Medium format for your wedding photos?

[Ian]

It happens to be our 30th wedding anniversary today - I remember insisting that our wedding photographer used a 6x7 medium format camera. I can't remember what was used in the end - either a Pentax or Mamiya. The studio we used was family run and eventually closed down when the proprietors retired. They offered me the negatives for £50, which I snapped up. I really must scan them as only a fraction were used in the final wedding album.

I also remember going to a friend's wedding in the same sort of time period and the photographer used a Canon EOS 35mm camera - I was a bit shocked and dismissive

And at another friend's wedding, they didn't use a professional wedding photographer and just asked their guests to send their photos or use the disposable cameras provided at the reception.

I see that video is now more and more important, naturally.

Ian

[biggles3]

Congratulations on your wedding anniversary!

There are 3 forms of photography I avoid like the plague - weddings, kids and pets. But against my will I was persuaded some time ago to take some wedding piccies for a close friend and shot them using a couple of Contax 645s; from the transparencies we were able to print some A2 prints which are still on their walls today. But I recall the fear of something going wrong on the most important day for the couple; half my time seemed to be spent double-checking the film speed settings of the camera backs, the battery life of the cameras, the TLA360 Flash units plus the PS-220 Power Packs. And before the ceremony, loading 6 film backs plus the two in the cameras in the hope that one never missed a critical shot. Then followed the nervous wait for the lab to process the film and pray the results were up to scratch; once in my life was enough... But medium format definitely ruled the roost for the formal photos back then.

Thinking back to weddings I attended through the 70s-90s, the vast majority of professionals were still using TLRs for the formal images, though 35mm for the informal stuff. With the quality of Olympus/OM-D sensors and IS, today you can shoot indoors without flash with no difficulty - and shoot video too. You've just stirred a memory; I was a member of the Master Photographers' Association a few decades ago and remember being fed-up with almost every other article in the monthly journal being about wedding photography. It's worth recalling just how much weddings were the bread-and-butter for so many professional 'togs. Today, with everyone thinking they are David Bailey (that gives away one's age) or David lean with their mobile phones, I wonder just how much those occasions still form the staple for pros; less and less is my guess.

[Ian]

Congratulations on your wedding anniversary!

There are 3 forms of photography I avoid like the plague - weddings, kids and pets. But against my will I was persuaded some time ago to take some wedding piccies for a close friend and shot them using a couple of Contax 645s; from the transparencies we were able to print some A2 prints which are still on their walls today. But I recall the fear of something going wrong on the most important day for the couple; half my time seemed to be spent double-checking the film speed settings of the camera backs, the battery life of the cameras, the TLA360 Flash units plus the PS-220 Power Packs. And before the ceremony, loading 6 film backs plus the two in the cameras in the hope that one never missed a critical shot. Then followed the nervous wait for the lab to process the film and pray the results were up to scratch; once in my life was enough... But medium format definitely ruled the roost for the formal photos back then.

Thinking back to weddings I attended through the 70s-90s, the vast majority of professionals were still using TLRs for the formal images, though 35mm for the informal stuff. With the quality of Olympus/OM-D sensors and IS, today you can shoot indoors without flash with no difficulty - and shoot video too. You've just stirred a memory; I was a member of the Master Photographers' Association a few decades ago and remember being fed-up with almost every other article in the monthly journal being about wedding photography. It's worth recalling just how much weddings were the bread-and-butter for so many professional 'togs. Today, with everyone thinking they are David Bailey (that gives away one's age) or David lean with their mobile phones, I wonder just how much those occasions still form the staple for pros; less and less is my guess.

My sister decided on a small wedding and asked me to be photographer - I used my E-1, all 5 megapixels, and the results, dare I say it, were really good and 6x4-10x8 size prints were fine.

Ian

[Harold Gough]

Never mind the photos.There is an audio tape of our wedding where I make the promise about all my wordly goods. That is kept in secure storage.

Harold

[Reiver]

My wife preferred the photos a guest took ( with a 35mm camera ) to the ones the Pro ( MF) took at our wedding in 85, I sort of saw her point as they were very natural and not posed. But the quality wasn't there in my opinion.

[LadyG]

I was asked by a friend to shoot her daughter's wedding, back in around 2010 when I had a Canon 400D. I said I'd give it a go and quite enjoyed the experience but not enough to give up the day job... I probably shot about 30 over the next 10 years, for a start off I shot the weddings of the sister and step-sister of the original, and the rest were mostly either friends or on recommendation. I only ever shot a couple of 'strangers' and really didn't enjoy the process. I gave up in 2022 - mainly because I was finding it too tiring and I only shot that one because the groom had said back in 2013 that if he ever got married, he wanted me to cover it. I would have said no, but the registry office was a bit special and somewhere I'd always wanted to shoot (Northampton Guild Hall). By that time the kit had changed a great deal: 2 full frame Canon cameras, pro lenses and off camera lighting all carried in a little Calumet rolling case. The thing that used to really annoy me as I stood there with Black Rapid double harness and full camera kit was how many people would go up to my partner (in charge of the rolling case and finding the lenses - he also had a louder voice for shepherding reluctant guests in group photos) was how many people assumed that HE was the photographer...

And don't get me started on buying cars or anything expensive. I'd always leave him at home when doing the initial look see for cars because salesmen (usually men) would automatically talk to him, who doesn't drive and it would be my money buying the car. Sorry, rant over!

[BDennis]

Belated congratulations to you and Julia on your anniversary Ian!

Interesting to read the wedding photography stories. I’ve only done it once. In 2019 my brother and his now wife asked me to take photographs at their wedding, kindly complimenting me on how much they liked my wildlife photos. I’m not really a people photographer - I did wonder if they planned to have someone fly a barn owl down the aisle or something (I wouldn’t put it past my bother to arrange something like that!). They didn’t want formal photos as it was the second time around for them. I watched lots of wedding photography YouTube videos to get some ideas and used the Em1Mkii and 12-40mm f2.8. Silent shutter was very useful as I could just take lots of photos in the church and it didn’t create too much distraction. It turned out alright in the end - a bit of a relief! I should have had a better flash at the reception though. Not sure if I’d try it again - perhaps if it was a special ask but I might consider hiring a pro as a present (expensive though!). The thought of messing up and not producing some good shots for a couples special day is a bit scary.

Bill

[LadyG]

I've had a card fail - once. Not because it became unreadable, because it cracked! It was one of several I'd been given 'free' at the Photography Show and needless to say, the rest went in the bin. Luckily it wasn't a wedding or an event I was being paid for, just a friend's 40th birthday kind of party - I was photographing his band.

I also lost some wedding photos once. This was before I knew how to move things around in Lightroom and so of course they appeared 'lost' - and I couldn't find them! A couple of sweaty days before I found them...

[BDennis]

I’m lucky to never had a serious card failure, it will probably happen one day. Dual card slots helps as it means I usually have a second. I don’t set to write to both cards though, usually it’s just bird snaps or trip shots. It’s a shame the cameras like the OM-1 don’t have a more refined option like copy / backup just star rated photos to the other card after the event - it’s all or nothing so you need a second card the same size. On some holidays I set the camera to backup to the other card whilst eating dinner but it’s not an incremental backup so limited use for a long trip with say a 128Gb card you’re adding new images to each day. I need to think more about how this should work without a laptop to plan for potential card failures.

I think I spent about 3 days doing PP on the wedding photos. I had to learn layers in CaptureOne. I realised that for those later life weddings with close-ups the bride may not want every facial bump and wrinkle sharpened along with the rest of the image! I suddenly realised what lots of the stuff in CaptureOne is about - a good learning curve and plenty more to learn I think. I don’t like the way some of these packages can suddenly lose the link between the photos you’ve processed and where they actually are on a storage drive. It’s happened to me with CaptureOne and took ages to correct. Something to do with the external drive being accidentally “ejected” and the operating system giving the external storage a different name behind the scenes I think.

[LadyG]

Later life weddings: I had one of those. A recommendation from a previous family (although I noticed that they weren't at the wedding). I usually included a pre-wedding shoot so that they could get used to posing and being told what to do, but mainly to find out what _they_ wanted.

This pair were... odd. No group shots, no asking people to turn and smile (apart from the tables). All totally documentary, apart from a private shoot - which went well.

They'd also booked an 'extra' - the pop up studio with backdrop and fun props but once again the wedding organiser didn't take down how much space would be needed and instead had allowed for a photobooth, so I ended up in front of the bar. I had guests threatening to moon, wave a willy... I'd never had a wedding like it before (or since, thankfully). After the threatened willy waving guests trashed the main golf club bar the police were called and I made a swift exit. However, the problems didn't end there... the groom had been bitten by one of their rescue dogs earlier in the week so I had to clone the dog bite scab off every picture I chose to edit (pre AI, but still easy). Then (as Bill said, later life wedding) she said I'd made her look too wrinkly and old. Bearing in mind she was mid 40s and I would have been early 60s at that point - I ended up buying Portrait Pro for it's wrinkle reducing properties (and yes, she was charged extra for additional editing).

[Phill D]

Shooting a wedding would be my worst nightmare. Only been asked a couple of times and refused both. Real respect for those who do it. Way too stressful for me.