Rick’s Rants and Raves

I was recently informed by my wife that I failed in my attempt at humor in the beginning of the Necessity Gig post. I meant the introductory paragraph tongue-in-cheek. I fully understand that portrait photography is a highly developed skill, and is not easy by any means. I was attempting to be playful by pointing out that adding in darkness, mirrors and pool cues makes the task a bit more challenging. If you, kind reader, thought I was being arrogant, I apologize–I’m clearly better at photography than humor.

OK, now that was arrogant! Ha! Now I’ll have to write a post titled “Humility Fail”.

Not long ago, I switched the D60 to a hand strap, rather than neck strap, because I frequently felt like the neck strap was getting in the way. I’ve rather liked my DIY hand strap for the control and security it gives me while shooting. However, there have been two limitations for the hand strap that have vexed me just slightly: a) one hand is always taken up with the camera, so you can’t do anything that requires two hands such as b) changing lenses without putting the camera down.

Along came an ad for the $50 camera belt clip. I really like the design, but figured I could do a DIY version for next to nothing.

So, I took an extra angle bracket from a recent Ikea project (any angle bracket will do), and a 1/4-20 knob from a crappy tripod head like this one (previously hacked apart for the clamp-pod). I removed the knob from the tripod head, being sure to save the retaining clip. I put the nut end through a hole in the bracket, and attached the retaining clip on the other side. Then I bent the angle bracket into a lopsided U, with the knob on the inside.

I then attached the belt clip to the tripod mount on the bottom of the camera (holding one end of the hand strap) and slid the long end under my belt.

With a little bit of practice, I was able to change lenses while the camera was attached to my belt.

I was able to use the belt clip at the Necessity Gig the other night, and it worked perfectly. I didn’t have to find a place to put the camera down (though I did sometimes, out of habit) in order to adjust the flashes. And it felt perfectly secure (though perhaps a bit dorky looking) as I walked around the bar scouting a portrait location.

[Edit: the following paragraph is meant tongue-in-cheek, humorous. My wife has graciously pointed out that I sounded a bit arrogant. Oops] Portrait photography is so boring and easy. It is insanely simple to set up a subject in front of some lovely soft boxes, with an abstract neutral gray background. Or better yet, have the subject stand in the shade of a tree, crop close, crack a joke, and POW, you’ve made a stellar photo.

Now, if you are a photographer looking for a little challenge in your life, try this scenario: near total darkness, trip-wires strategically placed, dirty and smudged mirrors all over the place at odd angles, and drunk people wielding sticks near your gear.

This was the scenario I found myself in on Monday when I went to shoot a gig for Necessity. The bar had evidently not replaced the bulbs in their stage lights, and compensated by placing mirrors all around the stage, many of them at odd angles. I imagined the bartender had last cleaned the mirrors after eating a bucket full of KFC. There was a pool table 10 feet from the performers stage center and stage left.

My first test shots revealed that ISO 800, 1/10 sec, f/1.8 was not enough for anything except the pool table. OK, time to augment with some manufactured sunshine.

In the shot above, I’ve lit the scene with a single flash (hotspot on the right, reflected) to demonstrate just how crazy the stage was: mirrors on 2.5 walls, plus a mirror-coated DJ stand. I’m standing against one of the aforementioned pool tables, with the pool light visible just behind my head (visible full size). Of all the lighting gear hanging from the ceiling, only the purple and red things worked.

I continued to shoot as the band set up, surprising myself nearly every time with unintended self portraits. DOH!

The one major benefit of the stage area was that it was relatively spacious, and being a Monday, there weren’t many people in the bar. This meant I could set up two (or more, had I wanted) light stands to light the performers. For much of the first set, I had flashes set about 7 feet up, about 10-15 feet from the lead singers position on either side.

The good part about having two flashes is that I was able to get some killer light on the stage, and light it just about any way I wanted. Unfortunately, with all the mirrors, I also ended up with shadows is the most unexpected places.

The bass player does not have a fake mustache falling off his upper lip. That is a shadow, I think coming from the microphone at the top of the frame. But I’m not sure. Light was bouncing in so many crazy directions, it was frequently hard to tell what I need to move to get a clear shot.

Did I mention that without the little stars of Earendil at my disposal that this place was dark? All my lenses had trouble focusing, even with the AF-assist lamp on. Even when I went to manual focus, I had a hard time determining if a face was sharp or not. I had brought a flashlight with me (I’d been warned it was dark) so that I could see while adjusting settings. In hind sight I should have tried using the flash light as an augmented AF-assist lamp. Maybe I’ll play more with that idea.

After I’d made (and prayed) about 80 shots using the original flash configuration, I changed it up and placed one near the rear left of the stage. This yielded some additional results that I’m very pleased with.

Toward the end of their performance, I decided to try using my flash-on-a-paint-pole. I amped up the challenge level a bit by adding a snoot to the flash, so that the light would be very tight. Holding a flash on the end of a five foot pole with one arm and pointing it accurately at a performer (who were largely stationary, thankfully) while aiming and shooting a camera in the other hand is just a little bit tricky. Using the paint-pole-snooted-flash again will probably require a Voice-Activated-Light-Stand.

At the end of their first break, the lead singer, Bobbi, asked if I could stay until their next break so that we could make a group shot. I started scouting the bar for anything usable. Thinking back on it now, I probably could have done all kinds of variations on different themes, but I wanted to focus on one or two that I thought were likely to get decent results.

First I gathered them in front of some roughly finished pine doors, placed umbrella’d flashes on stands about 6 feet up on either side, and made a few shots. Looking at the camera I knew I wasn’t pleased with the result (yawn!), so I showed it to the band and told them this was an emergency shot–it’ll do in a pinch, but I thought we could do better.

Next we tried working with the pool table. I didn’t really care much about the pool table per se, but it worked well as a posing aid, and gave them something to work with that felt more natural than just standing there for a mug shot.

No, we didn’t etch their band name into the pool table–that’s my first attempt at doing something more creative than cropping in GIMP. I had the umbrella’d lights on either side of me, about 4 feet high, pointing right at them. Yes, the lighting is flat and even, but I couldn’t think of anything else at the time. Shooting under a bit of pressure, I made a shot that I’m pretty sure will work for them until we can arrange something more prepared with a bit more time.

In the end, I had a good time shooting this band for the first time. They were good sports about having me in their faces and having bright lights popping all over the place. I was definitely glad I’d brought my complete kit with me: over the course of the night, I used nearly every piece of gear I owned. If I were to do it again, I’d bring a VAL, and do everything with one light. I’ll also experiment with a flashlight as focus assist.

I’ve recently read a number of articles praising the virtues of 50mm prime lenses recently. The two main benefits–very narrow depth of field, and great low light shots.  Both of these would be beneficial for the kinds of photography I like to shoot: family get-togethers, band performances, and  my kids’ indoor sports. For the longest time, I really wanted to pick up Nikon’s 50mm f/1.8, but it doesn’t auto-focus on my D60. I started to write a rant about how Nikon hasn’t produced an inexpensive 50mm AF-S (the kind of auto-focus that has a built-in servo that would work with the D60 and others) when I remembered that the D60 sensor is smaller than full-frame, and so a 35mm lens is close to a “natural” 50mm in a film or full frame camera. Fortunately, $200 gets a Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 AF-S. Thanks to a bit of Christmas money, I recently picked one up.

And boy is it nice to have that kind of light hitting the sensor. This shot was made during birthday presents in our living room. With this lens, I didn’t need to augment the ambient, just barely.

ISO 400, 1/25 sec, f/1.8

Next, I tried the lens during a recent Mescalito performance. Ultimately, I still have a lot to learn to not rely on the zoom composition crutch. Most of my shots cut off the lower portion of the performers, e.g. awkwardly cutting off half a sax. But as an example of just how incredibly this lens lets light in, check out this shot.

ISO 800, 1/30 sec, f/1.8

Again, no flash, just stage lights on Andrew (sax) and Theo (keyboard). Notice the drummer in the back ground? He’s in shadow, with no direct light on him, on a very dark stage.

My last example is from a recent street hockey game at a local YMCA. Lighting in these gyms are notoriously dim, and have usually required a noisy ISO 1600 just to get a decent shot.

ISO 400, 1/60 sec, f/1.8

I still have a lot to learn about how to use this lens to its best potential, but I’m pleased with the results so far. I just wish I could come up with a fun alliteration with “Thirty Five”.

Maybe “Jive Thirty Five”. Maybe not.