THE FUJI WEDDING CHALLENGE //
CREATE NEW RULES & CREATE NEW WAYS
“When you get comfortable, you reach for the thing that feels familiar, that you know how to do; you know it’s going to work a certain way. The danger though is that you repeat yourself and wind up doing something familiar and safe.” -Trent Reznor on the Gone Girl film score
Over the winter, I had a “lightning bolt moment.”
I gave myself the creative challenge of photographing an entire wedding exclusively on my Fuji medium format camera, limiting myself to the slower pace and minimal accessory options.
Let me walk you through my plans, preparations and results from the other side.
Coming out in 2021, the GFX 50sii is now discontinued. I purchased one last spring. The first lens I bought with it is the Mitakon 63mm f/1.4, manual focus. I was sold on this exact lens when I was planning to buy this camera; however, there was a great pause and slight heartache when discovering it was manual focus. All the hipster YouTubers were in love with this combo, and so was I. I knew I already loved this camera before it was ever in my hands and I was ready to take on the manual focus challenge.
TIME OUT FOR FOCUS TALK:
(from an internet search):
Q: How common is it for a wedding photographer to use manual focus all day?
A: “The short answer is: quite uncommon.
Today, it’s estimated that well over 95% of professional wedding photographers rely primarily on autofocus, especially with modern mirrorless cameras. Eye AF has become incredibly reliable, and on a wedding day there are simply too many fast-moving, once-in-a-lifetime moments to justify manual focus for most people.”
1. In general, Fuji’s auto focus system is just not as quick as any of the other brands.
2. I have very limited experience with manual focus, and especially on a wedding day. The only experience was with my EF Canon 100mm for a large handful of weddings one season struggled to auto focus, so I switched into manual. Usually this lens is just for detail shots (still objects). It actually felt more efficient in how I shoot. THOUGH:
3. The thought of shooting an entire wedding on only manual focus can best be described as this exchange with my fellow wedding photographer pal:
Me: “Can you imagine shooting an entire wedding on just manual focus?”
Photographer pal: “OMG, I want to throw up just thinking about it!”
Me: “I know, it’s like boarder line irresponsible!”
While my camera has been in manual mode my entire life, manual focus feels daunting on any camera system for a wedding. A wedding is a fast-paced, constant scene with changing lighting, no do-overs, and feels like making way more work and risk for the photographer to be in manual focus (and on top of me always loving f/2.0-ish, the shallower focus, the better).
4. Shortly after I purchased the Fuji, I also bought a native Fuji lens (80mm, which is about 50mm in 35mm comparison), just for the auto-focus insurance. Over the last year, to incorporate (this was in addition to my regular Canon system), I would use my manual lens on wedding days for details and I use it as if using film for couple’s portraits. Auto-focus lens would come out for the ceremony for a few scene shots. After reviewing footage over time, I felt I wasn’t really getting the hang of manual focus and would use the Fuji lens more and more for the auto-focus insurance. Even then, the Fuji auto-focus is SLOW, and I really have to test my patience with it.
5. I understand that focus can be subjective (now, more than ever). I think this experiment has been a beautiful lesson in technical focus - really examining what I feel looks dreamy and vs what is just technically off and doesn’t work.
I was connected with a couple, where we had real discussions about the risk of this for their wedding day; certain shots are not guaranteed due to my self-inflicted technical restrictions and the nature of the camera.
This camera is a dream, however, shooting in medium format has definitely shaken my confidence for the fact that the shutter is significantly slower than 35mm, causing lag, not knowing if I have ever “got the shot,” and the unnerving feeling of it in your hands - the shutter nearly shakes your own hands holding it.
It’s like driving a different car - it’s doing the same job, you know how to drive, but the feeling of it like the gas pedal even feel foreign and it takes a bit to settle in with. But! The photos are worth it! The detail, the almost dream-like quality; soft focus fall-off, subtle yet sparkling highlights, and of course Fuji colors are really as lovely as they say. I thought about this wedding every day for the last 8 months; It was like my own Christmas morning with giddy anticipation.
I surrendered completely and welcomed anything.
My gear list going in:
One camera body (3 batteries, 1 charger).
Two lenses: Mitakon manual focus 63mm (f/1.4 and no lens hood) & Fuji auto-focus 80mm (f/1.7 with lens hood).
One on-camera manual* flash with gel pack (gels not used).
Accessories: lens cleaner, flash batteries, travel battery pack.
*This manual flash is a few months old to me and I had been using and playing around, and felt I was ready for the challenge. Also, it felt fun to work under pressure in a different way by throwing myself in the deep end.
My plan going in:
*Knowing that the most important part of the day to the couple was: 1. Ceremony, 2. Family portraits (and for me it’s always the couple’s portraits), my plan was to use the Mitakon manual focus lens for as much as possible, and switch to Fuji auto-focus for ceremony and family portraits for insurance.
*I tried for the first time, the old “turn your screen black and white to see the lighting, or in my case the focusing peaks” better. I’ve known about this and been curious about it for far too long, and was nervous about shooting/viewing in only black and white and not shooting for color. I really think this was the game changer insurance for focusing the whole day. I am also finding that I now need to “edit for color“ since I didn’t “shoot for color,“ which gets way deeper than just reading that simple sentence.
The reality:
*The ceremony was moved into the barn due to rain, so the scene of dark and small (very short aisle, back lighting, etc) I opted to shoot it in manual focus with Mitakon and play with available light. I wasn’t interested in testing my patience with Fujis auto-focus, which actually felt riskier. I felt really confident from shooting the whole morning in manual focus and just went for it. No regrets.
*I used Fuji auto-focus lens for the family portraits as planned for the face detection as backup.
*And while I really wanted to use the Mitakon for the couple portraits, I did keep auto-focus on only for their outside session directly after the ceremony - simply because it has a lens hood and it was raining a bit. Without an assistant or extra set of hands, it would have needed constant cleaning and so I went with safe and smooth for all of our sake.
Aside from both scenes of family & couple’s portraits, the whole day was all shot with manual focus.
What surprised me:
*It was so nice to breath and move in a different headspace, but also simultaneously be limited and restricted.
*It truly is like shooting on a film camera; not only slowing down, but I have way more fun processing the Fuji files because there is such a surprise element.
*The manual flash was a bit tedious, but I was ok with it and really loved how it came out - especially during the speeches and on the couple; it feels like such a 1980s fill flash and I am here for it!
Would I do this again?:
ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. It was thrilling, it changed the way I shot and saw things, was a great lesson in gear, testing myself in patience, quick decision making and shaking things up a bit. (I promise I am still a Capricorn).
