Critique of wedding photography
For my slideshow I did was Theatrical Wedding.
I think the shot of the videos was superfluous because it really didn’t have anything to do with the wedding. That shot sort of threw me off; especially since at that point I wasn’t sure where the couple was getting married. It didn’t make sense to me.
In general, the photography itself is so-so. There are nice pictures of the bride and groom and the wedding party, emphasis on the word “nice”. Not outstanding, not horrid, just nice. However, through the sound and the pictures I get the feeling that the couple wasn’t too uptight about the ceremony, so perhaps the “nice” quality of the pictures fit them perfectly.
The part where they exchange their vows really works for me because we see pictures of the people and the couple as they’re getting married, much like a person would look at the people around them and at the couple.
What really saved these pictures from being lackluster was the sound. I love that we can hear background noise over everything-cars, music playing in the background. It brought the pictures back down to earth, it gave them context, instead of them just being cold pictures of a wedding of a couple we don’t know. The sounds gave the pictures character.
I agree with your opinion of the pictures. I felt like I was looking at a couple’s wedding album more than anything. They were nice pictures, but I felt that they did little for the audio slideshow.
I would have like to see more of the thought process behind how they came up with the idea to get married in a theatre. The slideshow seemed to be more of a recap of what happened at the wedding.
I completely agree that the one thing that saved the slideshow was the background noise. I like that the viewer can hear what those in attendance were hearing that day. It brought the pictures to life, and I appreciate that they weren’t set to cheesy music.
However, some of the transitions of interviews to background noise were a bit rough. They seemed to go from loud to soft and back again without any time to brace for it.
Great critique!
mcenters
2 Nov 08 at 4:43 pm
I’m going to focus more on the audio than the photos.
I think that this could’ve been improved maybe by getting audio from a night at the theater when it was pack with people and contrasted with it with the wedding.
The natural sound from the wedding wasn’t very interesting. I would’ve liked to hear more of the ceremony, vows and such.
mslusark
2 Nov 08 at 8:02 pm
Well, since the last comment focused on the audio I’ll focus mine on the pictures.
Overall the only picture that really stood out to me was at the very end when the crowd was throwing popcorn at the newlyweds. The lighting seemed too harsh in the lobby with the sun beating in and it was obviously too dark in the theatre for the photographer to get a good shot without picking up motion blur.
I would think that if you were going to do a published piece on this wedding you would want to get permission to use a flash during the ceremony to get the best possible shots.
I agree with you that the sound did help give these pictures more context than they would have had as a visual slideshow.
Kyle_Phillips
3 Nov 08 at 12:31 am
I get what you’re saying about the pictures, but I feel like that gave them a little bit of charm.
However, I did feel like the video started abruptly. I would not have picked the woman’s quote to start the audio portion.
The fade-out transitions between pictures works well. Another success, as others mentioned, is the use of natural sound. I also like that the story is told chronologically through the picture order.
Someone mentioned comparing this night to a normal night at the theater. I felt like the slideshow was not long enough, and this could have been a possible interesting resolution.
kmcdonnell
3 Nov 08 at 1:17 am