Ruined photo, or rescue opportunity?

[marekjoz]

It's definitely doable although unproper enhancing this picture may create problems with shadows in places, where they were not so present, so there is definitely some careful work to be done

[kennephoto]

Ok here is the unedited raw file, hopefully the file host isnt a problem I did this very quick. Just finished a brake job on my girlfriends car. what a day!

Wedding.CR2

[dirtcastle]

Here's a quick pass in Lightroom.

I didn't do much to the face shadows. But if you use Lightroom, I think a combination of the brush tool with exposure, shadow, noise, highlight, contrast, saturation, and noise adjustments should be able to recover quite a bit from the face shadows.

My personal opinion is that the overall is more important than a few mistakes. You've got 23 people in the shot and most look good. But it is true that some client's might be unhappy with this.

[studio1972]

I had a quick go at it with aperture. Needed straightening BTW.

[Marsu42]

Post the full-size, original file. That will give people a chance to post high quality edits.

I just had a look in LR, too. The data in the face in the back is there, but with extremely low resolution and some noise. Btw that's exactly the reason why I'm always complaining about my aps-c and Canon sensors vs. Nikon, when raising shadows you'll run into exactly this problem.

Imho you cannot completely recover this shot, the best that'll be possible is some plastic look like K-Amps' version or you can moderately raise it to lessen the contrast - but it'll be still clear that the face was occluded when the flash fired, sorry. Or maybe you can really copy/paste the face from another good shot.

But that surely will remind you to check for the flashes firing next time  - or switch to radio triggers :-o - why did the flash fail to fire anyway? Wasn't the optical link working?

[35mm Film]

I’ll have a look for you too but I don’t think I can do much more then what’s already been done. I feel for you but I feel for the couple more. I don't know your background but it might help if you follow a wedding photographer for a couple of weddings and even do some study or just stick to your day job. Did you charge the couple for this and do they know you are amateur photographer?  I know some people say the best way to learn is to shoot lots, but you run the risk of running you name into the ground if you keep up with pictures like this. It’s not just the shadows that’s bad there are people’s heads that you can’t even see. I encourage people around me normally and I hate to be a stick in the mud.

[kennephoto]

I’ll have a look for you too but I don’t think I can do much more then what’s already been done. I feel for you but I feel for the couple more. I don't know your background but it might help if you follow a wedding photographer for a couple of weddings and even do some study or just stick to your day job. Did you charge the couple for this and do they know you are amateur photographer?  I know some people say the best way to learn is to shoot lots, but you run the risk of running you name into the ground if you keep up with pictures like this. It’s not just the shadows that’s bad there are people’s heads that you can’t even see. I encourage people around me normally and I hate to be a stick in the mud.

Ha ouch! Good thing I have a day job, eh? My background is I've been in the automotive industry for 9 years and playing around with photography for about that long. I am no professional, and this was my second wedding. My first was for a friend who wasn't even going to have a photographer because of money issues, I never asked to be paid since I've never done anything like that. This wedding again everyone knew I'm no professional and as far as I understood they didn't want to pay premium for professional either and they said they enjoyed my photos and style from the previous wedding I did. I didnt ask to be paid for this either because I wasn't sure if should charge anything. i suppose its a good thing I didnt cash the check they gave me. Everything was running behind and it was a out 15-20 minutes prior to the ceremony when the group photos began. Yea I screwed up in the hustle, I guess I could stick to my day job but seriously car business isn't as fun or rewarding as you might think, so I will learn and do better next time. Thanks to everyone taking a look at the photo and giving me advice how to fix it. I greatly appreciate the members on this forum.

[kennephoto]

Oh and I would love to follow a photographer around and learn, so any help there I would appreciate. How do I find one to mentor me, I know I started a thread on here about it and I found one that took me to a bike race which was fun! But I'd love to learn even more so any advice how how to find someone that would let me follow them would be great.

[dirtcastle]

It's a good idea to check your big group shots while you're shooting, to look for problems like this. Of course, equipment failure has only one solution: backup equipment.

[K-amps]

I’ll have a look for you too but I don’t think I can do much more then what’s already been done. I feel for you but I feel for the couple more. I don't know your background but it might help if you follow a wedding photographer for a couple of weddings and even do some study or just stick to your day job. Did you charge the couple for this and do they know you are amateur photographer?  I know some people say the best way to learn is to shoot lots, but you run the risk of running you name into the ground if you keep up with pictures like this. It’s not just the shadows that’s bad there are people’s heads that you can’t even see. I encourage people around me normally and I hate to be a stick in the mud.

Ha ouch! Good thing I have a day job, eh? My background is I've been in the automotive industry for 9 years and playing around with photography for about that long. I am no professional, and this was my second wedding. My first was for a friend who wasn't even going to have a photographer because of money issues, I never asked to be paid since I've never done anything like that. This wedding again everyone knew I'm no professional and as far as I understood they didn't want to pay premium for professional either and they said they enjoyed my photos and style from the previous wedding I did. I didnt ask to be paid for this either because I wasn't sure if should charge anything. i suppose its a good thing I didnt cash the check they gave me. Everything was running behind and it was a out 15-20 minutes prior to the ceremony when the group photos began. Yea I screwed up in the hustle, I guess I could stick to my day job but seriously car business isn't as fun or rewarding as you might think, so I will learn and do better next time. Thanks to everyone taking a look at the photo and giving me advice how to fix it. I greatly appreciate the members on this forum.

Hi Kennephoto:

Don't feel so bad. You came here to ask for help and thats what we should do. No one should judge you or tell you that you did somthing horrible. We all make mistakes, we learn from it and we move on. For a seasoned pro, that pic would not be a success... no 2 ways about it, however.... People either get paid based on a product they provide (deliverable) or time and expense. Time and exp is cheaper for the customer but there are few guarantees of a proper deliverable, though with Good faith, it is implied.

I think you should cash the check since you did make an effort... especially if the check was less than what a pro would have charged them. They got what they paid for. I too feel a bit bad for them, but I also feel that you spent time/effort and probably gave them several memories to Cherish...

Learn from this, take good advice from this group of nice helpers and don't feel bad. 

[Marsu42]

It's a good idea to check your big group shots while you're shooting, to look for problems like this. Of course, equipment failure has only one solution: backup equipment.

To be fair, it really hit him where he didn't see it coming because he was probably looking through the vf when the flashes fired - or failed to do so. But good to learn from this myself and watch out for this possibility.

Concerning the occluded faces: I recently saw a pro shoot a wedding, and he also just took a couple of shots of a (admittedly much larger) group, some faces are bound to be not visible if there's no assistant around to watch out for this or if the group is in a hurry (buffet's ready!). It really depends on the $$$ paid what to expect and what is just "nice, but optional".

[dadohead]

This is where a mastery of Photoshop comes into play. You can only do this kind of retouching with layers in PS. You then create layers and adjust them to whatever level of realism looks best to you. Each layer attacks some part of the problem. Some small amount of retouching in the darker areas around the right eye to create a new eyelid and roll off some of the shadow above the right brow. Total time in PS: less than 5 minutes. More time, more layers, better job. Good luck

[Canihaspicture]

Not the greatest... I'm assuming the flash that forgot to fire was above your head in order to not create shadows on faces...

[kennephoto]

I’ll have a look for you too but I don’t think I can do much more then what’s already been done. I feel for you but I feel for the couple more. I don't know your background but it might help if you follow a wedding photographer for a couple of weddings and even do some study or just stick to your day job. Did you charge the couple for this and do they know you are amateur photographer?  I know some people say the best way to learn is to shoot lots, but you run the risk of running you name into the ground if you keep up with pictures like this. It’s not just the shadows that’s bad there are people’s heads that you can’t even see. I encourage people around me normally and I hate to be a stick in the mud.

Ha ouch! Good thing I have a day job, eh? My background is I've been in the automotive industry for 9 years and playing around with photography for about that long. I am no professional, and this was my second wedding. My first was for a friend who wasn't even going to have a photographer because of money issues, I never asked to be paid since I've never done anything like that. This wedding again everyone knew I'm no professional and as far as I understood they didn't want to pay premium for professional either and they said they enjoyed my photos and style from the previous wedding I did. I didnt ask to be paid for this either because I wasn't sure if should charge anything. i suppose its a good thing I didnt cash the check they gave me. Everything was running behind and it was a out 15-20 minutes prior to the ceremony when the group photos began. Yea I screwed up in the hustle, I guess I could stick to my day job but seriously car business isn't as fun or rewarding as you might think, so I will learn and do better next time. Thanks to everyone taking a look at the photo and giving me advice how to fix it. I greatly appreciate the members on this forum.

Hi Kennephoto:

Don't feel so bad. You came here to ask for help and thats what we should do. No one should judge you or tell you that you did somthing horrible. We all make mistakes, we learn from it and we move on. For a seasoned pro, that pic would not be a success... no 2 ways about it, however.... People either get paid based on a product they provide (deliverable) or time and expense. Time and exp is cheaper for the customer but there are few guarantees of a proper deliverable, though with Good faith, it is implied.

I think you should cash the check since you did make an effort... especially if the check was less than what a pro would have charged them. They got what they paid for. I too feel a bit bad for them, but I also feel that you spent time/effort and probably gave them several memories to Cherish...

Learn from this, take good advice from this group of nice helpers and don't feel bad. 

Well thanks Kamps, in my opinion this photo is the worst and or the only one that was a huge error on my part. The other group photos were smaller and more spaced out and turned out well. I should have arranged everyone differently but there was someone else barking out orders and rushing this along. I have a lot of photos I am very pleased with how they turned out, almost 150 so far.  How much do Pros charge for weddings typically?

[Marsu42]

How much do Pros charge for weddings typically?

That's easy - $100 to $10000 :-) ... but with nearly no experience $25-$50 per actual shooting hour might be imho ok, depending on the equipment you carry.

Look here: http://photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/?category=First+Timer+and+Newcomers+to+Wedding+Photog.