side. Focus on the inside of the columns and you'll lose that distraction on the edges. You know the tilt. There doesn't need to be a tilt here. Just a nice, beautiful, straightforward would have made it a little more impactful. It's hard to see the table tops when all you see is the chairs. You know, again, be mindful of everything. You see the stairs coming down. You see that sort of bannister coming in? You see the wall on the left, those air distracting elements. You know, the guys in the background Guys. Hey, do you mind stepping out for just a second so I can get a picture of the room you know, so much foreground and so much, so much of a low angle that you don't see anything else in the space or trying for an overhead shot that having distracting elements, cutting through too much space at the bottom. You know that that one napkin in the foreground, it's just little things, you know that not in the foreground is where my eye goes first, and it's hard to get around away from that. You know, the the railing going through it distracts me from the tables. It's the same thing again. You just need to get a little bit closer. And then we've got some Lynn selection issues. The super wide angle makes it look really unnatural. It makes it look sort of oddly fish. I worked and wide angle going vertical again. It will distort things, not even necessarily people. It will distort a scene as well. You know, this one right here? This is This is tough, right? Like you're shooting it at 1/60 of a second. The lens selection issue is Why are you shooting it? It f nine. It doesn't need to be a F nine. It could get to eight. It could be a 35 It could be at 14 You know, the F nine is not helping you get something in the background that needs to be in focus and focus because there's nothing back there. You know it's again at 54 millimeters. We're still getting a little distortion when you get up close and distortion vertical distortion you know, it's It's a little crooked and wonky vertical distortion even at 50 millimeters vertical distortion again and then light. I am guessing this is Philadelphia again, A little more light on the side. A little additional flash or a little additional video light would really help separate your cake from the background. You know, some of the images are just This is really under exposed. The light is way too strong. It is so strong on the shutter. Speed is is not really working because you have no ambient light going on. You know the light that's being thrown on. It is casting a shadow on the cake topper. So I would suggest bringing the light around a little bit more to the front. The light here is hitting the wall instead of the cake. You know, there isn't like here, and the background is fantastic, but illuminating a little bit more with whatever. If you're not using a light source because I can't see the exit data, I can't extrapolate what's going on. But a little more video light. A little more flash would really help you bring that subject more into focus. Same here. Same here just a little bit more directional light. However you go about getting there. Same here. Same here. Thes air. Perfectly lovely reception room images that could have been benefited by a little more flash, a little more video light or a combination of the two. And then there were some miscellaneous other issues. I had a few images that were sent in you. An image like this I'm not. They don't know what this is. I got kind of a drink, but I got kind of a fire. But the drink isn't in focus, but the fire sort of is, and I don't know what's going on. I can't read it and an image like this, which, you know, it's sort of an image of a room, but it's an image of people. But people aren't doing anything like it's not helping tell a story of what it was like to be there. So before we move on the cocktail hour, any questions about shooting the room, not about sharing the room. So we're good to move the cocktail hour. Wonderful job shooting the room if people throw it through in a little more video light and stop using wide angle verticals. Almost every single person would have just nailed it completely. Okay, cocktail hour. I mean, who likes cocktail Hour? I'm not a big fan. It's pictures that look like this right. And like this and like this and like this, it's documentary pictures that I wish I had shot. That is freaking excellent. Don't you dare ever enter that at WPP I because you'll be every image that I have this year because that's phenomenal. You know, really great moments of interaction and interaction, coupled with people who are doing a really great job with their flash making sure both of their subjects are in focus. You know, getting everybody in there, which isn't easy, showing the ambience of what it's like to be there. Catching photo journalistic moments. That's really well done. Working flash in tough situations. You know these spaces are not easy and caught tell our moves really, really fast. But most everybody moves during a really nice job, with their on and off camera flash making Goodland selection choices, catching cute moments, catching interactions, making really nice, it nicely exposed. Portrait's Hey, that's cute moments. God bless the table shots. That's gorgeous. That's a great shot. It's great. That's freaking fantastic. That's awesome, you know, really cute moments combined with well lit portrait so well done to all of you people who shot these things. It's an example of doing it right in a variety of different circumstances. That's precious. Great, that's awesome. And then let's talk about composition headroom. None of these should be surprising. You should hear me saying the same things over and over again. This is way too loose of a crop. There's too much going on on either side. There's way too much head room at the top. Tighten and tighten end. See the same ongoing themes Titan in Titan in You know, I'm not. I'm not entirely sure if this is a picture of the champagne glasses or if it's picture of the guy. But either way, there's too much sleeve of the waiter going on on that side head room. I'm not sure what the picture is. Is that the little girl or is it the woman? Because if it's the woman she's on and focus, and if it's the little girl, the composition is to lose head room. You know, I don't know what this is It's a woman holding a glass, but I've got a lot of dead space on the left, and I've got a lot of arm on the right crop in. So a lot of these compositional things could be helped by cropping in or stepping back. And then we've got faces, as I've talked about before, where if you have multiple people in a frame, they all have to be doing something constructive. You've got this great expression on the guy with the suspenders. You've got the great finger on the 11 on the left, and then the guy in the back has his eyes closed. One girl's looking at the camera when girls looking somewhere else, you know, some eyes were at the camera when I is off in the distance again, the sort of mush together silhouette thing. And then there were some focus issues. For example, who's this picture about? Is it about the gentleman, the background of the boot in your or is it about the women in the front? Because if it's about the man in the back, the women in the front and focused too much and if it's about the women in the front there. Not in focus at all. Do you know what I mean? Like if you're going to shoot something like this and the focus is gonna be on the guy. 1814 But Enough of the women are in focus that I start thinking that they're part of the scene, but they're not in focus enough to be really part of the scene. You know, some focus issues. We had a lot of pictures that were just straight up out of focus, out of focus, completely out of focus. Even at 71 it's still not in focus, you know, trying things like 1/40 of a second at F four at 113 millimeters. That's motion blur. The person in the back is in focus. The person. The front is out of focus. Nobody's in focus. You know, you have to be really careful with your focus because it contend to go really soft. Especially like if you focus and recompose at 18 it's really soft. And then we had some lighting issues over exposed by about three stops. You know, you can't shoot something like this without flash. First of all at 2.5. The woman, the white haired woman isn't focus, and the other woman is not. You have circles under the eyes. They're not evenly lit. Just a simple on camera flash would elevate this photograph tremendously. You need flash. You know, you've got some really interesting light coming in, but it's coming in from the side and nobody's face is lit. You need flash. You know, it says that there's flash, but it's still about two stops under, exposed to stops under, exposed to stops under, exposed. And then even in Khan, tell our you have to find moments. If you're going to shoot something like this, I can't see a single person, states. I don't know what's happening, You know, I've got a couple of cute faces and then one woman who's gonna hate that picture of herself because she's looking off to the side and looking awkward, right, like everyone has to be contributing to the frame. You know, I've got these two waiters or these guys in tuck scissor whoever in the front, but I can't see their faces. One woman has acute facial expression. The other woman is just kind of standing there, right? Like both people need to give me something. Then you have images like this and like this, like these two right here where you can see faces. But nothing's happening there, just standing there. And I don't get any sense of why they're there or what they're doing there or how they're interacting with each other. They're just people standing there, and I'm not, You know, I'm not sure what this is. Their kind of there's kind of a guy in the front, but you can't see him because he's kind of out of focus and they're just standing there. And I'm not saying this to be harsh, but, you know, if you're going to do documentary work of people interacting at a cocktail hour, they need to be interacting When I see something like this, I see this great laugh on this. You know, gentlemen, sitting down at the table. But then I see a bunch of out of focus people on a bunch of other people that are not contributing to the scene. So a tighter cropper, a closer resume on that really great facial expression on that gentleman would have really helped elevate the photograph you know, the little girl in the background might be the focus of it, but the kid in the foreground is completely out of focus, so I'm not sure what the story that they're trying to tell is. I mean, it's It's just not flattering, right? Like, and I'm always trying really hard to flatter my subjects no matter what. And I don't necessarily know that a picture of someone shoveling a cake in somebody else's face when one eyes closed on one eye open is something that my clients are going toe like Right. And then you have images like this and like this, and like this, things were There are a lot of people in the scene, but I can't tell what the focus of the scene is. And I'm not getting a read on what the interaction is for. You've got a girl with a really cute striped dress on looking adorable, but the bride's looking at her phone, and then the woman in the background is looking her lips right like it's just This isn't it's not a story, and this is a really clever composition, but the bride has your eyes half closed, and I can't see their faces. I can't see anybody at all. And I see what's potentially a really cute moment between the bride and groom, but I have to find them right.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Mentorship Launch and Social Media Keynote.pdf
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets for Numbers.zip
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets for Excel.zip
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 1 - 7.pdf
Susan Stripling - Business and Marketing Workbook.pdf
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets - PDF.zip
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 8 - 14.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 15 - 21.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 22 - 28.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 2 Homework.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month Two Introduction Keynote.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month Three Assignments.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

A couple years ago I attended WPPI and sat in on Susan's class. Out of all the classes I sat in on that year her's was in the top 2 for actual information and not just fluffy feel good hype. So I figured her Group Mentorship course would be a good one and it definitely has! A bit of background on me, I've been running my own wedding photography business for the last 6 years, 5 of those full time. I've taken tons of business courses and have circled back around to taking more classes to improve my craft. Susan's class focuses on both business and improving your craft. The big warning I have for this class is that there is a lot of homework, A LOT!!! But that is not a bad thing at all. I was swamped with weddings as the class started and was late to get to my homework but I'm so glad I didn't skip it because there was a lot of things I learned about my business just in answering her questions. I believe there were homework assignments every single day and while some are quick others will take awhile. So my recommendation is to take this course in your off season and use that down time to really concentrate on doing the homework and putting together questions to ask during the weekly chats. I was not able to do that as much as I wanted because of my schedule and I feel I did myself a disservice by not taking full advantage of what was offered. As another reviewer stated there were a lot of basic questions that were asked like how to get proper exposure in an image, etc. If you aren't sure how to do that then this class is not for you. I believe this class is geared towards those who are past the portfolio building stage and are looking to set their business up for success on the back end while improving their craft. Remember to ask questions, keep a notebook and write them down while doing your homework. Don't focus so much on what she uses for everything but why she uses it, if you understand the why you can apply that better to your business vs just the what. Again I would say to properly allocate time to take this class, treat it like a college class with weekly homework and study required. Don't buy it to watch later as you will lose out on most of what this class is about which is access to Susan for questions and feedback. Do the homework, I found the questions she asked us to answer led to a lot of revelations for myself in my business. Her questions led me to ask my own questions and review a lot of historical data for my business to get a better grasp on where I am. Luckily for me I'm doing way better then I thought ;)! Also I recommend for image critique to not just submit your best images, while we all like a pat on the back that won't make you better. She requested a mix of your best and areas of struggle. The images I submitted that I was struggling with are the ones where her advice will improve my craft.

Carissa
 

Susan, simply amazing photographer, amazing woman, amazing business woman! If you want your but kicked then this the course for you! A kick start for your 'business', awesome .. honest .... brutal.... critique.... don't take it personally.This is a course for beginners and for those been in business for 4 + years. I have been in business for 4 years and this helped me seriously start from the beginning again on the business side of things and fine tune my processes. I learnt so much.... but was also great to know I was on the right track. For those beginning - oh I wish I had this as a guide 4 years ago!!! Enjoy! worth every penny! cheers Carissa www.capture-t-moment.com

a Creativelive Student
 

I found this course helpful - but I also did all (well most) of the homework and I think to get the most out of this class you really need to be prepared to do the homework - which does require a reasonable time commitment. I found the business information (month 1) invaluable, and Susan was very, very active in the Facebook group, constantly answering our questions, which was great. Month 2 was a big image critique and I also found this very helpful. Month 3 was about editing and it was also a critique, which was helpful as well. Susan, Sandra (her assistant), Jen (her post production person) and CL worked very hard for us so we could get the best out of this course and I really feel I did get the most out of it that I could have gotten out of it. It is definitely worth it if you are willing to do the work. All of my questions were answered and I feel like my work is going to improve for the better now. If CL run any more mentorships such as this one, I would highly recommend them as I found I learned a lot more than in a regular class - because of the homework and the feedback (direct from Susan) on the homework. I am so glad that she was honest about my images because now I am seeing them in a new light (no pun intended).

Student Work

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