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[OM] thoughts on shooting wedding

Subject: [OM] thoughts on shooting wedding
From: "Wayne Culberson" <waynecul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2005 19:21:42 -0400
I thought I'd share a few thoughts on a wedding I shot last evening. I did
about half in digital with the C5050, and the rest with Kodak Portra 400NC
and 160NC. I did shoot a bit with 120mm Ilford XP2 Super, but haven't
received the results from that yet.

There always seems to be something that your not prepared for, and last
night it was the dim lighting. The wedding was at a historic Inn, and the
rooms were all lit mostly by candlelight only. Nice for atmosphere. but
focusing was very difficult, even though I used 50/1.8's on both the OMPC
and OM2s. Luckily for me, almost every shot did come back in focus, but I
really need to get a 50/1.4, and a 2 screen would have been a help in the
2s. It's the first time I've really wished I had a 50/1.4, or even the
50/1.2 (just dreaming about that one). The C5050 was struggling to focus as
well, and the focus assist light came on for almost every shot. But it did
get the focusing right most of the time.

I haven't yet had any of the digital pics printed, but based on viewing them
on the monitor, digital does not have near the range of capturing detail in
the darker areas as does the the Kodak Portra. I'm not sure if that would
hold true if I had an E-1 or other DSLR with a bigger sensor. But based on
what I shot last evening, I wouldn't want to abandon film if I were a "real"
wedding photographer.

I used a t32 and t20 together (on flash bracket) on the 2s, with a milk jug
diffuser on the t20 on the camera hot shoe, and home-made bounce (from white
orange juice jug) on the t32 on the flash bracket. It looked crude, but
worked very well. I lucked out again, as trying something new like that at a
wedding is probably not wise.

I shot something over 300 pictures, and it looks as if there a few
acceptable ones.
Here is one example, shot with the C5050. It is resized with Camedia
software, which does a terrible job of resizing, but otherwise is as the
camera rendered.
http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3172176
I took the same shot with the OMPC and 50/1.8 at f/4, but cannot show it as
my film scanner isn't working. It is better, as I could manually focus on
the face in the mirror, getting it sharp, and putting the foreground
slightly out of focus, which is what I wanted, and obviously better than
this one. I realize that that is not a fault of digital however, but of
autofocus and a prosumer digital that has no effective manual focus
capability. However, the film also rendered the red roses a much more
accurate shade of red. The C5050 really struggles with many shades of red.
Also, the film had a significantly better range in balancing the light and
detail between the bride and her image in the mirror.

So I guess the conclusion for now for me is, I probably either need an E-1,
or maybe better, plan to stick with the OM's and film for a while yet for
occasions like this.

Wayne




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