P 40+ the perfect wedding partner!

Step One For Medium Format Weddings

"The quality continues to astound me", expressed an enthusiastic Jerry Ghionis. Talking about his recent move to the Phase One P 40+ medium format digital back, he added, "I know I said it when I first started shooting with the camera, but the amount of detail is ‘ridiculous’, especially the back’s dynamic range. It’s astounding!"

When the P 40+ was released, Jerry produced a series of studio portraits which were published on the Phase One website. What many people might not have immediately realized is that the portraits were lit with a constant fluorescent light source and the Phase One’s P 40+ sensor set to ISO 400! "It’s amazing how no-one questioned the image quality. I guess they just assumed the photos had been taken using studio flash with the P 40+ back its nominal ISO 50. I think that’s a great compliment because the sensitivity improvements have revolutionized medium format digital photography. Now that I’m able to set the back to ISO 1600, it’s a whole new world out there."

Since taking possession of his Phase One P 40+ a couple of months ago, Jerry has been around the world delivering seminars and leading workshops. Renowned for his business acumen and photographic vision, he is much demand as both a speaker and a photographer, so while he’s been using his P 40+ extensively, he hasn’t yet shot a lot of weddings. "It’s been winter back home in Australia", Jerry explained, "and these aren’t the months my clients generally choose for their wedding ceremony. If they want to be photographed outside or in the afternoon, it’s too cold in Melbourne and so I’m much busier in the summer months – or I’m shooting at a destination further north." And that’s where the photos accompanying this article were shot – further north on Hamilton Island in the heart of Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef, or in Paris, France.

Seeing is believing

Fellow wedding photographers Ryan and Jessica Schembri were married on Hamilton Island. A stone’s throw from the famous sands of Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet, the Island boasts an intimate chapel and a host of glamorous locations for some beautiful portraits. Jerry says he enjoys using the slightly squarer format of the P 40+, it has a more formal quality and reminds him of the Mamiya RB67 he used many years ago. "It’s also a subtle way of differentiating what I do. Most wedding photographers are shooting with a 3:2 ratio DSLR and not cropping, so immediately my images have a different look to them. And then, of course, there is the quality of the medium format capture itself." There are two key quality issues that Jerry sees as fundamental to his work as a wedding photographer. The first is clarity – the sharpness of the image and the resolution of fine detail. Although his hero images will be retouched, especially the skin, there’s no faking in the crispness and clarity of the bride’s eyes, the fine textures and embroidery of her dress, or the flower in the groom’s lapel. You can always reduce the sharpness of an image, but the only way of producing lifelike detail is with a high quality sensor and lens. If there’s one subject that requires a wide dynamic range, it’s a wedding portrait. Invariably the bride is wearing a white dress while the groom is attired in a formal black suit, a nightmarish recipe for many cameras. But not for medium format digital backs. With the physically larger size of the sensor and the commensurately larger size of the individual pixel sites, medium format backs can retain a wider range of brightness values in a single capture.

The P 40+ features a 40-megapixel sensor with pixels individually measuring 6 microns, capable of recording in excess of 12 f-stops dynamic range as a true 16-bit capture. Not only can you capture and retain the detail of both dress and suit in a single exposure, the transitions are beautifully rendered with unparalleled realism. "Even with the bright, contrasty conditions on Hamilton Island, I could take Ryan and Jess to a range of different locations without worrying about the light – but let me explain. Naturally I’m concerned about the light because obviously that’s what makes a great photograph what I mean is that I can find and use a much wider range of light qualities and still retain a beautiful tonal range throughout the image. "Shooting with smaller sensor cameras which have less dynamic range, you need to watch the light much more carefully so you don’t lose detail, either in the shadows or in the highlights. This generally means more restrictions for where you can shoot, perhaps keeping your subjects in shadow or even taking them indoors?" In comparison, Jerry noted that these restrictions are simply not an issue when shooting with the Phase One P 40+ because its dynamic range is wide enough to retain detail even in very contrasty lighting. Jerry said that a number of wedding photographers on internet forums had queried why he needed to change from DSLRs to medium format. "How do you explain the difference in words when it’s such a visual difference? Medium format digital is something you need to experience first hand in order to really understand the quality differences. I love the way I can open my files in Capture One 4 PRO and there is detail everywhere in the image. It’s fantastic."

Handheld

"When you think about it, it’s really incredible that I can shoot hand held with a camera system that delivers so much quality. I used to think you needed to use a tripod and a large format camera to produce image detail like this, but with the Phase One 645 camera, I have no trouble shooting quickly and freely." In fact, the Phase One 645 with a P 40+ back and lens is not that much larger than a professionally specified DSLR camera. And it operates just as easily. The top shutter speed is a movement freezing 1/4000 second, a setting that can be used more often with the Sensor+ technology introduced with the P 40+ (more about that soon). A TTL phase-detection autofocus system with three focus point can quickly and accurately set focus, while TTL metering offers average, spot and auto settings with fully automatic exposure control if you want it. All the professional controls are there as well, including an electronically-activated mirror-up switch, first and second curtain flash synchronization, the ability to accept leaf shutter lenses (coming soon), and three user presets for customizing the camera’s operation.

Sensor+

New technology introduced with the P 40+ enables the back to operate at higher ISO settings and in Sensor+ mode, it can be set as high as ISO 3200, although Jerry believes ISO 1600 will be the top setting for him in a wedding context. Phase One has made some remarkable changes to the way medium format digital backs will be perceived in the future. To date, medium format has generally been used at relatively low ISO settings, unable to compete with the higher ISO settings available on some DSLR cameras. There are two notable changes with the P 40+, one at full resolution and a second change at a smaller resolution. At full 40-megapixel resolution, the P 40+ can be comfortably rated up to ISO 400 and produce remarkably clean, clear, saleable results. Suddenly medium format digital is every bit as good as the film cameras that used to rely on ISO 400 for weddings and portraiture. But digital has gone beyond ISO 400 and while the P 40+ can be used at ISO 800 in full frame mode, by switching to Sensor+ mode it can be used even higher, up to ISO 3200.

This is the second, major change and the new Sensor+ technology is based on ‘pixel binning’. The basic principle is to join four pixels together in order to capture more light, allowing the sensor to operate in lower light situations or to offer higher shutter speeds or smaller apertures in others. In this way, ISO settings can be raised and the camera used in low light or at faster shutter speeds for hand held photography. And the good news is that while switching to Sensor+ mode means you change the back’s resolution from 40-megapixels to 10-megapixels, you don’t change the area of the sensor being used. There’s no unwanted cropping which changes the effective focal length of your lenses.

"I haven’t used the Sensor+ technology very much yet", explained Jerry. "Ryan and Jess’s wedding had plenty of light and so I was able to shoot at ISO 400 in full frame mode, while in Paris I did a shoot indoors, at ISO 800. "And although you can rate the back at ISO 800 in full frame mode or ISO 3200 in Sensor+ mode, I’m more comfortable shooting at a stop lower, at ISO 400 and ISO 1600. It’s nice to have the extra stop there for emergencies, but a stop down gives me remarkable quality that isn’t available with any other camera system."

So, Jerry has completed the first stage of his transition to medium format digital, enjoying the improved sensitivity and raw processing provided by the Phase One P 40+ back and Capture One software. In a couple of months he will report back again, this time with his experiences using Sensor+ mode and shooting at mind-boggling ISO settings for medium format digital photography.