[allymac123]

My G/F is writing an article on cheap "credit crunch beating" weddings as part of her uni work. They bought this dress new off ebay for £30 and wanted some photographs of it for their piece. As I'm on student gems which is a good place for finding photographers that need some realworld experience and and so charge less but offer no guarantee's to those who can't afford an established photographer I offered to do it for her.

I'd be interested to know what you guys thought as obviously this is a bit outside my comfort zone...

#1
[imglink]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3251/3042705441_b8a5814eba_o.jpg[/imglink]

#2
[imglink]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3072/3043544754_38c97a7a91_o.jpg[/imglink]

#3
[imglink]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/3042705725_d8a0bb3972_o.jpg[/imglink]

#4
[imglink]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/3042705879_e2cca3ca66_o.jpg[/imglink]

#5
[imglink]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/3043545198_dee7c2ec61_o.jpg[/imglink]

#6
[imglink]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3211/3042706211_53e75e73d5_o.jpg[/imglink]


As it was absolutely freezing (even for me in my thick coat and scarf) I tried to be as quick as possible and took all the photo's in less than 30mins using just available light.

C&C would be very welcome.

[electrolyte]

I trhink they are great Ally. They do say wedding dress but I think she needed to be holding a bouquet to complete the picture. But compositionally and exposure wise they are spot on.

[ksten]

In the main I like these Ally. Given the conditions and time taken for the shoot, I think you've done really well. I do have a few thoughts though, in no particular order:

- I'm assuming that the subject wasn't a professional model and she was freezing cold too, but I think that some of the poses come across as slightly awkard - as if she's not sure what to do with her arms and hands. I think #3 looks the most natural to my eye.

- I think the fact that she is wearing glasses detracts from the final result. She may not wear contacts and may have very poor eyesight without the glasses but it is just something that struck me straight away. In #3 in particualr, I don't like frame cutting through her left eye.

- I much prefer the colour photographs to the black and white ones. To me, they appear a little flat with the colour removed. I'd be tempted to work on them a little more in post.

- I don't know if you could have taken an assistant along to hand hold a flash (preferably with an umbrella), but I do think that adding light to the shoot would have paid dividends. Soft directional light on the subject while dropping the ambient slightly would have focussed the viewers attention even more.

- Following on from the previous point, focussing the attention on the model / dress could be improved with selective adjustments to drop the background and lift the subject (Or even just an increased vignette).

- I like the background framing in #3, #4 and #5. In #1 it's a pity about the branches / leaves hanging down directly above her head (Not a lot you could have done in that location without taking a hedge trimmer). Also in #1, I don't know if the aim was to show the quality of the dress based on the price but the majority of it is hidden by the fence. In #2 the pole is directly behind her - I would have been tempted to move her to camera right slighty and move the camera left slightly to position her between the vertical poles in the free space behind. I think #3 is cracking, partly due to the pose but also due to the framing - it's just the glasses that slightly detract for me. In #6 I'm not keen on the top step cutting through her shoulders.

- In #5, have you done some blurring on the left hand side of the steps? The OOF areas look a little weird to me so I don't know if you've tried to remove the attention from the steps and onto the model. If so i would have been inclined to achieve this with addition of light / selective curves or a vignette as i said above.

- #6 looks a little soft to me.

Cheers.

[Mike.P®]

I like them but if the idea is to show off the wedding dress itself (as more of an article than an actual wedding) then the first 3 really do not belong in the set due to the fact you can only see the top half (I'm presuming you will only have space for a cerain number of shots)?.
Also any prospective reader (bride) would want to see the back of the dress.

Just my opinion and may be totally wrong