I went to the local college campus on Sunday to shoot some architecture. Stopped by the student union to use the restroom, heard some music so went to check it out. Seemed like an open mike karaoke, stayed a while to take some shots of the singers. As I was packing up, the organizer came over to talk with me. It was a rehearsal for an event one of the Chinese clubs at the University was doing that night. Basically like the TV show the Voice. A bunch of singers and a panel of judges. He invited me to come back and photograph the event. I got around 200 keepers and provided a link to the organizer. Had a really nice time, most of the lyrics were in Chinese, but music is universal.
As always comments are welcome, especially about how to improve editing.
Thanks
Steve
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s640 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s500 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s640 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/160s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s500 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s250 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s1000 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s640 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM4Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM) lens135mmf/1.81/320s500 ISO0.0 EV
Danpbphoto wrote:
I will say the on my calibrated monitor, the skin is reddish.
This in a restroom?
Dan
Thanks Dan,
The calibration comment is exactly the sort of thing I want. I currently have two uncalibrated monitors, was looking into something to calibrate them but not sure how to do that exactly. I think the other issue is my sense of correct color is a bit weak. Seems to go better if I use an expodisc to measure the light, wasn't able this time.
Do you think it's an issue of the Kelvin being too high or too much red tint?
This in a restroom? Grammar is not one of my strengths either. Kind of a coffee shop / study area that has a stage for karaoke
tschopp wrote:
Thanks Dan,
The calibration comment is exactly the sort of thing I want. I currently have two uncalibrated monitors, was looking into something to calibrate them but not sure how to do that exactly. I think the other issue is my sense of correct color is a bit weak. Seems to go better if I use an expodisc to measure the light, wasn't able this time.
Do you think it's an issue of the Kelvin being too high or too much red tint?
This in a restroom? Grammar is not one of my strengths either. Kind of a coffee shop / study area that has a stage for karaoke
Always appreciate the nice comments. ...Show more →
I am in no way a qualified commentator of an reliabilty on calibration. I use NEC MultiSync monitors, 27-30""
I am not sure your remark about ,"sense of color", to me, that is a negative field leaned skill, at least for me!
I learn form my mistakes. At least I "think" I do!
I am uneducated on the "expodisk". Try it!
But the series is great! Great sharp, crisp images....Heh you are there!
Dan
I concluded I really need to figure out how to calibrate my monitors. I often post these from home and then read comments at the office on a different monitor. The home monitor is not as red. I tried a couple different white balance for the first shot. Sample 1 I pulled a white balance off the teeth (most people I shoot won't have white enough teeth for that to be an option). This kept the Kelvin around the same level but pulled the tint from -4 to -15 towards green away from red.
The second sample is halfway between -4 and -15
The third sample is Auto White Balance out of camera, this was 1000K higher with the tint at -4.
tschopp wrote:
I concluded I really need to figure out how to calibrate my monitors.
It does help. When someone says "I look blue!" you can say "well, on my calibrated monitor your skin tone is lovely"
SpyderX Pro is easy to use and fast.
Then onsite do a test shot of a ColorChecker Passport. That gets you accurate colour, from which you may adjust to taste.
Or you can use one of the many only 'calibration' sites to try and tweak your monitor, then just a grey card onsite will get 95% of that you need. Or you can take WB from eyeballs, generally does an okay job.
Why so tight, flat and identical compositions? Where is the stage in those pictures? Where are the "play" of lights/shadows from the stage? Why there is any picture of public/fans having fun? There is no any sign of "vibe" from this concert in these pictures. Im also not a fan of colors and overall postprocess. And images are WAY to sharp for my taste
Sorry, but it is hard for me to find any nice words to comment posted images.
BeatX wrote:
Why so tight, flat and identical compositions? Where is the stage in those pictures? Where are the "play" of lights/shadows from the stage? Why there is any picture of public/fans having fun? There is no any sign of "vibe" from this concert in these pictures. Im also not a fan of colors and overall postprocess. And images are WAY to sharp for my taste
Sorry, but it is hard for me to find any nice words to comment posted images.
Thanks for the reply. They are doing a final round of this next weekend in an actual club and they asked me to come shoot it. It should have more dynamic lighting. Hopefully I will be able to get some interesting crowd shots. For this set of photos I only brought my 135GM. For the next round I am planning on bringing a 24-70 and 135.
The lighting was what it was. No variation in lighting, no different colored accent lights, no shadows that they wandered into. There was one girl who was moving a bit, the rest were stationary (standing in one spot or sitting in a chair). I personally liked the tight shots, but I have others not as tight I didn't show. The "stage" had some distracting elements that I preferred to eliminate with a crop. When I was at the venue earlier in the day I concluded I wanted a tele for this.
You might be disappointed by the audience photos or not understand the vibe of this show. The vast majority of the audience was doing homework during the show. That might sound odd, but not uncommon for serious students at this university. There was one table relaxing and playing cards, even the performers were doing homework when not their turn. I don't know how to describe the music, it was very mellow. I suspect the audience will react a bit different at the club, at least no opportunity to do homework. There was one performer they got excited for, I will make a note to get some crowd shots during his set.
I didn't add any sharpening, that is just the 135GM. How would you recommend I pull down the sharpening? I am open to suggestions you have for different processing. Feel free to make some edits to your taste and describe what you did. I am very sincere about wanting to get better. There are a bunch of great photographers here and I post to improve my skills.
Allright, now it makes more sense
So if I can give You advice.. when You make a documentry of concert, try to show Your audience how it was during the show, show emotions, show whole place, show public - whatever they interacts with artists or not, show musicians playing their instruments, look for details, try diffirent angles, try to compose against strong light source.
And very important thing, try to compose images to achieve depth in Your images.
This way photos will get more 3D pop: https://zevendesign.com/creating-depth-art-photography/
Simply, dont take just tight headshot portraits of performances from one spot
Sorry, for not top quality of uploaded photos - but as You can see in exif data, those images was taken by me in 2008-2009, and back then I cannot afford for fullframe
Please notice variety of focal lenghts in lenses I did use to document events.
BeatX wrote:
Allright, now it makes more sense
So if I can give You advice.. when You make a documentry of concert, try to show Your audience how it was during the show, show emotions, show whole place, show public - whatever they interacts with artists or not, show musicians playing their instruments, look for details, try diffirent angles, try to compose against strong light source.
There was a student also doing photography and video of the event. He was doing the wide shots that would capture the venue. I didn't think wide shots of the stage made sense, basically one person standing on a stage 10m wide with nothing but a black background and no interesting lights. The upload here allows 12 images, most people only upload a few. If you think there is an image that should be captured, it does not mean it wasn't, it likely just wasn't shown. Lot's of assumptions about what the event was like and what was actually shot. For example the angles, I shot at +-45, straight on, and 90. Those were the only ones that made sense at this location.
One thing I wanted to give them was something the student photog could not do. Given I have a fast tele and a 60MP sensor, that will provide some shots they simply could not get otherwise.
Thanks for sharing some photos, and welcome to FM!! Were you on DPreview prior and now looking for a new forum? Looks like your concerts were a completely different vibe than this. One of the male singers was doing a super high pitched falsetto that got the crowd worked up a bit, I think that will be the best chance to capture some emotion, but it won't be anything like your shots. No Instruments, just one singer at a time. Hopefully the club has some interesting lights.
A shot from the side with a B&W convert, a curve adjustment, and some grain added along with the original color. I don't have a ton of artistic sensibility and I didn't get into photography when B&W was a necessity, so I tend to view B&W as a bit cliché. Until very recently I never even tried B&W conversions of color images.
tschopp wrote:
welcome to FM!! Were you on DPreview prior and now looking for a new forum?
Hello! Thx for the welcome and being hospitable!
Yes, I've beed DPReview member but wasnt much active in there.
Just small talk here and there.
tschopp wrote:
A shot from the side with a B&W convert, a curve adjustment, and some grain added along with the original color. I don't have a ton of artistic sensibility and I didn't get into photography when B&W was a necessity, so I tend to view B&W as a bit cliché. Until very recently I never even tried B&W conversions of color images.
Well, this is waaaay more interesting photo than previous ones
You added some "life" in this particular shot, by introducing strong S curve to b&w conversion (great choice), some grain and diffirent perspective in composition.
Now its looks more organic, more like photograph - not another digital snapshot with perfect image quality.
I know, that its opposite to common trend, but I find photos with perfect image quality being "lifeless". They are just to sterile for my taste.
In terms of people photography - add some imperfections like vignette, barrel distortion, grain, and photo will look like artwork.
Your last photo is best example what I mean
BeatX wrote:
Now its looks more organic, more like photograph - not another digital snapshot with perfect image quality.
I know, that its opposite to common trend, but I find photos with perfect image quality being "lifeless". They are just to sterile for my taste.
In terms of people photography - add some imperfections like vignette, barrel distortion, grain, and photo will look like artwork.
Your last photo is best example what I mean
I have to wonder if people tend to see 1960’s type artifacts as artful because they have seen photos from that era and were told it is art. I don’t know, but suspect the S curve may be a quality of fast B&W film. Certainly grain is as are various lens imperfections. I have to admit I like the affect of undercorrected speherical aberration.
The kids in these photos have only known digital cameras. I’m not sure if they have the same appreciation for vintage qualities. I think I will make a few different types of edits and see what they like best. That may be a very unique sample as they are clearly not your typical late teen / early twenties American. One thing I did notice was no tattoos on any of them.
Grammar is not one of my strengths either. Kind of a coffee shop / study area that has a stage for karaoke
