Some live shots for C&C

mishima

These were taken last night at The Grudge, a Tool tribute band in the TBMC using my 350D and my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. I had the lens for a few months but only got to use it at a gig for the first time last night!

Sebzy

very very very nice indeed.

mishima

Thank you Mr. Sebzy!

melekalikimaka

excellent stuff? maybe a bit of smart sharpen on them possibly

mishima

Thanks dude, I'll see what I can do when I get home this evening. Even though it's cheating a bit.. :P

elven

I like them all, but thought that first one was pretty damn good. I've never done gig stuff and from my general low light experiences (bad, always!) I have great respect for great results like this from gigs - with the same kit as me

But, I just can't help myself here - cheating? Sharpening is cheating? Who made those rules? Are we playing a game? Give yourself a break! Do you think the shots in Kerrang or [insert appropriate music magazine title] aren't sharpened or otherwise photoshopped? No need to put silly limits on yourself for no apparent reason.

Sorry. Rant over...

mishima

Thanks a lot elven! I have been taking photos at gigs for the last few years (not very well I'm afraid) but I'm always trying to improve my chances of getting better shots - better equipment, getting access to better venues etc.

"But, I just can't help myself here - cheating? Sharpening is cheating? Who made those rules? Are we playing a game? Give yourself a break! Do you think the shots in Kerrang or [insert appropriate music magazine title] aren't sharpened or otherwise photoshopped? No need to put silly limits on yourself for no apparent reason."

Well perhaps not sharpening! But I'm sort of against altering photos after I have taken them. I always try to take them as well as I can so I dont have to manipulate. This is just for my own shots though. I try to be strict with myself and force myself to frame them as well as possible etc. I hate seeing shots that people have manipulated the hell out of on the likes of deviantart and I don't feel that the end result is representative of what was taken in a lot of cases. But then again, sometimes I'm really impressed.
To conclude, I contradict myself quite a bit... :P

And thanks again for the feedback! I appreciate it!

sineadw

Ooooo they're really nice! I love the first one.

Rojo

Anytime I'm shooting a gig, I always get so nervous in case the lighting is **** or something.. Anyone else?

melekalikimaka

Rojo wrote:

Anytime I'm shooting a gig, I always get so nervous in case the lighting is **** or something.. Anyone else?

yup big time

Sebzy

Yea start crapping it when you get half way through and notice that lighting guy just wont stop sweeping the stage with his new toy a 1000w white unfiltered spot light.

DotOrg

- first one, two much empty space that doesn't work, I'd also, tweak the curves to bring the singer out from the background

- second shot, best of them in my opinion, I'd do a b&w conversion or tweak the white balance or curves to make him stand out more

- third shot, don't like the angle or the fact you can't see his eyes

- 4th shot, too much camera shake



as for post processing, it's not cheating
think about it, you're capturing a 3D moving event, applying an colour temperature to it and saving it as an 8bit 2D jpg file. surely that's cheating as that's not what you had in front of you. ;-)

paudie

I think I prefer the first one out of all of them. I think the second is too OOF to be honest.

mishima

"- first one, two much empty space that doesn't work, I'd also, tweak the curves to bring the singer out from the background"

I thought the empty space worked here. I was going for that effect seeing as I was using the 50mm 1.8 lens and couldnt frame it properly.
I'm not hugely familiar with the likes of photoshop etc so how do I tweak the curves? How will I know when it's "right"?

"- second shot, best of them in my opinion, I'd do a b&w conversion or tweak the white balance or curves to make him stand out more"

Thanks, I was thinking of converting some of them to b&w to see what results I got.


"- 4th shot, too much camera shake"

These guys decided only to use red lights for their set.. I was doomed from the beginning!

"as for post processing, it's not cheating
think about it, you're capturing a 3D moving event, applying an colour temperature to it and saving it as an 8bit 2D jpg file. surely that's cheating as that's not what you had in front of you. ;-)"

You put forth a great argument! Now all I gotta do is learn how to use Photoshop!

"I think I prefer the first one out of all of them. I think the second is too OOF to be honest."

Again, with this lens, some part of the subject is going to be out of focus. Pity that its the guitar and it's so prominent but I did want the focus to be on him.


Thanks a lot for the comments and critique anyway guys. I'll definitely be taking what you all said into consideration. I'll have a few more gigs in a couple of months so hopefully I'll have some more refined shots!

run_Forrest_run

good work, like em a lot.