# Bridals at Riter Mansion



## twocolor (Jun 27, 2011)

1. Flickr gave this an odd color cast that isn't in the my final image . . .






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## Bitter Jeweler (Jun 27, 2011)

Straighten up *ALL* your verticals! (Please)


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## twocolor (Jun 27, 2011)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> Straighten up *ALL* your verticals!



k, notice on #1 the left side of the bridge is straight and the right side isn't; #4 the brick wall vertical is straight but the pillar in the far background isn't; #5 right side is, left side isn't; #10 left side is, right side isn't.  I think that from your replies to my posts you must think I am a novice amatuer that has no idea what I'm doing.  In these images, I chose to straighten the parts of the image that appeared more dominant to my eye.  Maybe I should go back through and do some additional editing.  Maybe use skew or transform to straighten the other lines in these.


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## Bitter Jeweler (Jun 27, 2011)

They all seem tilted to the right, clockwise, to me. I use lens distortion correction, rotate, and perspective cropping to fix things like that.Formal shots like the windows (5,8) should be dead on perfect. But that's me and my attention to detail. I like my geometry squared up unless it aids in story telling.Sorry if I have offended you.


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## Bitter Jeweler (Jun 27, 2011)

On number one, I can line up the left side of the bridge on the edge of my screen and it is not plumb. The horizontal of the bridge if off in the same way.


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## joealcantar (Jun 27, 2011)

Where are her flowers?
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Feel like something is missing, shoot well, Joe


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## Trever1t (Jun 27, 2011)

#2 Wins my vote for best of the bunch, she is glowing and her eyes are baaa-right!!!!


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## Bitter Jeweler (Jun 27, 2011)

#4 suffers from barrel distortion, the brick wall looks curved. The pillars are tilted, the lamps are tilted, the horizontal of the brick sidewalk is tilted, the car is tilted.  

#5 shows possible, slight barrel distortion. If we split actual hairs, the right side is off by a hair. Negligible. However, the left is noticeably off, and the floor molding and all the horizontals of the window panes are off. I think it really hurts a spectacular image.

#8 your horizontals are dead on, but it is showing convergence of the verticals. A quick perpective crop would fix it right up.  


#10, I think could do without the framing of the doorway. It doesn't add much to the story other than you were in another room.

Your images are fantastic. I can't argue against that. I am detail oriented. It's how/what I see. It comes from my work.


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## MohaimenK (Jun 28, 2011)

Sorry I would have never thought this was in a mansion if you haven't mentioned it. You should have taken pictures outdoor with the entire mansion in the background to show where you took the image. I am sure there are lots of nice rooms in there with 4 post beds and such, if so you should have taken pictures there also. Tight crop doesn't work always IMO. #7 is just a NO.

Sorry for being harsh and a dick but that's the way I learned to be better, by letting others tell me what I did wrong. I realized, practiced, learned. I hope you don't take it offensively.


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## Robin Usagani (Jun 28, 2011)

#5 & 8 are screaming for black and white.  Sometimes the blown out sky behind the trees still work on color photo, but these 2 I think need to be black and white.  I also wish the bride have different expression everytime she smiles.  She looks the same on all of them.  I wish she closed her lips once in a while too and just smile a bit.  I think you did pretty good.


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## twocolor (Jun 28, 2011)

MohaimenK said:


> Sorry I would have never thought this was in a mansion if you haven't mentioned it. You should have taken pictures outdoor with the entire mansion in the background to show where you took the image. I am sure there are lots of nice rooms in there with 4 post beds and such, if so you should have taken pictures there also. Tight crop doesn't work always IMO. #7 is just a NO.
> 
> Sorry for being harsh and a dick but that's the way I learned to be better, by letting others tell me what I did wrong. I realized, practiced, learned. I hope you don't take it offensively.



The mansion had no emotional attachment for the bride . . . it also happens to be a bed and breakfast where guests stay in the rooms with the 4 post beds.  I'm not allowed inside the bedrooms.  I go there because of the gardens and huge windows for some nice natural lighting shots.  So maybe I shouldn't have put "mansion" in the title.  

I did #7 because of some "advice" I've gotten here on this forum to try and make my portraits less "static".  I have plenty of images without a tight crop, but have chosen these as my favorite to post.

I appreciate your comments, and agree that critique is what helps us improve . . . I think we could all be a little more tactful in our critique sometimes!


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## twocolor (Jun 28, 2011)

Schwettylens said:


> #5 & 8 are screaming for black and white. Sometimes the blown out sky behind the trees still work on color photo, but these 2 I think need to be black and white. I also wish the bride have different expression everytime she smiles. She looks the same on all of them. I wish she closed her lips once in a while too and just smile a bit. I think you did pretty good.



I'll go play with those two.  I've found that the green trees keep pulling my eyes away from the bride.  I'll post some of her straight faced ones, and I think you'll see why I chose the ones I did!  With her mouth closed, her teeth made her lips protrude a little bit!  She hated it!


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## Robin Usagani (Jun 28, 2011)

I actually like the last pic you posted if you had more room to the left (i like giving more room to the left than right because she is looking to the left). I think she looks fine.  She may need to smile just a tad.  My preference is, if you want to blow the back ground either dont do it and use flash, or just make it completely blown. Nothing in the middle. For example I like #6 because it is completely blown. It is an awesome shot I think (kinda dig the texturing too). #5 and 8 I feel that you should have blown the background even more until it is completely white, or you should have exposed it down more and use off camera flash. Does that make sense? Thats why I think they look better in black and white.


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## tirediron (Jun 28, 2011)

This doesn't seem quite your usual standard TC; a nice-enough set, but doesn't quite have the 'zip' I expect from your work.  A couple of thoughts:  Your "verticals" issue is not so much caused by have the camera out of level in the horizontal/vertical axis, but rather because it's not square to the background.  In #s 4, 5 and 8 if you'd positioned yourself with the lens axis at 90 to the background elements, than things would look fine.  In cases like this, I find it's best to straighten/level by eye rather than using a tool.  Rotate the image by small increments until you basically middle the difference between the obvious vertical elements and the subject.  Additionally, I think this is a girl who really should be encourage to use a smaller smile.


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## twocolor (Jun 28, 2011)

Schwettylens said:


> I actually like the last pic you posted if you had more room to the left (i like giving more room to the left than right because she is looking to the left). I think she looks fine. She may need to smile just a tad. My preference is, if you want to blow the back ground either dont do it and use flash, or just make it completely blown. Nothing in the middle. For example I like #6 because it is completely blown. It is an awesome shot I think (kinda dig the texturing too). #5 and 8 I feel that you should have blown the background even more until it is completely white, or you should have exposed it down more and use off camera flash. Does that make sense? Thats why I think they look better in black and white.



Yeah, that makes sense.  I edited her favorite 30 on a rush because her dress was delayed and her wedding is in a week.  I'll go through and see what I can find of her NOT smiling and edit a few.  I usually have my clients do a bunch of both, but she was so self-conscious about it.

Here's her favorite shot . . . one of the window ones, and I played with it in bw.  I bumped up my exposure in post as well . . . maybe needs a little more to lose the leaves behind her???


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## twocolor (Jun 28, 2011)

Here's a quick edit of a non smile.  I must admit that I like it better than the same pose of her smiling!


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## twocolor (Jun 28, 2011)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> #4 suffers from barrel distortion, the brick wall looks curved. The pillars are tilted, the lamps are tilted, the horizontal of the brick sidewalk is tilted, the car is tilted.
> 
> #5 shows possible, slight barrel distortion. If we split actual hairs, the right side is off by a hair. Negligible. However, the left is noticeably off, and the floor molding and all the horizontals of the window panes are off. I think it really hurts a spectacular image.
> 
> ...



Back to the drawing board on some of these lines. Thank you! #10 I wanted to get a feeling that I'd come upon a scene and photographed it. Kindof a stolen moment. Maybe her looking at the camera ruined that feel, I glanced back through my unedited images to see if I've got more of a candid of this one and I dont. She's looking at me in everyone.

Now I'm noticing on the one I just posted . . . so many dang lines to keep an eye on.  I'll go back and fix those up as well.


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## twocolor (Jun 28, 2011)

tirediron said:


> This doesn't seem quite your usual standard TC; a nice-enough set, but doesn't quite have the 'zip' I expect from your work. A couple of thoughts: Your "verticals" issue is not so much caused by have the camera out of level in the horizontal/vertical axis, but rather because it's not square to the background. In #s 4, 5 and 8 if you'd positioned yourself with the lens axis at 90 to the background elements, than things would look fine. In cases like this, I find it's best to straighten/level by eye rather than using a tool. Rotate the image by small increments until you basically middle the difference between the obvious vertical elements and the subject. Additionally, I think this is a girl who really should be encourage to use a smaller smile.



Yes, I don't usually stand a a 90 degree angle to my subject . . . I feel it makes for a less powerful feel.  BUT I can see how it hurt me in these . . . especially the window images where the lines are so dominant.

I do appreciate your opinion.  I am booked EVERY night through July, and have been that way since the begininng of May.  I am exhausted!!!  I think it's starting to take it's toll on me creatively.  August is full of vacations and family reunions.  Maybe I'll get some mojo back!


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## Robin Usagani (Jun 28, 2011)

booked every night?  Wow..  busy.


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## twocolor (Jun 28, 2011)

Schwettylens said:


> booked every night? Wow.. busy.



well, I dont shoot Sundays, but I usually do 2 on Saturday.  So 7 a week.


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## Bitter Jeweler (Jun 28, 2011)

twocolor said:


> Back to the drawing board on some of these lines. Thank you! *#10 I wanted to get a feeling that I'd come upon a scene and photographed it. Kindof a stolen moment.* Maybe her looking at the camera ruined that feel, I glanced back through my unedited images to see if I've got more of a candid of this one and I dont. She's looking at me in everyone.
> 
> Now I'm noticing on the one I just posted . . . so many dang lines to keep an eye on. I'll go back and fix those up as well.




(bolded part) I kinda gathered that was the goal. But to my sensibility, I think you would need to show much more of the foreground room/ top of the door frame to really convey that story.
It falls into one of my mantras..."*DO* it, or don't"... meaning either make the statement, or don't. Like Schwetty said about blowing out the windows.


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## thierry (Jun 29, 2011)

bitter is on it... like always


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## 12sndsgood (Jun 29, 2011)

my completly amatuer remarks here. but i like the smile versus the non smile you posted. to me she almost looks sad when she doesnt smile.

i like i think it was #7 the non static shot but her expression for me is what kills the photo. she almost looks as if she is worried shes doing it wrong. just not a great facial expression.

and for a shot like #10 something like that i think bitter said it as well but pull further back, id problaby try and make the door frame almost like the frame of the picture.

i really like them though. much better then i could do.


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## Derrel (Jun 29, 2011)

You blame Flickr for causing a weird color cast to the images; did you assign an sRGB profile to the images, so that the images would display properly on the widest number of different web browser applications? I see some odd greenish tinges, and some yellowish tinges, on some of these shots. As far as the tilts and canted camera issues, which I am normally very un-fond of...on these images, there really was not a lot of issue for me on any of the photos...cants and tilts did not jump out at me. But the color cast issues were quite noticeable.


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## Aerr (Aug 18, 2011)

Wow, these photos are gorgeous. I like #5 a lot, though it does seem tilted clockwise.


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## bennielou (Aug 19, 2011)

Hi TC, I just saw these.  My faves are the ones by the window.  They are just beautiful.  I also really like the one below, but the column was really bugging me.  My eye just kept going to the crooked gap to the left of it.  Your profile states that the photos are ok to edit, so I hope you don't mind:

Original as posted:





A little shim with the prospective edit, a slightly tighter crop, and I removed the rail from behind her:





I also love the one where she is dancing outdoors.  So cute!


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