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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Shot my first wedding with m43 - thoughts/photos | |
For the record - I am in no way a wedding pro. I do this only because I'm known in the family as "the photographer" so apparently that means I can shoot anything (sigh) This wedding is my third.
For those with short attention spans -- Although I really like m43 using the OM-D and GX1, I would strongly caution anyone considering pro event work using such a setup, or at least get them to test out a setup at a wedding with various lighting conditions, etc.. Reasoning below.
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** If anyone has any insight as to what I could have done differently, by all means speak up This post is not meant to unequivocally condemn (or praise) the m43 system but to voice my particular snags and delights during this wedding and how I approached it.
First, the setup:
East-coast beach wedding at 4PM, bright sun with variable overcast (but mostly full-on sun). Shooting the bridge and maids getting ready day-of.
Equipment:
Gripped OMD with Olympus battery and 2x spare wasabi, 16GB SD card.
Panasonic GX1.
NEX-5N with 18-55 kit for 2nd backup.
Lenses:
Rental 75/1.8 (with 3x stop ND that I subsequently lost )
PL 25/1.4 (also with 3xND)
Oly 45 1.8 (also with 3xND)
12-50 kit
Rok 7.5mm FE
14mm/2.5
600R flash
General strategy:
During the indoor portion of the the wedding (pre-event), I used a lot of the 45/1.8, as that seemed about perfect for most of the shots.
Most of these are non-posed, off-the-cuff shots (which was challenging but fun). Performance wasn't really a problem in this scenario.
P1020157-Edit by J L Smith, on Flickr
(posed)
P9230166-Edit by J L Smith, on Flickr
Outdoors, amazingly, the setup performed much worse. The procession was slow (as I had told them to be - hey I'm family so I get to make orders!) and still the OMD mostly failed at the entire thing.
Rehearsal day, I had used the OMD with 75mm in AF-S, thinking it would snap focus and take the photo before they had moved out of the DOF. Wrong. Nearly every shot was off.
Wedding day, I had switched initially to AF-C with Face Priority and focus priority on. I eventually switched Face off and still the results were not that great. The PL did a little better on the few shots I used with the 45 or 25 I think.
I was using both cameras mostly wide open, so that I'd have a bit of shallow DOF.
(one of the only shots in focus of this girl during procession out of 6 shots)
P9230256-Edit by J L Smith, on Flickr
In fact, on one particular maid, every shot was out of focus using the OMD and the 75/1.8. Not just slightly out of focus, but vastly out of focus using AF-C and focus priority. Nothing in the shots was in focus. I have no idea what the camera had focused on. I have no idea why the camera had such a hard time - I was focusing on the faces (or the camera was finding them when FACE was on) yet the results were abysmal.
Other, non-procession shots were great:
P9230432 by J L Smith, on Flickr
The 12-50 lens was useful for shot or two, the rings of course:
P9230024 by J L Smith, on Flickr
The PL 25/1.4 also was great when it hit : This photo shows great rendering (to me) and is almost SOOC RAW:
P1020216 by J L Smith, on Flickr
Indoors
The reception indoors had pretty tough lighting and it went from dark to darker
This was a shot I liked, with the 75 (which I barely used - the AF just wasn't up to par on the OMD -- and yes I made sure my 3x ND was off!)
P9230681-Edit by J L Smith, on Flickr
Most of my shots were with the 25 1.4, because of the FOV and frankly I needed the speed.
The high ISO of the kit is pretty good, all things considered. A 12800 shot below:
Wedding at 12800 by J L Smith, on Flickr
And another one at 12800. The slightly OOF was my fault - I accidentally zoomed to 14x and had a brain-cramp, couldn't get out of the mode and just took the shot anyway - the camera failed to properly focus on the bride's face at 14x (too slow with the 25mm):
Bouquet toss - 12800 by J L Smith, on Flickr
Overall - Out of 1300 shots, I'll probably get 150 or so to keep (so far up to 100 keepers). Most of these 1300 shots are repeats of the same poses (blinks, smirks, etc) and a lot are of processions just trying to "get the shot" and so unsure of the outcome that I took multiples.
I'm happy with the IQ of the setup - absolutely no complaints from me.
Performance of the setup - good, except if you count the AF. I just wasn't happy how it performed.
Unfortunately, I've already been asked to shoot another wedding for my cousin next year (they've all fallen in love with the photos I've been posting on FB to share).
I think I'll be renting the gear this time - a full-fledged DSLR setup with a 70-200 and 35/1.4 combo, maybe an 85 1.4 I think I could pull off the entire wedding using this and it be a bit more consistent.
Of course, it could have been my nerves at shooting my brother-in-law's wedding with the m43 setup
A few more shots to share for gee-whiz sake
P9230692-Edit by J L Smith, on Flickr
P9230502-Edit by J L Smith, on Flickr
P9230340-Edit by J L Smith, on Flickr
P9230127 by J L Smith, on Flickr
P1020175 by J L Smith, on Flickr
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