Unique Raleigh wedding photography
Congratulations to my most recently married couple- Brian & Kelley.
There are not many wedding photographers who offer film, but I find that by combining digital images with traditional B&W, I can achieve a look unparalleled by other photography studios.
The image above was shot with traditional B&W film. My favorite B&W film it Kodak TMAX film. It’s grainy. It’s high contrast. It’s very distinct. It makes a wonderful wedding photograph.
Above are photographs of the ceremony using a Supersampler camera, a plastic contraption with four lenses that takes 4 photos over 2 seconds on ONE photograph. Crazy huh? Since it is a normal negative, you can get the photos printed anywhere (though many people, even lab technicians, have not seen it before and will look blankly at the negatives).
I love the creativity and oddness of these “lomographic” cameras. I own about 10 different ones, and started using them at weddings to supplement my coverage. This is NOT something you can create digitally. At least not easily…
The two shots above were photographed on cross-processed film.
What is cross-processing (x-pro)? Simply put, you take slide or print film, and instead of developing them in the proper chemicals, you throw them into the wrong developer. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, huh? Well it works beautifully- once you understand what happens. As you can see from the images, contrast is increased & the film shows a distinct green-blue bias.
Each brand of film responds differently to cross-processing. Some appear blue, others red. I often use Kodak slide film to get these results. You should see what happens with Fuji Velvia X-Pro!
More black & white photos during the ceremony.
Another B&W of Brian.
I find it refreshing to not look at the back of my camera to check the historgram. Film has a wider latitude range than digital, especially true B&W. Basically, this means that film will record more information in the highlights and shadows. Digital clips the information somewhere unless you have very controlled lighting or low contrast scenes.
My secret-weapon, the 35mm panoramic Russian camera- the Horizon Perfekt. The manual was in Russian, so I had to learn by trial and error. 
The Horizon has a moving lens that covers 160 degrees. It’s fantastic for people or architecture because it elongates & stretches people wonderfully. You can see how Kelley’s torso is pushed back in space in the photo above. The negative ends up being twice the length of a standard 35mm.
A few more Supersamplers. Somehow, I got a little solarization behind Kelley’s head. I have never seen this before. What a wonderful accident.
Another Supersampler. It is neat to be able to move the camera and photograph the bride from two sides.
I often throw the Supersampler in the air as it takes a picture.
You can bet I would not do that with my uber expensive digital cameras!
The image on the right was shot on Kodak TMAX 3200 high-speed B&W film. The point-sized grain is amazing- especially when scanned for post-production. Very vintage.
Now I admit, I have cheated. This photograph is in fact digital photography. However, it is a digital image from a modified digital camera that will ONLY shoot B&W infrared. No post production trickery. None.
For those of you not familiar with infrared photography, anything alive emits infrared light. Since our eyes do not extend into this spectrum, we cannot see the “glow”. However, infrared film and modified cameras can. The result is glowing skintones and white foliage.
The results and uniqueness speak for themselves.
You can see the vast differences between this Supersampler image and the infrared photo above. They were shot within seconds of one another.
An idea I had from the Sun Magazine. There was an excellent photo essay of someone who took pictures of people with their eyes closed. It is a cool idea that I will continue to adapt to my wedding and portrait work.
I often find ideas for wedding photographs from non-wedding related images- album art, gallery showings, artsy movies, etc.
There are more examples of my lomographic and modified camera work on my lomo website.
I appreciate your thoughts and comments.
All the best,
Ryan
(919) 645-8345
ryan@rfoxphoto.com
PS- Don’t worry, I shot over a thousand “normal” digital photographs too!
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