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Rangefinder
Magazine The Art of the Digital Wedding by Claude J. Jodoin
Rather than wait for labs to “get digital,” my studio quit using film completely in 1999 and became its own lab, using Kodak dye-sublimation printers and Fuji Pictrography 3000, and we began evolving toward large format Epson inkjet in 2000. In a blind test, my clients always picked
the digitally captured and printed (Fuji Pictro) 8x10s as superior to
the film images printed optically.
Yet, I didnot use the word digital, preferring “filmless” or “electronic,” because
of the negative perception based on low- resolution point-and-shoot results
of the past. “Real” pros still used film. It was a tough
battle, but time has The rapid advances in digital capture and output technology in the last five years have been phenomenal. It’s as if the turn of the new millennium ignited the imaging companies to accelerate quality and lower costs. They put this technology into the hands of more artists, labs and amateur shooters than ever before. I have accepted the fact that I don’t belong to an exclusive club anymore and have tried to help others who have recently joined the digital ranks and are stuck with the problems. These days, all digital 6-megapixel cameras on the market can create some amazing images in the hands of people who can see and think clearly when using their tools. We have the ability to create images of greater range, quality, and versatility than with film with much lower cost and higher efficiency.
Film cameras are being retired from active duty and no longer differentiate the “pro” from the amateur. So, tell us, Claude, what does? The following words come to mind: anticipation, composition, confidence, craft, experience, timing, tenacity, focus, work speed, sales, reaction, psychology, efficiency, making people at ease, presentation, posing, lighting, “mind’s-eye,” exposure/color control, contrast control, good hygiene, bladder control, appropriate dress code, stamina, perspective, dedication, courtesy, timeliness, organization, backup gear, design, deductive reasoning, vendor relationships, continuing education, commitment to excellence, artistic vision, Photoshop, and one of the most important: responsibility.
Different
Work Habits By way of their smaller sized imaging chips, digital cameras like the Fuji S2, Sigma SD-10, Canon 10D, and Nikon D1H, give us 2–3 stops greater depth of field and more ambient light sensitivity with less noise than their medium format film counterparts. Because focal lengths are different on a digital camera (because of their smaller imaging chips) a 28mm lens is now considered a “normal” lens for 6-megapixel SLRs. This is opposed to the traditional 75–90mm normal lens for medium format. The greater depth of field of the shorter normal lens of digital cameras allows us to use larger apertures and maintain depth of field, thereby increasing working illuminant sensitivity for any given scene.
I recently showed a friend how to bounce his Nikon SB-26 Speedlight on his new Fuji FinePix S2 Pro at ISO 1600 off of a 30-foot church ceiling. He was astounded to see that an on-camera TTL flash with four AA-size batteries could illuminate the entire church. With ISO 400 film at f/8, this feat would require roughly 1600 watt-seconds of flash power to achieve similar results, which would increase the ratio of flash-to-ambient illumination by five stops, effectively removing the effect of ambient illumination from the image. The flash intensity is closer to the ambient light level than it ever was with film. This difference allows us to create a greater variety of images without the traditional “black background” from flash falloff, caused by the greater differential between ambient and flash illumination levels. Even with larger apertures, there is adequate depth of field (with smaller digital imaging chips, think f/4, not f/8). With prime lenses (50mm and 85mm) in the f/1.2–f/1.8 range, we can capture handheld images at a reception illuminated by a single candle in the middle of a table. The results are simply amazing. To achieve similar results with medium format, we would need 150 or 250mm lenses at f/4, using grainy high-speed film and a tripod to accommodate the resultant 1/4 second shutter speed, increasing the incidence of blurred subjects.
In normal lighting, it’s also fun to work with lenses from 8mm to 300mm and still fit them in one bag. The digital artist has more fun than the film artist and can be more creative without counting frames. Wedding coverage demands that the photographer “chase the light” all day. The art of digital weddings demands that photographers muster all the lighting and exposure skills they own to combat the great variance of lighting intensity, quality, and color throughout the day. To adapt and control light, a photographer must use of all tools and techniques necessary. Once mastered, we are free to create. When labs used to control color and density from our negatives, we needed to create and record printable lighting ratios on the negative and let the lab worry about the rest. We never saw “color” until we got proofs back. Effectively, whether we print our own work or not, we are now “the lab,” since we get to see color immediately on our LCD displays during capture. Later on, our computer monitors and Photoshop act just like the lab’s video analyzers of the past. Digital capture requires acute awareness of lighting ratios, much tighter exposure controls and new camera habits that compensate for color shifts present in all recorded scenes. As a perfectionist, I always carry a Minolta V Flashmeter and a Wallace Expo-Disc around my neck. These are the basic tools required to maintain control at all times. Since I started using the Expo-Disc, I don’t have to carry a gray card or a color meter to custom gray-balance a scene. I try to stay in charge of my color and exposure at all times throughout the day by using these tools and my camera’s manual exposure controls and custom white balance features. This allows for the total control of ambient light indoors and out in combination with on- and off-camera flash. Here’s my top 11 guidelines (OK, rules) for digital wedding
photography—since
10 wasn’t enough: 2. Calibrate an incident meter to your camera and use it. 3. Respect the meaning of 0.1 stops on your meter—it really counts. 4. Do not increase contrast or saturation in your camera settings, use normal or less. 5. Do not go beyond standard sharpening settings in your camera, especially at high ISOs. It will increase noise levels. 6. Discipline yourself to process all images in-camera using high quality JPEG files to ease the workflow later. 7. Do not rely on a histogram for judging exposure, it’s too interpretive. 8. Instead, use your calibrated incident digital flash/ambient meter ahead of time for each scene. 9. Use the camera’s custom gray/white balance for each scene. 10. Use the camera’s auto white (gray) balance only as a secondary choice when you can’t do No. 8. 11. Never over-sharpen an image file. Claude Jodoin has been involved in digital imaging since 1986 and has not used film since 1999. email: claudej1@aol.com. Claude Jodoin will be presenting a program at WPPI 2004 on Tuesday, Feb. 24, entitled “The Art of the Digital Wedding.” |
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Several years ago, just using the words art and digital
in the same sentence created disinterest among photographers. No one
was even slightly interested, simply because the cost of digital was
too high and, with few exceptions, the nation’s portrait labs had
not yet begun to “print pixels.” To top it all off, the emotional
fear factor on the part of photographers kept them from embracing digital.
I had been working digitally since 1986 as an industrial photographer,
so the concept was not new to me.
proven
me correct. An easel displaying a 30x40 of a bride and groom captured
with a Foveon 12-megapixel prism camera, next
to the same size optical print from medium format film served as proof
of the superiority of digital. That usually settled any issues that the
engineer types/grooms might have had with the notion of filmless capture
and quality of output. For me, the “digital vs. film” debate
was over in 1999. I said goodbye to dust and grain forever.
In 2003, even the most stubborn film holdouts have
now purchased digital SLRs to add to their wedding camera arsenal. They’re
available now for between $1–$2000 with no compromise in quality
making fine images up to 11x14 and beyond. This makes competition among
wedding photographers
greater than ever, since it is possible to gear up with twin bodies,
flashes, cards, zoom lenses etc. for less than $5000. 
All cameras are nothing more than recording
devices. Digital cameras are just tools, so leave all the “romantic
notions” of digital
in the last millennium. There’s too much work to be done.
