Lancaster Wedding with R-D1

S

Sean Reid

Guest
In the twenty years that I've been photographing professionally, I only rarely shot weddings because conventional wedding photography is not my cup of tea. But with the growing client interest in documentary wedding photography in the past couple of years, I've started to shoot more and more of them and am finding that I really like it. The subject matter is wonderful and I find I can work quite freely, in part because everyone at the weddings expects me to be photographing. There's so much to look at and photograph at these things that I rarely sit down.

On April 30, I decided to shoot a wedding with just my R-D1 and a review E-1 from Olympus. The E-1 did great but most of the pictures I really like from that shoot were made with the R-D1. None of its little quirks ever got in my way when I was working (about 600 pictures with the R-D1 alone that day) and it did its job like a Leica would. If anyone's curious to see the results, they're in the two Lancaster portfolios on the "Portfolios" page of my site (http://www.still-photo.net) There are a few exceptions but basically the B&W pictures were all done with the R-D1 and the color pictures with the E-1.

Lenses:
"Lancaster Ceremony" portfolio - CV 28/1.9
"Lancaster Reception" portfolio - some with CV 35/1.7 but most with CV 50 Nokton (both used wide open)

ISO 800 outdoors (cloudy day) ISO 1600 indoors, all B&W pictures were existing light only

Cheers,

Sean
 
Sean,

Picture # 6 is wonderful--the way the dress is flowing, the expressions--excellent moment! A great set of images, to be sure.

Isn't it nice to be shooting with the R-D1 and CV glass? Not a very expensive setup, lens-wise, and nice and small... I love how quickly I can grab a shot with it... Here's one, for example: Prefocused the 28 Ultron at f/8 to hyperfocal distance, and set the ISO on 200... Quick snapshot, didn't even think, but later had quite a laugh when I realized that the Dinosaur was looking almost directly at me...



How often did you use meter lock? Or did you meter the ambient light and set the camera on a manual shutter speed? I would think the latter would be a better overall approach, with the white dresses and dark suits wreaking havoc with the exposure meter.

Ken
 
krimple said:
Sean,

Picture # 6 is wonderful--the way the dress is flowing, the expressions--excellent moment! A great set of images, to be sure.

Isn't it nice to be shooting with the R-D1 and CV glass? Not a very expensive setup, lens-wise, and nice and small... I love how quickly I can grab a shot with it... Here's one, for example: Prefocused the 28 Ultron at f/8 to hyperfocal distance, and set the ISO on 200... Quick snapshot, didn't even think, but later had quite a laugh when I realized that the Dinosaur was looking almost directly at me...



How often did you use meter lock? Or did you meter the ambient light and set the camera on a manual shutter speed? I would think the latter would be a better overall approach, with the white dresses and dark suits wreaking havoc with the exposure meter.

Ken
Click to expand...

Hi Ken,

It took me awhile to figure out what picture number six was but I think you're referring to the pictures in the opening slideshow. Those were actually done with a 1Ds and a D30. The R-D1 pictures are in the two Lancaster portfolios.

I didn't use the meter lock. I shot many of the pictures using manual exposure and some using aperture priority with various EV comp dialed in. But I think most of it was manual exposure. You've got me think now and I'm going to thumb through the EXIF data to see what I did. When I'm working, I never think much about it.

OK...looks like most at the reception were manual. The ones that are AP are either at null EV comp or +2/3. It may just be my habits with exposure but I find the R-D1 metering to be great. That is to say, it's tendencies and my adjustments seem to mesh together.


Cheers,

Sean
 
Chaser said:
do you use any noise reduction?

...

spectacular photos
Click to expand...

Thanks very much. No noise reduction. In the opening slideshow there's some noise visible in some pictures that were made with a D30 but I prefer to see that than the waxiness of NR. I generally don't use NR at all, on any files. Even at its best, it robs detail and softens things. It cheats the lens in a sense. If I do use any NR on R-D1 files, it's to pull chrominance noise only from ISO 1600 color files. I don't touch the luminance info. In B&W, I feel no need to filter at any ISO.

Cheers,

Sean
 
J. Borger said:
Really enjoyed the reportage Sean.
Another excxellent proof how good that R-D1 really is.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I think the camera did beautifully. I'd like to have three R-D1 bodies.

Cheers,

Sean
 
Sean,

Very nice work.
You like the camera so much you even used an image of it in your logo.
Just curious- what kind of prints are you providing clients?

Gary
 
For weddings, I provide a CD of high res files and they can print them at whatever size they'd like. I can also arrange prints for them if they want. My goal for the files is that they look good at 8" x 12". Obviously they can go larger but if they look good at that size, I'm happy.

Architecture is all shot with the 1Ds and the files go to the client, designer or art director on CD.

Work for exhibition varies a lot in size.

Cheers,

Sean
 
Sean Reid said:
Thanks. I think the camera did beautifully. I'd like to have three R-D1 bodies.

Cheers,

Sean
Click to expand...

Right tool in the right hands i assume! A very exciting way of doing a wedding..... top notch work Sean. By far the best advertorial for the R-D1 i have seen so far :)
3 Bodies .....? I could imagine 2 ....

Han
 
Thanks Han,

The three bodies would hold the following: 21/2.8, 28/1.9 Ultron, 50/1.5 Nokton.

Cheers,

Sean
 
Sean,

Silly me. I looked at the opening portfoio. The Lancaster Wedding ones are excellent as well. Very good shooting and you have a great eye for those special moments!

Ken
 
Hi Sean, great series, I especially like the R-D1 shots. Sorry if my question seems a little silly but did you use a flash in any of the b/w shots? I couldn't really tell on a few of them. I'm just wondering which flash would work best with the R-D1. Thanks.
 
Hi Terrence,

No flash with any of the B&W pictures. The only flash pictures were the color E-1 pictures made at the reception (mostly dancing). I've never used flash on the R-D1.

Cheers,

Sean
 
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