Denton
Established
Hi Folks,
I shot a wedding for hire yesterday in a park. I had gathered my Canon 5D, 70-200 and 24-105 as main lenses. I also pack two 580EXII speedlights for after hours receptions and fill flash during full sun as this wedding was at 2:30 EST and it was Hot!
I was using the 70-200 as the bride was almost ready to walk into the open amphitheater to meet the groom when my 5D threw it's mirror! I handed my assistant the bad camera and lenses and she said, "now what are you going to do?" I had my M9 in the Domke F2 I also carry on my shoulder but it had a Color Skopar 35mm f2.5 lens on it and I didn't want to shoot a processional with 35mm. I traded the Skopar for my ONLY other rangefinder lens, the 75mm Heliar classic and got the shots off, focusing madly as the Bride, Mom and Dad came down the path. The happy couple were standing with their backs to full sunlight so I had to expose for the shadows at ISO 200 and 1/200 about f8. The sun became too much for the groom and the wonderful woman pastor moved the couple into some shade just to their right. Good break for me, the light in the shadow was just what I needed for lower contrast and f5.6. I shot the rest of the ceremony with that 75mm Heliar and followed the group shots with the 35mm Skopar. We also did some marvelous beach shots with the Heliar and a homemade portable scrim I've invented. Later that night at the reception I could not use the 580's so I pulled out the old Vivitar 285 and slapped it on the M9.
So how did the images compare? I'm very happy with them. I certainlly did miss the spotmeter on the 5D as I find this is the best way to assure proper exposure, metering on the face and using back button for focus. But, I usually meter all posed shots with a incident meter anyway. I do find metering candids is better done by setting the camera manually and switching between memorized sun and shade settings. Another issue is the parallax of the 75mm so that I had to occassionally reshoot after chimping. I did not have my 75mm finder in the bag, unfortunately. Since I did not have my 580's for fill light, I posed the groups with the sun at their backs and used two large white reflectors laid out on the ground in front of them for fill light, probably 10x3 feet of white reflective fill.
So why didn't I have another 5D in the bag? I had sold my 5DMII and several L lenses to get the M9!
Cheers,
Denton
I shot a wedding for hire yesterday in a park. I had gathered my Canon 5D, 70-200 and 24-105 as main lenses. I also pack two 580EXII speedlights for after hours receptions and fill flash during full sun as this wedding was at 2:30 EST and it was Hot!
I was using the 70-200 as the bride was almost ready to walk into the open amphitheater to meet the groom when my 5D threw it's mirror! I handed my assistant the bad camera and lenses and she said, "now what are you going to do?" I had my M9 in the Domke F2 I also carry on my shoulder but it had a Color Skopar 35mm f2.5 lens on it and I didn't want to shoot a processional with 35mm. I traded the Skopar for my ONLY other rangefinder lens, the 75mm Heliar classic and got the shots off, focusing madly as the Bride, Mom and Dad came down the path. The happy couple were standing with their backs to full sunlight so I had to expose for the shadows at ISO 200 and 1/200 about f8. The sun became too much for the groom and the wonderful woman pastor moved the couple into some shade just to their right. Good break for me, the light in the shadow was just what I needed for lower contrast and f5.6. I shot the rest of the ceremony with that 75mm Heliar and followed the group shots with the 35mm Skopar. We also did some marvelous beach shots with the Heliar and a homemade portable scrim I've invented. Later that night at the reception I could not use the 580's so I pulled out the old Vivitar 285 and slapped it on the M9.
So how did the images compare? I'm very happy with them. I certainlly did miss the spotmeter on the 5D as I find this is the best way to assure proper exposure, metering on the face and using back button for focus. But, I usually meter all posed shots with a incident meter anyway. I do find metering candids is better done by setting the camera manually and switching between memorized sun and shade settings. Another issue is the parallax of the 75mm so that I had to occassionally reshoot after chimping. I did not have my 75mm finder in the bag, unfortunately. Since I did not have my 580's for fill light, I posed the groups with the sun at their backs and used two large white reflectors laid out on the ground in front of them for fill light, probably 10x3 feet of white reflective fill.
So why didn't I have another 5D in the bag? I had sold my 5DMII and several L lenses to get the M9!
Cheers,
Denton
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