My name is Jewels Gray with Shutter Magazine and I am a wedding photographer in Denver, Colorado. I got to use the S1R for a styled shoot I put together and was very impressed by its performance.
The theme of my shoot was “Edgy Bridal”, which is right up my alley. I chose a venue I had always wanted to shoot at and the models we found were deliciously tattooed. My shoots wouldn’t be complete without a car or motorcycle, so we had our “Groom” bring his Indian Scout #swoon.
The 50 mm is my go-to lens for weddings, as I love a little more limited depth of field…that bokeh is butter. The venue has so many gorgeous industrial textures and backdrops that it was hard to choose which ones I wanted to focus on. For the shots with the bike, we went with the double French doors, framed with vines and potted plants. I stayed with this lens and moved in and out to get the different compositions.
Final Images
Final Edit
Settings: 1/400 @ f1.4 ISO 200
Color Correction Edit
Settings: 1/400 @ f1.4 ISO 200
Settings: 1/400 @ f1.4 ISO 200
Settings: 1/400 @ f1.4 ISO 200
Settings: 1/400 @ f1.4 ISO 200
My second favorite spot was the dark and moody lounge set up. The lighting was definitely lower and I wanted to see how that 1.4 would do. As most wedding photographers know, you have to be able to move quickly between environments, adjusting exposures on the fly, and be prepared for almost anything. We delicately placed the model on the sofa and even without any OCF, the shots came out beautifully. Its performance did not disappoint.
One cool feature I noticed is that it changed automatically between the live view and looking through the camera itself as soon as you hold it up to my face. How do they do that!?
Final Images
Final Edit
Settings: 1/200 @ f1.4 ISO 1000
Color Correction Edit
Settings: 1/200 @ f1.4 ISO 1000
Settings: 1/200 @ f1.4 ISO 1000
Overall, I loved how the S1R felt in my hands. You can tell quality by the way things feel and it had some nice weight to it (but not too much for my dainty wrists). It was a pleasure to get to shoot with this rig!