I shot a wedding for some friends yesterday. Now, I'm not a wedding
photographer, but I've done a couple of small ones before for people who
knew me and who simply could not afford a regular wedding pro.
They wanted the ceremony shot on film, and I was free to use the E1
during the reception.
Now, I haven't shot film in roughly a year since I got my E1. First, it
felt weird going to the store to buy film... and even weirder having to
stop every 24 shots to load a new roll. I felt very rusty...
I also had to gear my brain back up for manual focusing - I've used the
OM lenses once or twice on the E1, but mostly shoot with the 14-54DZ.
This wedding was held in our theatre, and lit by our regular lighting
designer, who's mindset is stuck on "mood lighting", hence it was pretty
dark during the ceremony (this is also on ongoing problem when I try
to shoot production photos of plays down there - even with the E1 on
iso800, I still have problems with some scenes....) so I had to depend
on flash for the entire thing. Plus, the dim lighting didn't help the
focusing thing much, either, even with that magnificently huge OM4ti viewer.
I promised the couple and the videographer that I would only shoot a
minimal number during the actual ceremony to stay out of the way, and we
would re-stage later. However, I know I won't be that happy with having
everything lit by flash - the theatrical lighting was beautiful, but
just about 10 notches too dark. And I didn't have access to high-speed
tungsten film. I really miss the ability to chimp and automatically
switch white balance and iso on the fly.... I did double a lot of the
shots on the E1, just to be sure. We'll see when the prints come back.
I ended up using the F280 on a handle for a lot of it, simply because of
the superFP capabilities so I didn't have to constantly worry about
settings. I did have to put the T32 on a couple of times, and
definitely used it on the E1 during the reception, which was in a
crowded, dim hall. Fortunately for me, the ceiling was also very low
and white, so once I figured that out, I cranked the T32 upwards and my
shots suddenly got nice and soft instead of typical "flash in a dark
room" harsh.
The last two weddings I did were both outdoors in beautiful garden
settings. Not having all the lighting gear a regular wedding pro has, I
definitely prefer the control afforded me by natural lighting. I didn't
have to worry about shutter speed or anything - I could play with
apertures and DOF to my heart's content and got some very striking
isolated shots of the bride with the background all nice and fuzzy...and
the F280 provided just enough fill under the gazebo to punch things up.
I had been hoping to use my T45 on a Quantum, but the girl I borrowed
the TurboZ from didn't know that you had to top it off every 6 months or
so whether you use it or not, and it was absolutely, completely stone
dead. So it fell to the T32 and F280 to save the evening.
--
Paul Braun
Valparaiso, IN
"There's a fine line between stupid, and clever." - David St. Hubbins
"Enjoy every sandwich." - Warren Zevon
"The Fountain of Youth is a state of mind." - The Ides of March
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|