I’ll admit to being enticed by the digital medium format because of its incredible resolution and “medium format look.” It’s already been two months of continuous usage. Do I believe it was worth the investment? You should pay more than $10k for a medium-format DSLR camera.
As a portrait and wedding photographer who is fond of medium-format film, I decided to get the Fujifilm GFX100S when it became available since I thought it ticked the boxes for both as a contemporary camera, and I was hoping it would provide me with at least a little of the medium-format goodness I am a fan of. The Fujifilm GFX isn’t perfect; however, it isn’t a disappointment in either aspect. It’s not as amazing like the Mamiya RZ and 110mm film kit, however, the GFX is unique as well as the high-quality of photographs it creates are stunning. Let’s go over a more in depth review of some of the aspects of making use of this camera for weddings or portrait work.
A brief bit of background: It’s true that I’ve worked as a photographer for weddings and portraits for less than half of my life. That means for the last 21 years I’ve spent the majority of my Saturdays firing up my shutters trying to create stunning wedding photographs. I’ve had the pleasure of using a variety of cameras including Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Fujifilm, and even Phase One on hundreds and hundreds of portraits, weddings, and family portraits. Yes, I bought the Phase One IQ160 medium format system a few years ago, which I adored but struggled to integrate it into my portrait and wedding workflow. My current kit comprises two X Series cameras and the Fujifilm GFX 100S together with the 32-64mm GFX f/4 lens as well as the 110mm f/2 GFX.
What Are The Positives of Using the GFX for Weddings, Events, and Portraits?
The reason is actually to pick this camera. No one is surprised that 100 megapixels is a complete overkill, unless not. It is important to note that image quality is not the same as image content. It’s the technical aspect of images that we’re speaking about, and it’s interesting to talk about; however, as the saying goes, there’s nothing worse than a sharp image of a blurred idea.
When I photograph families, portraits of engagements weddings, and couple portraits, I am a sucker to sell prints for walls, often around 4-6 feet. To achieve this, the 100 megapixels of the GFX 100S produce prints that are stunning in a way other cameras I’ve tried could not. Let me make it clear, but without a comparison of the two cameras, you’d never be aware of what you’re missing. My experience is that clients aren’t likely to be disappointed by prints from cameras with lower resolution. In contrast, I believe the comments I get from GFX prints are distinct and sets my work different. Most people who view a large print made with the GFX 100S is going to be engulfed in the finer details that a high-resolution print offers. It’s not every image that will benefit; however, images that have faces, particularly when those faces are smaller than the rest of the picture, could make a huge impact.
I also like that my group shots of 100 megapixels of large wedding parties as well as extended families are crisp and precise from edge-to-edge even when I need take them with an ISO 1600 and with a wide angle lens.
Different Style of Shooting
One of the most significant mental adjustments I’ve had do using the camera was that it’s usually more beneficial to shoot with space to crop rather than to make the frame fill. Even if you were to cut out 50 percent or more of the pixels, you’d have a 50 megapixel image to create prints, which I had to pound into my brain for a long time. Do you need a vertical? Easy. Do you need to crop your image to a super panoramic? Easy. Giving yourself the freedom to experiment with cropping can be a huge advantage for album designs and wall prints, among others. The raw 100-megapixel file is extremely flexible and sharp that it can really enhance your creativity in the design and post-production.
Easier Compositing
As a portrait and wedding photographer, I strive to minimize the amount of intensive editing that I make using composites because it can reduce my workflow. For every single project, it’s apparent these days that there are photos that require an image composite due to something outside my control, or I need to make something I’ve planned out by shooting support frames and combining them into post-production.
If I have a lot of detail to think about to select I can edit and move pixels around to accommodate and have a stunning image that doesn’t turn to the form of mush. If you’ve ever grabbed a part of an image with faces, they are among my top needs and if the picture you picked was not a good representation of the pixels, you’ll be aware that editing, warping and so on. to the face can render it useless. This face could render it unusable. GFX 100S resolution may be reduced on the frame that is used as a base or on a supporting image to make it align more easily.
