Re: [Leica] Wedding Photography Questions

[Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com>]

John Straus wrote:
> 
> That's a good backup choice but as your main film why shoot 800?
> Anywhere bright or outdoors it will kill you as you'll need to be at
> like f/16 for everything. Remember shallow DoF makes your photos look
> "professional" compared to the everything in focus P&S photos others
> will take. You have 2 cameras load 2 film speeds make 400 other.
> 
> JS
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Don Dory
> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 9:22 AM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Wedding Photography Questions
> 
> Ken,
> I think you will find the Kodak Portra 800 or the Fuji NPZ films to be
> the ticket.  Fast enough to not use the flash until the sun sets and
> then enough speed to make even a smallish flash useable.  Also sharp and
> grain free enough to go to 16X20 if you do your job right.  Which one to
> use depends on you palette preference as well as how you local lab is
> balanced.  Shoot a roll of each in similar conditions, give them to
> whichever lab you plan to use and make up your own mind.
> 
> Don
> dorysrus@mindspring.com
> 
I also like faster films to make flash an option rather than a necessity
most of the time. I use a Norman 200C and I've mainly shot 400 speed
films. Or 320. Nowadays I'd move to the 800 stuff which has as i
understand it, the Norm. When i used to use my 45mm GN Nikkor lens to
shoot events and weddings I'd do an awful lot of shooting 2.5 or 3 feet
away at f32 my flash set at half power! People way off in the distance
if they were not way under exposed were sharp as hell. Sharp enough for
8x10's at least. These guys keep saying you cant get sharpness all the
way down. Not my experience! For Events i switched to Hasselblad a main
reason was i didn't want to subject my negs to "proofing." And subject
myself to the 3 hours of work numbering the backs of the proofs to match
the negs. So I started loaning my event wedding clients contact sheets
like i would any other client. I started treating wedding clients like
regular clients in all ways. No shlocky borderless machine prints I'd
never have for any other jobs and no small snapshots. The 6x6 ones where
a lot easier to deal with than the 24x36 format. At one point i was
blowing up my contacts to 16x20 with an 8x10 enlarger. They were no
longer contacts then. Projection proofs we called them at the rental lab.

I've always tried to get as much as possible in focus and properly
exposed. To have their favorite grandfather sitting in a chair in a
great bokeh blur that you could just maybe make him out in would not
make anybody happy. A lot of information in a wedding or event neg that
you don't realize at first but they sure do. They want to see him and so
do I. F16 and be there! Get a powerful strobe system with a powerful
battery system to run it and blast away till the cows come home. If
you've got some real light get dangerous and turn the strobe off.
Isolated subject shooting is not for many shots in a wedding in my
opinion. You just don't want to miss your focus and miss your shot.
Buying all the relatives a new set of airplanes tickets can get expensive.

And if I do have a back with some color in it you can believe me it's
the exact same ASA as the black and white stuff I'm mainly shooting.
It's just an accident waiting to happen if you juggle ASA's and you wont
have long to wait. Constantly think of ways to make your whole operation
simper so you don't have to think. Most people when the crunch is on,
can't. 
In a wedding there is bound to be at least one crunch.

Mark Rabiner
Portland, Oregon USA
http://www.rabinergroup.com
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