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Re: [OM] One down

Subject: Re: [OM] One down
From: "Wayne Harridge" <wayne.harridge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2015 18:18:18 +1000
Interesting post Ken.

As an aside, I was wondering how you'll go about selecting a photographer
for your daughter's weddings ?

...Wayne


-----Original Message-----
From: olympus
[mailto:olympus-bounces+wayne.harridge=structuregraphs.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
] On Behalf Of Ken Norton
Sent: Thursday, 10 September 2015 1:53 AM
To: Olympus Camera Discussion <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [OM] One down

I'm photographing a couple of weddings here in short succession. The first
one was 100% outdoors, so that was pretty easy to do, the second one may or
may not be outdoors depending on weather. I may have a couple more weddings
pop up yet this year.

For this first one, I was working by myself and ended up using just one
camera-lens combo. The Olympus E-3 with 14-42 lens. But I was using the
Vivitar 285HV for fill flash lighting across the boards.
During the ceremony, I was using the flash bare, but for the formals, I
through the reflector on it. Just hot-shoed the thing. Simple, and to the
point.

It was a low-key affair, and I didn't shoot any reception or dinner, just
the outdoor ceremony. Total of 375 pictures taken, 190 unique keepers. THAT
is a good ratio when you consider that you overshoot the formals and
everything of importance.

Several notes:

1. The E-3 is much quicker in shot-to-shot operation than the E-1, but the
E-1 is much quicker in making setting changes.

2. The E-3 is NOT forgiving for exposure like the E-1. I am learning that I
have to really nail the exposure with this camera if I'm going to keep from
hitting the highlight saturation point. I leaned on the fill-flash a whole
lot more than I normally do because I had to reduce contrast so much between
ambient and subject. The wedding was in a gazebo next to a lake during the
late afternoon. I made the mistake of overexposing my background a little
bit and unlike the E-1, there is no faking a recovery. No regrets, though,
because to reduce the background would have meant having a higher amount of
fill-flash in the picture which would have introduced other issues like edgy
shadows. I like my backgrounds to be a stop higher or lower than the subject
anyway, so no biggy.

3. As usual, Lightroom is the cat's meow for mass editing. But it definitely
doesn't do as well with color profile on E-3 files as either C1 or Olympus
converters. I'm going to alter the raw settings a little bit to warm the
shadows up without cranking the saturation out of whack.

4. B&W conversions with E-3 files are rather nice. I can get a nice film
look without difficulty. Somehow the E-3 does really well. Even the
in-camera B&W files don't look half-bad.

5. The 14-42 is not the best lens around, but it does do remarkably well.
I'll probably snag a 14-54 Mk2 at some point, though. That is the best lens
for this application I know of.

6. Fortunately, I was able to shoot everything at ISO 100 to 160.
While "noisy" at higher ISOs, the E-1 produces a far better ISO 400 file
than the E-3. At ISO 100, the E-3 is cleaner. Once you manipulate the images
to "Ken Rockwell' saturations, the E-1 is actually a little bit better at
higher ISO than the E-3, but keeping the files closer to standard, the E-3
is cleaner. You just can't mangle an E-3 file like an E-1 file. The L1 files
are cleaner to work with, but the shadow color shifts can be nasty.

7. The Vivitar 285HV remains one of the best-kept secrets of fill-flash
shooting there is. Just put the flash in the yellow or red arc, set the
camera to auto with some slight exposure compensation and set the ISO so the
shutter speed doesn't exceed maximum flash sync speed. Have a nice day. If
you want some "natural" vignetting, zoom the head in a bit.

8. I had the E-1 configured identically to the E-3 and sitting in my bag
along with other lenses and the L1 as a spare. Never grabbed it because I
didn't need to. Next wedding will be a dual-shooter situation, though, so
I'll probably have the E-1 and L1 while my daughter uses the E-3.

For the photo business, this has been a good year. A couple of weddings, a
couple of portrait sessions, a bunch of print sales and halfway decent click
income from the website. I may actually BREAK EVEN this year. Not enough
money for a new camera as the income supports household needs, but the
giftings of the E-bodies this year have been very welcome and much used.
Best of all, the darkroom is back in operation again!

Are these lower-pixel count cameras and lower-ISO settings still competitive
in today's world? Actually, yes. Thanks to the miracle of Lightroom, there
is a great equalization between cameras. I can clean up an image easily
enough and frankly there is more than enough pixels as there are only a
couple of pictures that get made into larger prints and everything else is
either kept small in an album or posted online. While newer cameras make
life EASIER in many regards, they aren't always the only solution.
Especially when you figure in how much manipulation I do to images, having
image files that are highly bendable is more important.

AG
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