Victoria's Bridal Session

The point is every photo you take is your responsibility. (If nobody ever sees a bad photo, then you never took a bad photo, because there is no proof)

I'm wondering what camera and lens you're using. I'm not a pro but on my "ancient" D70, I have the kit lens which is 17-55 or something? Not a bad lens, but not my favorite. If you have a small room, the 17mm would be good because it'd give you a wide angle...although wide angles are not preferred for portraits. (longer lenses are more slimming,etc).

To be a photographer is to have eyes in the back of your head practically. I was taking photos of my daughter (7 yrs) and only after I opened the pics did I realize her fly was open. I told her and we laughed. Luckily it was my daughter and I just deleted them -- but had that been a customer, it'd have been quite bad.

The photographer is in charge of the details...You're the one making the picture...it's your reputation that ultimately will suffer if you don't watch out for the details. (or you'll spend hours in photoshop pp-ing out the unwanted stuff.)  It's a learning process and I applaud you for getting out there...something I NEED to do!

This sounds like your friend so you have more play here, but if someone's paying you and you don't produce, you could be looking at a lawsuit.

You can't force people to do things, you can make suggestions. And the part that I'm not good at is making them think it was your suggestion. If the bride was sleepy, maybe have her bring her favorite cd to liven things up? Or bring some mood music your self to get things into the wedding mood...I remember percel's trumpet volunteer from my wedding...oh so long ago. Talk to the church organist and classical music cd's are usually CHEAP! (plus with all the stuff online you could probably get a kid to help you and get it for free?)

While being a photographer is a ton about personality and salesmanship, it's still a capitalist society...sometimes...so if you're not good enough to create the good word of mouth, your business will fail and there will be tons of businesses that willingly will take your place. It's a tough profession to be sure.

What you're doing is what I need to do...take practice photos of flowers, get my 15 yr old dd to model with a prom dress...ha...she's fun to deal with...probably worse than any bridezilla!

As they say, the devil is in the details. I think post processing is my absolute least part of the photography process. When I got my d70 3 yrs ago, I was ready to go back to film for the longest time. Now I've sort of got it figured out and the darned thing is almost obselete! But it's what I have and unless I show dh I'm trying, there's no $ to upgrade...not in the budget!!!
Paula
Edit: I went back and read the original post again and the 17 mm wouldn't have been enough for a full body shot if the room was that small...sorry.

I did a workshop on one of your images. I hope you don't mind.
All has been said concerning your shoot, one thing though, with time, you'll not only be aware of the subject, but, you'll be aware of what is in the background.
I liken it as learning to see as the camera sees, that is, in 2D, everything is flat, and touches or grows out of people. Watching the surroundings will come the more you shoot. Good job though.

I especially like images like this one, it is natural, unposed, and I believe it is worth saving as an art piece like you did. As artists, million and one, some like, some don't. Esthetically it has a lot of potential, etc. again, it's learning different "POV" position of view, watching the backgrounds etc.

In CS3, in Raw, jpegs can be opened in camera raw, white point was defined on the greyish wall. Slight tweeking with temp and tint.
Open in Shop and applied Mike's Special Sauce.   
Used the burn and dodge in key areas such as the roses, corners.
Removal of neck lines using the healing tool and Clone tool "Lighten" at low opacities, gently.