Need little advice

[ryan_buckley]

I figure I'll need a little advice on this one. So first of all, the wedding --

My brother-in-law's mothers. The reception is in a church that I won't be

able to see until the night before. The head of my tripod recently broke,

meaning it still sits on the legs, but wables. I'm asuming the church rules

that I need to be behind or at the first pew for photography.

 

My equipment:

 

Mamiya 645J w/ 45mm, 80mm and 105-210mm

Canon AE-1 w/ 28mm and 50mm

Nikon F55 w/ Nikor 28-80mm zoom.

 

What i'm hoping for with film is (both 35mm and 120) Plus-X 125 and Portra VC

160 for outdoors and for inside Tri-X and Portra VC 400. I want to stay

consistent.

 

The thing i'm worried most about is inside the church. I don't think I have a

slow enough telephoto for it. If i load my Nikon with 400ISO i'm not sure I

can stop down far enough to get a reasonable shutter speed. I don't want to

jump to Portra 800 either though, but I know the inside pictures are the most

important.

 

I'd love to order a Canon FD 85mm 1.8 lens but I literally have $20 to my name

and would need it by Saturday.

 

I've been considering using the 645 inside with the 105-210 and pushing it to

800 or even 1200, but i think this might be risky. It would've been ideal to

have gotten to the location earlier and tested all of the conditions but

unfortunately i can only be there the night before.

 

Basically, what would you do or what advice would you give?

[ellery_chua___singapore]

Ryan

 

Does your in law know that you are not a professional wedding photographer ? Important point if you want them to still talk to you latter but disregard this if its a throw at getting them to never want to be in the same room as you.

 

Get another tripod or borrow one - a stable one mind you.

 

Use minimunm 400 asa Portra is good or Fuji Press 800 - rate these at 320 and 600 asa. Try not to push if you have to push use the 1600 Fuji Press and rate that at 1200.

 

Do you have a flash ? The no flash rule should only apply during the vows but once the wedding is done normally its ok to use flash. Use the 400 portra with the flash. Rate at 200 to 250 asa. Watch your minumum closest flash point religiously to avoid white out surprises.

 

Interiors I would not use the 645 extensively especially when there is a lot of fast actions. It takes time to load and unload MF rolls and its not a happy thing to find a roll being light fogged because there was a little hicky when doing the unload loading thing. Use the Nikon with the zoom - it will serve you better than the cannon with primes - IF you are using flash. For ambient work use the cannon with the primes - use at least 400 or 800 asa - leave the 100 and 200 at home. Well exposed neg have normal grain, this grain for portra 400 is very controlled and ok even for enlargements. Better a frame that has a decent image than a grainless frame of a blur.

 

I still feel its risky for you to do this - if you are asking these questions means you do not have the answers. Not having the answers means you also will lack some skills which only experience can teach you - it's not possible to do this in a few paragraphs.

 

Also try to find some one to help you keep an eye on the gear it looks you may wind up bring it all - not nice to find out after the day that there are people who will "collect" your unattended gear as their new items in their collection. It's a church so let's not tempt the weak willed.

[merle_white]

Get 1 roll of Portra 800 in 120, plan on shooting through the whole roll during the ceremony. The Portra 800 will balance color wise better with your Portra 400. Buy, rent or barrow a good tripod.

I'm guessing that if you have owned this type of equipment for any length of time, you know how to use it. It is not the kind of equipment you would find in the average armatures bag.

[picturesque]

I second using Portra 800 for the ceremony only, and renting or borrowing a tripod. Borrowing would be good, since you could then spend the $20 on 2 rolls of Portra 800 (120).

[photochick]

not knowledgeable about film cameras, but would definitely get A LOT of film, and then do a mini re-do of the wedding using flash and equipment you are comfortable with. Ring exchange, first kiss are most important. Then if the ones you take during the real thing aren't great, you at least have the re-do's. I did a re-do for one bride and groom where the lighting was so terrible and did more close-up with flash. When putting some from the real thing together with the re-done they can't tell which is which and are happy with the ceremony pics.