Quiver - pub rock band.

[loose cannon]

One of the best pub bands I've heard, these guys are top shelf.

Shame these pics don't have sound.

I've posted images of this band before, the lead singer (John) left town quite a while ago but was back this week for 5 gigs so there was no way I was going to miss out.

Lighting at the venue is terrible so these have been pp'd to death to breathe some life into them. I think the processing suits so I'm happy with these. That doesn't mean you have to be, fire away.



John on bass, Mr Joe Cool if there ever was one.







'Cookie' on lead, been playing rock/blues since he could walk.







Rob on drums, we just call him Mr Intensity.

[sejac]

I wish bands showed a bit more consideration toward photographers regarding the lighting. So selfish! Typical musos. It's all about me, me, me!!

I love #2, though I wish the tip of the guitar neck wasn't cut. #3 as well speaks/shouts/screams to me!

#1 is a bit busy in the composition department for me. Pity you couldn't zoom in a bit more.

The 7D should do pretty well in handling the low light. Expose for the highlights and shoot MAN is what I usually do with a reasonable shutter speed, and open up the aperture. A fast lens sure helps in these situations. I always use the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS.

[loose cannon]

I wish bands showed a bit more consideration toward photographers regarding the lighting. So selfish! Typical musos. It's all about me, me, me!!

I love #2, though I wish the tip of the guitar neck wasn't cut. #3 as well speaks/shouts/screams to me!

#1 is a bit busy in the composition department for me. Pity you couldn't zoom in a bit more.

The 7D should do pretty well in handling the low light. Expose for the highlights and shoot MAN is what I usually do with a reasonable shutter speed, and open up the aperture. A fast lens sure helps in these situations. I always use the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS.

Thanks for the feedback Charles.

I'm disappointed with #2 as well, just a whisker more and it would be fine. No excuse there, just my mistake. Might even go back to photoshop and see if I can't work some magic with the clone tool but I don't really like doing that sort of thing, feels like I'm cheating.

With #1 I was trying to get a nice composition with the two guitar necks but it never happened.

The drummer is a hoot to shoot! Great mate of mine and despite looks to the contrary is one of the finest musicians I've heard, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums or whatever. Makes it all look so easy.



I have a gap in my lens collection that's causing me grief.

17-55mm is ok but then I jump to the big bird lens 100-400mm.

The 100-400mm is too slow for a dark pub but I fired a few shots at 1/15 that came out ok, shoot a short burst and there's a good chance one will be good. The drummer was well lit so the big lens just got the job done.

The 17-55 is a little too short at least for this venue and I'd love something slightly longer. All night I was struggling and almost all images from the 17-55 need cropping, I don't like that if I can avoid.

I could live with the lighting if it was more even but it's beyond terrible. The lead guitarist was almost impossible to capture as he is in darkness from mid-chest up, perfect lighting if I was doing a shoot for Jeans West but it drove me mad. The only good shots I got were when he stepped back from the mic and moved around a bit and even then it was hit and miss.

I've done a little bit of stage lighting over the years and this venue drives me nuts. Have spoken to the manager but he's not really interested. I might end up offering my services for free and get a ladder to focus the lights myself, it's the only way I'll get some clean shots. I'm too old for tall ladders!

At the end of the first set I grumbled to the band about the lights, after all they did ask me to come down and shoot. The light on the bass player and lead were initially only red lol, just one light on each, while the drummer, wearing white, was lit up like a neon sign. *sigh* No way could I shoot all three in the one frame.

Changed to some green/blue and it was fractionally better.


Ok, end of rant lol.

The 7d does well at the higher iso's and I was impressed. All images taken at either 5000 or 6400 iso. A bit noisy in the some areas but they clean up very well indeed.


Now I'm waiting for the phonecalls, "Did ya get any great pics of me me me !!"

[sejac]

I feel your pain Mick. Crap light is one thing, but no light is a whole different matter!

I noticed your lens line-up, and wondered how you coped! I find the 70-200 f2.8 indispensible, and with the IS, I can shoot at 1/80 or 1/100 with confidence. Musos tend to move around too much for shutter speeds less than about 1/80 to be useable.

The other thing is, shoot RAW. I know this will set the whingy-winey jpeg purists off again, but this is a situation where RAW comes into it's own.

While you were away, I think, I posted up this example of a before and after shot and what you can do with a RAW file that may be more difficult shooting only jpeg.

Guess which is the before/original, and which is the processed shot! Ha Ha!!

Here is one link, and here is the other one.

And as for ladders.... I always find the ground breaks my fall, so I just don't worry anymore!!

[loose cannon]

I really have to pick my moment to press the shutter Charles. It's like bird photography , at night, no flash, trying to nail a twitchy wren that's hiding in a bush under a street light.

Here's a SOOC snap taken to guage the light.

Edit to add exif: f/3.2 ss 1/60 iso 6400








The light is all directed to centre stage and the guitarists stand out wide, arghhhh!! Lol. Even on the drummer the light falls on his belly, I'm gunna ask him not to wear white!

It's like trying to shoot a sunset.

I always shoot raw, I love and need the flexability. Some images have been boosted at least 1.5 stops in DPP then transfered to Photoshop where the dodge tool gets a workout and maybe a curves layer to lighten some more. Hit hard with noise reduction and then add strong contrast to darken the background (using masks to isolate bits ) and kill the last of the background noise. Phew! Lot of pp on these images but the way I look at is they are never going to be printed large, maybe 8x12 (ish) and viewed from an appropriate distance they scrub up just fine.

All the lights are LED too, they don't seem to provide a nice wash across the stage like the old par 56 and 64 cans do. Dunno, haven't seen them in action much up here.

Converting to b&w saves the day. It suits the images imho and allows me a lot of latitude in pp.


I'm all ears if anybody has any tips about how I could go about this better.

I'll go and have a look at those links Charles, thanks again.

[avkomp]

I prefer the last 2 images for reasons already mentioned.

I havent done much of this sort of thing but seems to me that upping the iso and copping the results is the answer.

the kelby training I saw pretty much did just that.
obviously some cameras will go better than others at that.

having said that people arent looking for ultrafine detailed images as you might expect from a model shoot,
so what you get from high iso and noise reduction software are gonna be fine imho.

[sejac]

I'm all ears if anybody has any tips about how I could go about this better.

I'll go and have a look at those links Charles, thanks again.

Mick, I think you're doing all you can. Perhaps just aquire a sturdy ladder and get to work on the lights!

From what you said about your PP, I think you'd like LightRoom 4. The only software that I regularly actually buy for myself. As you can see, I still use PhotoShop 7!

Consider downloading a 30 day trial of LR4 from Adobe - fully functional. Has a lot of 'tools' to help you tweek those troublesome light conditions, and easier to use than Photoshop, IMHO.

[loose cannon]

I prefer the last 2 images for reasons already mentioned.

I havent done much of this sort of thing but seems to me that upping the iso and copping the results is the answer.

the kelby training I saw pretty much did just that.
obviously some cameras will go better than others at that.

having said that people arent looking for ultrafine detailed images as you might expect from a model shoot,
so what you get from high iso and noise reduction software are gonna be fine imho.

Thanks Stephen, overall I'm happy with the end result and agree that cranking the iso is the way to go. Just wish for more even lighting to make my job easier lol. It's challenging, so that's good really. I just get frustrated as this is one of the better venues to shoot at.

Mick, I think you're doing all you can. Perhaps just aquire a sturdy ladder and get to work on the lights!

From what you said about your PP, I think you'd like LightRoom 4. The only software that I regularly actually buy for myself. As you can see, I still use PhotoShop 7!

Consider downloading a 30 day trial of LR4 from Adobe - fully functional. Has a lot of 'tools' to help you tweek those troublesome light conditions, and easier to use than Photoshop, IMHO.

I have L3 but can't seem to get into it at all Charles. Everybody raves about it so I know the problem is with me not the software. Don't know why but I just prefer cs3 but will have another crack at L3 soon. It's a pretty little icon, such a shame not to click on it.


Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Mikey054]

For me....I really like live music...good stuff...I like em.
Mike

[loose cannon]

^^ Cheers Mikey. I love capturing these guys in action and have quite a good series of images now. Very happy.

[wilorichie]

Mick, I really like your first photo.

I know the focus is on the speaker/beer, but having the guitarist slightly oof really gets me going on this photo. It has emotion.

As I said, I really like this photo. Nice work mate

[loose cannon]

Thank you Richard. Because these guys are good mates of mine the images all have some sentimental value for me and I find it hard to run an unbiased eye over them.


Appreciate the feedback.

[timmo]

maybe Santa will fill that gap you have Mick with a sweet 70-200 2.8 or something
I think these have all come out very well condsidering the dramas with the lighting.
cheers
tim

[loose cannon]

The 70-200 2.8 is leapfrogging its way up my must have list! On my East Pilbara trip I was having problems with the gap between the 55mm and the 100mm. Zooming with the feet is not always an option and I felt frustrated at times and have been thinking about this lens ever since. For band shots it could be just what I'm looking for as the 55mm is proving to be too wide on many occasions. I'm 'seeing' shots that I can't take and the 100-400mm doesn't like poor light so that doesn't help.

Santa is going to have to lift his game and hopefully he'll turn up a bit early this year as well. Somebody needs to tell him it's not just the kiddies that need new toys!

Thanks for the feedback tim.