Critical opinions sought

[Itsallicanafford]

Good afternoon, critical opinions sought so I thought PH would be the best place!
A little back story, my long term plan is to transition from my current non-photography related career into Wedding photography. I have set a 5 year time frame on this. The current point I am at is that I am enrolled in a business development course with an accomplished professional. This gives me great access to the business side of things as well as opportunities to attend weddings, 2nd shoot etc.
What I would really appreciate is some no holds barred criticism of my images with the mind set that I don’t want to just meet the expectations of my potential couples, I want to achieve a level which is multiple times higher than expected. At present, I am miles off the level I wish to get to.

My current plan for this year is to complete a couples shoot around once a month with willing friends. These shoots will be 1-2 hrs in length and I would like to improve with every session and I would greatly value all opinions and criticism. Please be as detailed as you can with your response and as this post is quite image heavy, maybe refer to the images by number rather than doing a reply to all of the post.
So, if you can spare the time, here is session 1, I will limit it to around 10 images from the session.
image 1

image 2

image 3

image 4

image 5

[Itsallicanafford]

Image 6

Image 7

image 8

image 9

image 10

[Itsallicanafford]

thanks Chaps for the initial responses, I knew I could rely on you

Please rest assured I am reading each and every comment and thinking of potential solutions.

Edited by Itsallicanafford on Saturday 23 March 16:41

[Itsallicanafford]

Good evening to you all. Thank you all for the continuing comments and links, they are very much appreciated.

Just to pick up the point of fill in flash. This is a good idea, I used to use it quite a bit when using DSLR's, since moving to mirrorless I have sort of neglected it. Will pick this up for the next session. I will re-edit a few of the above shots looking at cleaning up some of the compositions, especially centring image 4 and maybe using a different shot with more of the chapel. Also will look at light levels, might dig a little further into the raw files to look at brightening a few of the images. My next couples session is booked towards the end of April so will have session 2 posted up towards the end of April so hopefully looking forward to more critique.

[Itsallicanafford]

Thanks Simon for the comments, much appreciated.

I like the idea of double processing the raw files. I have used that technique to blend two images which were exposed differently in camera through auto bracketing but with the dynamic range of modern cameras, there is no reason why you can just work with a single raw file as you suggested.

In regards to white balance, I’m shooting fully manual for everything apart from this, which is set to auto. Will research this in more detail.
You can set up histogram to show in the EVF, again a bit more research on this would help from my end. My current set up for the EVF is that it shows a 2 second preview of the image with highlights blinks. A quick tap on the shutter clears this. I use the canon R system, it tends to under expose slightly when compared with the EVF read out so I’m mindful of this when choosing the exposure.

[Itsallicanafford]

Thanks for the responses, great points raised. I just clicked that we have discussions going across 2 threads! Yes, wedding photography and then lazy days editing while afloat, what could be better? Someway to go to achieve these aims but I am going to work hard to achieve both. Thanks again for the responses.

[Itsallicanafford]

^^ Havoc, thanks for the detailed analysis, I really do appreciate it, should have replied earlier, hectic bh weekend.

Some great points raised here, It feels like a re-edit is required as I have quite a few variations on each shot so can scan through them and make adjustments. Next session is booked late April so will invest a bit more time in these images before I have new images.

Many thanks again

[Itsallicanafford]

Hammersia said:

Was this in St Albans?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it’s St Albans, around the abbey and the old flint Arch by the boys school and then into the park, cheers

[Itsallicanafford]

Chaps, please keep things respectful, these are friends posing for these images and doing me a huge favour, thanks in advance

Edited by Itsallicanafford on Sunday 7th April 16:41

[Itsallicanafford]

Chasing Potatoes said:

It’s much more than 5% ability. Much more. It’s a well-worn trope but it’s not true. You’re dealing with so many variables, most of which are outside your control and many of which require instant decisions around light, composition, position, timing and so on. Then throw in 100 or so other variables (guests) and weather and you’ll soon find out how much you need to manage and work with.

For the OP there’s a lack of punch to the images and some of that is down to the time of day I suspect. I’d also try to look for more separation between subject and background to avoid the one-dimensional look you’re seeing here. The composition isn’t that interesting either. Look for some lead lines, use the backgrounds more sympathetically and I’d want more interaction between the subjects.

Pro wedding photographer for 17 years and now approaching my 700th wedding.

Many thanks for these comments, much appreciated. I am actively scouting out new locations for my next shoot with friends later this month, will look for more depth in the compositions, hoping to keep improving with each session, lots to learn. Thanks again for the response

[Itsallicanafford]

lord trumpton said:

Itsallicanafford said:

Chaps, please keep things respectful, these are friends posing for these images and doing me a huge favour, thanks in advance

Edited by Itsallicanafford on Sunday 7th April 16:41

I overstepped the mark with (what I thought at the time) a funny quip.

I'm out of order and a bellend. Apologies

Edited by lord trumpton on Sunday 7th April 18:21