still waiting for pics.....



but it's ok if you don;t want to post them, don;t want to pressure you into it!

(might want to ask her first too)


I had a g/f who went ubber nuts after she found a photo on here i posted asking for the light to be fixed in it....

tho i think she was more freaked out by the "she's fit" and "knighty does girls 5 at a time" type replies

1) DON'T USE A ZOOM LENS they won't allow enough light in

2 A 50mm F/1.8 is adequate and the cheapest option, but you will find a f/1.4 a brighter option.

3) A 100mm or 135mm F/2 will enable you to take the pictures from further away.

4) Use shutter priority and go for at least 1/30th of a second with a 50mm, 1/125th with a longer lens.

5) Take lots of photographs, don't expect all of them to come out perfect.

The main issues are speed of action and ambient lighting rather than noise. A shutter might be an issue during a fairly quiet classical piece but not during a heavy rock gig. Avoid flash if at all possible.

Check your photos, preferably before the gig ends, just in case.

If the photos are bad you can also 'cheat' by getting the performer back after the gig, positioning them, and taking photos while they are standing still.

So here we are...figured I'd do them in rough order to see if others agree they got better as they were going along..

First act

Andy1 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Kathryns guitar on a table, didn't have long as she was just setting up, I think it'd have been a good shot if in focus ><

Guitar by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

And the amazing lass herself...

K2 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


K5 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Low angle = good...table corner = bad

K7 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Final act, I think these ones came out the best

Xander1 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Xander2 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

I think part of it is that because last guy is standing up you have managed to get a slightly low angle without ending up with the table corner in shot.

Also the exposure is better on the last two. I think that may be because Katherines guitar is white, which is fooling the meter a bit.

Of the shots of her, compositionally I like K5 (middle one) best, although if it were mine I'd have a go at cloning out the table corner. It's a bit flat looking colour wise though, I'd have a look at the raw (assuming you shot raw) and see if you can bring the exposure up a bit and tweek the curves. Downside is that will bring out more noise, but I think it might be worth it.

Zpyder, you are getting a bit of a yellow cast on some of them, actually very common with artificial lighting. Worth adjusting the colour balance at least.

if I was trying to correct the WB on these, I'd do an ink dropper WB on your lady friend's guitar then (assuming the lighting stayed constant throughout) use the results of that on all of them.

It can be very tricky to get WB right in some situations, especially if there are multiple types of light sources present.

with my camera (and I assume this is true of all Bayer pattern cameras to some extent) under tungsten light the gain on the blue channel ends up very high. There's nothing much that can really be done about this, it's just a fact of life, but it means your blue channel ends up effectively at a substantially higher ISO than the green or red.

I've been known to separate the channels in GIMP and do more aggressive noise reduction separately on the blue channel only for shots I really like under poor lighting.

The reason I mention this is it could be what's causing your contrast to go washy when you correct the WB. You could be ending up with crazy speckly noise all over the place in blue only. Levels or curves adjustment might help.

Here are some of sundays photos. I think easily the 100mm is the best lens to use unless the dimensions of the venue dictate otherwise. I got to chat with the "Professional" that was there and swapped lenses with him at one point, he liked the 100mm, and I though his 70-300mm he let me use was pretty cool (though pretty heavy).

First act, "May Day" The expressions of the drummer guy are priceless, most of my shots make him look like a total pyscho.


IMG_2386 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2400 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2433 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2473 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2501 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Second Act "Ant Henson" - Guitar and harmonica.


IMG_2623 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2495 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2641 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2627 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2682 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

3rd Act, Sarah Griffin


IMG_2722 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

And Kathryn


IMG_2838 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2926 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_2899 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_3011 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_3081 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_3106 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Am I right in thinking that the gig photos are getting better, or am I imagining it? Any comments on this and the other gigs shots?