Sweeney Todd

Home · Register · Search · Software · Hosting · Software · Join Upload & Sell

FM Forum Rules
What are the criteria?

FM Forums \| Photo Critique \| Join Upload & Sell
end

Sweeney Todd

evillemperor
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · Sweeney Todd

I shot the rehearsal today for our school's musical "Sweeney Todd." I thought it was an interesting play and it was my first time shooting a play ever. The lighting was really harsh for me, which led me to this question, if you use a lens that is only ok wide open, but under terrible light, which sharpness do you sacrifice? Noise or aperture? I did shoot RAW.

charles by Ayers Photo, on Flickr
For this one, I admit that I used Photoshop's lens blur tool.

Rachel by Ayers Photo, on Flickr

Chris and Aundraya by Ayers Photo, on Flickr

Only in a Thought... by Ayers Photo, on Flickr
I really liked this one because of the story behind it. Here, he is singing about the girl behind him, and he longs for her, but her father won't allow for it. I thought it was a good idea to throw her out of focus, and position it as though it were a thought bubble.

Nov 03, 2012 at 02:33 AM

Bob Jarman
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #2 · Sweeney Todd

The focus seems fine. As for your question, and strictly from my limited experiences having recently acquired a body capable of high ISO, there are more than several tools for dealing with noise but you can never add sharpness (lens wide-open but soft) to a blurred image. Although not mentioned, shutter-speed is equally important, since subject/camera shake blur is pretty much permanent. This also is a factor in your equation.

Side comment: in images #s 1 & 4 I find my attention immediately drawn to the blurred actor and I assume, away from the intended subject. Maybe selectively back down the brightness in each blurred area.

regards,

Bob

Nov 03, 2012 at 11:57 AM

sbeme

Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #3 · Sweeney Todd

Here's my thoughts.
1. Cropped too tight. I'd like a bit more room on the left side of the image. The blurring is too strong, coupled with a bright figure as Bob mentioned, it becomes too dominant and distracting.
2. Looks good but still a bit tight. Minor crit, but I wish there was a tad more room on top. (this is coming from someone that has recently posted all sorts of images needing more breathing room along the edges)
3. Looking good to me!
4. Same as #1. Too tight. The blurring makes sense but again, with the bright background figure it becomes a competing and distracting element.

I am not familiar with your camera body. I would be shooting pretty open and high ISO to freeze any action. Since you are trying to isolate the foreground interest, there is not much to lose in shooting wide open with a quality lens, and your lens line-up looks strong. Not sure about framing issues but I like the 100 Macro for these shots.And the 50 1.4 is a good choice for low light. To me, you lose some sharpness below about f2 but there are trade-offs to be made.

Scott

Nov 03, 2012 at 02:47 PM

ben egbert
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · Sweeney Todd

Having done a play, I know the challenges. I used a 70-200 is lens for my effort and Iso800 and 1200. I was surprised that the noise reduction did not hurt that much. Not like it does for landscapes. I suppose it smooths the skin a bit, and some may object, but I liked it. I used f3.2 because my lens is not very sharp wide open.

Your result looks very nice to me. I can't comment on crop, but just on technical quality and ya did good.

Nov 03, 2012 at 03:11 PM

evillemperor
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #5 · Sweeney Todd

Thank you all for critiquing. I should've clarified, using 7d with a 70-200 2.8 is I. For 1 and 4, I will reduce the blurring and turn the brightness down. For 1 that was as wide as i could get it to be. For 2, I will go ahead and uncrop it (the entire bg was black already).

Nov 03, 2012 at 04:24 PM

evillemperor
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · Sweeney Todd

So I replaced the ones that were mentioned, here are the new results:
1.

charles by Ayers Photo, on Flickr

2.

Rachel by Ayers Photo, on Flickr

3. No need.

4.

Only in a Thought... by Ayers Photo, on Flickr

Nov 03, 2012 at 05:05 PM

end
FM Forums \| Photo Critique \| Join Upload & Sell end