Wedding photographer Jason Vinson (@vinsonimages_jason) typically uses a variety of Sony Alpha cameras and Sony lenses to document a couple’s wedding day. When he recently got his hands on the Sony Xperia PRO-I, he was curious about how the smartphone’s camera would perform for his type of work. “I wanted to know what this phone could do in an unpredictable and professional environment, and being that I’m a wedding photographer I thought it would be a pretty dang good test.” In order to ensure he was fully relying on the device and not just using it for ideal situations, it’s the only thing he packed in his bag for the day – no camera to fall back on. In this video from the Sharpen YouTube Channel he walks us through the different parts of the wedding – getting ready, the ceremony, the reception – and how he captured each with the Xperia PRO-I.

See how wedding photographer Jason Vinson worked a full wedding day using just the Sony Xperia PRO-I.

When photographing the wedding, Vinson says he was pleasantly surprised that he wasn’t getting any strange looks for shooting with a smartphone. He made sure to make it clear that he was there doing a job and didn’t have any issues. “This just goes to show that you don’t need the big giant lens and updated camera body simply for how a client will perceive you, at least in the world of wedding,” he says. "No one seemed to care or give me a second glance. I was shooting on a phone and you'd have thought it was an everyday thing for a professional to be doing."

Vinson was shooting alongside a lead photographer and video team, so he was limited in what he could do with his lighting so as to not affect their shots. Because of this, he mostly shot natural light for the duration of the day except for the reception. At the reception he checked with the lead team to make sure he could place a single light between the couple for their first dance. 

While editing the images, Vinson notes how well you can recover details throughout the different lighting of the day. “Once the wedding was over it was time to jump into Capture One,” he explains, “and most photographers will be happy to hear that the files off of this phone are actually 12-bit RAW files. So there is a fair amount of color-grading you can do without any sort of weird artifacting or blotchiness and stuff like that. When it comes to dynamic range, there actually is a fair amount of highlight detail that you can recover.”

Vinson doesn’t plan on only using the Xperia PRO-I for his wedding photography work in the future, but calls the smartphone a pretty big win in his book. “Now I would never suggest any of you all trade in your professional cameras and start shooting full time on your phone. Although in a pinch, I do think someone could get by with this. But mostly this is just a testament that this makes for a great, everyday, carry-in-your-pocket-type camera. This camera has features like full manual control, AF tracking, a better sensor and better glass, and these are things that you would normally only be able to find in a dedicated camera so add in the fact that it has a phone included and that’s a pretty big win in my book. Because if I can take professional and deliverable wedding images on a phone, then surely it’s enough to document everyday life.”

See the full wedding slideshow taken with the Sony Xperia PRO-I below and see more of Vinson's work on his website.

See more about the Xperia PRO-I HERE.

See more about the Xperia lineup HERE and HERE.