Shot a Wedding with the Fuji's

entropic remnants

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John Griggs
Bit of a mixed bag. Had some great fun pre-service, and during the service -- but they turned the lights down REAL far at the reception and the story doesn't have a happy ending. Unfortunately, Fuji's low light performance isn't good enough unassisted for that environment, and the EF-42 provides no illuminator support.

Rico (flysurfer) suggests it's deliberate on Fuji's part since the flash from another manufacturer they put their name on has an IR illuminator designed for DSLR's that will not work on the Fuji's. It's a silly thing for Fuji to do and I was literally HATING my cameras at the reception. I was envying the DJ with like a Nikon D3000 and SB-600 -- he was popping off paparazzi style and I'm sure his pictures are hot-flash-flared but he got shots I missed.

Basically, I brought a knife to a gun fight, lol. It's a very sharp knife, but not the weapon I needed. I had an X-E1, and X-M1 and an X100S. Seemed to me the X100S did best in low light, followed by the X-M1. The X-E1 seemed to struggle the most. All cameras are up-to-date firmware wise.

So, as I find some favorites in what is really just a bunch of photos primarily of interest to the wedding folks, I'll put them here. So far I've just two I really like enough to feel like posting.

First one was fooling around with the groomsmen in a corn field with the X100S and EF-42 flash. I said, "Man, you guys look like the children of the corn at a formal dance..." and that set the theme for the processing of this picture.

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Coming Soon: Children of the Corn - The Wedding by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

The next one is a capture from the actual wedding service with the X-E1 and the 55-200mm. It's an awesome combination when there's enough light for sure.

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Nica-Hoover Wedding: The Bride by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

Might post a few more. The whole set is growing on my facebook artists page linked by my signature if you want to go through them at all.
 
Here's a few more high keys I did of shots I took during the service. I also updated the processing of the first shot of the bride (it's changed in the first post, not repeated here).

As I'm working my way through the set, I'm finding some better shots than that first one. The different angle these are taken from of the bride are due to me begin crouched at the base of the steps in the center aisle that lead up to the altar. Glad my knees still work well, lol.

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Nica-Hoover Wedding: More High Key Work by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Nica-Hoover Wedding: More High Key Work by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Nica-Hoover Wedding: More High Key Work by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr

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Nica-Hoover Wedding: The Groom by Entropic Remnants, on Flickr
 
John... nice images. But man, capturing full-blown weddings, magnificently well, is an exceptionally tough job demanding great skill, talent, much energy, excellent people-skills, and well-suited gear. I have the utmost respect for wedding photographers who can produce exceptional images from start to finish, through the many changes in setting, atmosphere, mood, subjects, conditions, lighting, weather, personal issues, equipment issues, venue restrictions, etc. Photographers who have never attempted to do full-blown wedding photography have no idea how difficult the job really is.
 
John... nice images. But man, capturing full-blown weddings, magnificently well, is an exceptionally tough job demanding great skill, talent, much energy, excellent people-skills, and well-suited gear. I have the utmost respect for wedding photographers who can produce exceptional images from start to finish, through the many changes in setting, atmosphere, mood, subjects, conditions, lighting, weather, personal issues, equipment issues, venue restrictions, etc. Photographers who have never attempted to do full-blown wedding photography have no idea how difficult the job really is.

Thanks, and AMEN!
 
These are very good images. I don't know the one w/ closed eyes in second set first shot...

Ha ha! Somebody over on FujiXspot had the same reaction to that one. To me, it looks like shes overcome with emotion, either "dreamy" or about to faint, lol. It may not make the "final cut" but I find it interesting.

Thanks!
 
John,
Very nice. Encouraging actually. My niece is getting married in a couple of weeks and due to budget she has asked me to be the photographer. I have taken photos at wedding before, but never as the primary photographer.
It looks like you had really good lighting to work with. I am hoping to go check out the venue next week so I can get an idea of what to expect as far as ambient light.
 
John,
Very nice. Encouraging actually. My niece is getting married in a couple of weeks and due to budget she has asked me to be the photographer. I have taken photos at wedding before, but never as the primary photographer.
It looks like you had really good lighting to work with. I am hoping to go check out the venue next week so I can get an idea of what to expect as far as ambient light.

It was pretty light, but the church was a mixed light situation and I had to roll off the orange and yellow in post a lot to take out the effect of the incandescent lights. Otherwise everything is orange and blue. I balanced more or less for daylight, and dropped orange and yellow in post to get a nice color.

Most everything was shot over ISO-1000 with many of the telephoto shots above ISO-2000 and as high as ISO-6400. Some shots are noisy, but adequate to task.

Thanks! Best of luck with the wedding when you shoot it. I was going to use flash with a large "Rogue Flash Bender" in the church, but at the last minute the officiating Pastor said no. I made due and it's okay.

Watch out for dark receptions though, lol. It was a bit of hell with the Fuji's I'm afraid...
 
I feel your pain - that Wisconsin wedding I brought the X100 to was just a month ago. No flash used, just ISO 6400, f2, manual focus so it didn't waste precious milliseconds hunting, and some luck. I recall thinking "I wish I had a hand-held flash (and some idea how to use it)."

I like many of these shots, and in a lot of cases my first reaction is "wow that's a tight shot." You got WAY in, but then that's probably what most people want. I think I have gotten so used to a fixed 35mm equiv that anything zoomed in on faces looks claustrophobic to me... my issue, not the photograph's. The X100 is changing my brain.
 
I feel your pain - that Wisconsin wedding I brought the X100 to was just a month ago. No flash used, just ISO 6400, f2, manual focus so it didn't waste precious milliseconds hunting, and some luck. I recall thinking "I wish I had a hand-held flash (and some idea how to use it)."

I like many of these shots, and in a lot of cases my first reaction is "wow that's a tight shot." You got WAY in, but then that's probably what most people want. I think I have gotten so used to a fixed 35mm equiv that anything zoomed in on faces looks claustrophobic to me... my issue, not the photograph's. The X100 is changing my brain.

Thanks!

Getting in close is a signature of my wedding photography. Tight intimate shots of faces that convey the emotion of the moment in particular -- but at the reception it sure was a mess. Many of the shots I'm just saying to myself "sharpness is a bourgeois concept" (thank you HCB) and going for an emotive if noisy and less than sharp shot, lol. It was what it was. Normally I'm a card-carrying-member of the bourgeoisie...
 
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