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Richard Alafat's avatar

Hi Gajan, Thank you. Your article was very helpful. Just so happens I am going to a wedding for my niece this upcoming weekend. I am not the official photographer, but my niece knows I will be shooting my m10 and 35mm f1.4 close focus Summilux at her rehearsal lunch, wedding, and reception. The wedding is at 6pm and outside with the reception under a large tent. The outside light should be softer at this hour, and the tent should provide excellent diffused light. I am an amateur, and doing photography for more than 40 years. I want to provide my niece and her husband some special photos to compliment the professional photographer’s work. I had planned on zone focusing mostly and when I can, shoot at f1.4 of the couple to get them for a few portrait shots. Thank you for mentioning angles to shoot from. I will do that too. Any additional advice? Thank you again.

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Gajan Balan's avatar

Nice! Make sure to have fun. Mingle with everyone you can, play with distance, and if possible, bring a small flash for the dance floor. Good luck!

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Richard Alafat's avatar

Hi Gajan, I just returned from the wedding. Excellent results. Zone focused for everything, except the portraits. Was able to shoot 5.6 and f8 for the zone focusing, since the wedding was outside at a spectacular mountain golf course in Colorado with big red rock outcroppings. For the portraits I shot at f1.4 (35mm close focus Summilux), and used the visoflex with focus peaking to nail the eye focus. Amazing falloff rendering. Love this lenses. Decided to use burst mode and turned out to be an excellent decision. Was a cloudy day with dramatic dark clouds and light clouds at the same time. The results were perfect light with a dramatic sky. I took your advice and mingled allot the first day at the rehearsal luncheon. Great advise. I also played around with different angles. Really made for interesting shot. So many keepers. I love the Black and White photos best, though I will also edit in color(CaptureOne). Gajan, I really appreciate your tips, and the way you communicate. Thought you might want to know how this shoot went. The professional shot with a Canon. She was good, but I found she was copying my shots allot. Made me laugh inside. I think she’ll probably give my niece and her husband mostly color photos, so my Black and Whites shots with the Summilux will really be special for them. I’m also going to make them a good photo book in addition to the best photos.

Thank you Gajan!

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Gajan Balan's avatar

Richard, I love reading stories like this. Thank you so much for sharing! Photography should be the communal experience as much as possible and what you did, I have no doubt made for a great shared moment.

Enjoy the journey ✌🏾

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