Friend's Wedding Kiss

[Weecher]

This is my first post of the forums so I though I'd start by saying hello. Photography has been a hobby of mine for a little over 5 years now and I finally got the opportunity to shoot my first wedding. My friends originally didn't have a photographer and their budget was too low to get one. So I volunteered to take their family portraits and later decided to do the whole thing as an experience. Their standards aren't high but I still want to do a good job and impress them. I rented two lens, a body, and a speedlite to shoot the wedding. I did my research and what people were saying was true, churches have some of the worse lighting. Anyways the photo below is the only kiss shot that I got of them since they decided not to hold the pose

It was shot at 1600 ISO since it was so dark inside, I used lightroom to touch it up and am wondering if this is a good shot/crop. I can upload the original if people want.


Cropped and processed photo. (RAW)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9032310...in/photostream

[Andrew76]

Hi there 'Weecher', welcome to the forums!

That's a pretty big task you took upon for yourself. I hope they were appreciative, weddings are stressful to shoot, even if the expectations are low, and with rented equipment none the less.

As for the photo, the main thing is if the bride, and groom like it and are happy with your results. Personally, I don't think it's an overly flattering photo of either of them, and the shadow from the groom is covering most of the bride's face, but at the end of the day, it is a 'cute' photo of them, and they'll have something to remember their special day, 20 years from now when they look back. Which is more than they would have had if it weren't for you.

Good for you for helping them out!

[Weecher]

Hey thanks for the quick response.Pretty much what you said was my same self response. I'm just not very happy that I was having to shoot with the ISO so high, definitely is making it difficult to get clean non-noisy images. I still have to use it since it is the one and only shot of them kissing.
The original picture has the whole shot from the waist up. Do you think it would be better to crop outward including the upper half the body? Might look a little better?

I'll go mess with it, might see if I can lighten up the shadow to look less shadowy on her face.

[dan marchant]

I like the current crop but would certainly recommend trying to lighten up the shadow across her face.