I really like one of the themes of shame: “Nice Effort” These are folks who (evidently) published a band photo that had little more thought put into than “where’s the power button on this thing?”

Fortunately, I know I’ve progressed beyond this class of photo, but just a bit. My only band portrait to date was put together with about 15 minutes of planning (if you include loading my gear in the car) and about 20 minutes of post production. So, yes, I know it was taken in a bar, over a pool table, during a gig. But at least it wasn’t in somebody’s laundry room.

I also learned about some of the major cliches. It seems the step above “Nice Effort” involves someone saying “Hey, lets take your picture with this wall as the back ground.”

Or perhaps they thought, “Yo, there’s a train track next to Jimmy’s house. We should have you guys stand there!”

I’ll admit that as I first started trying to think of interesting locations for shoots, the first two ideas I had were a loading dock at a nearby warehouse (with really awesome brick!) and a train track thats close enough to for us to hear the trains (albeit faintly) from home. Fortunately I’ve learned of these cliches before I made these mistakes.

Another cliche is to have everyone in a circle looking down on the camera. I’ve seen other shots like this, but when it seems to be pretty common, the cuteness wears off.

The last cliche I’ll touch on is when the lead singer wants to make it obvious who the lead singer is.

Yeah, its amazing the other guys could fit in the frame with an ego that big.

So, my challenge now, is to figure out locations where I can make interesting shots in, what feels like, a not-terribly scenic town. The places I can think of almost immediately scream “trite” the moment I compose the shot in my head. Clearly I need to work on this more.

I thought I would share my experience. It took less than 10 minutes to make all the shots, and not much longer to compile the resulting comparison photos. After shooting the umbrella specular, I grabbed a fake plant, put it on the floor, then put two different flashes through their paces both on and off camera.

Vivtar 285HV On vs Off Camera

Lumopro LP120 On vs Off Camera

On Camera: Vivitar vs LumoPro

Off Camera: Vivitar vs LumoPro

Summary:
My Nikon D60 can sync with both flashes on camera up to 1/250s with only a few pixels of shadow. With proper framing, I could even push to 1/320s.
However, off camera with Cactus v4, flash sync is much slower: The 285HV shows sync issues as low as 1/160s (only barely) and had a serious problem at 1/200. The LP120 had barely any impact at 1/200. I could probably push them to 1/250 as long as I framed my subject properly.

Other ideas not tested:
Built-in flash sync? No idea. What about triggering the LP120 optically with the built-in? I would imagine no better than 1/200s but I’d have to try it to be sure. What about consistency of sync speed –is it possible the off-camera 285HV at 1/200 was a fluke? Next time…

Last week, he finally had a set of photos that he was happy with and was ready to compile them into a video. I didn’t help him at all with the photography–he did it all by himself. I help with adding the effects, the video composition, sound and final publishing. But he learned much of that along the way and will likely be able to do most of that work on his own the next time around.

He’s had a bit of a violent streak in his Lego play recently…

Last night, Skippy, Mike and I shot a reunion gig for Racecar, a local band.

It started as a request from Racecar’s front-man, Andy, to Skippy. Andy wanted Skippy to take pictures to memorialize the reunion. Skippy was familiar with my work and asked for some quick pointers to help him make better pics. He also invited me to tag along, enjoy a beer, a killer show, and shoot if I wanted to. Skippy didn’t intend to shoot the whole show–his primary goal was to have fun, not be a photog.

Skippy Chimping

This shoot was my first opportunity to make use of my latest shoot-bands-in-bars DIY light holder. It is an angle bracket, bent with a hook at one end, and a 1/4-20 bolt through a hole in the other to hold an umbrella swivel. I’ve got a piece of webbing with a cam buckle left over from a car-top carrier (long story, don’t ask). I’ve cut the webbing to about 12 inches long, enough to go around a 4″ diameter pole. I wrap the webbing around the pole, into the cam buckle, then slip the hooked end of the bracket under the webbing.  I made this because a couple of the venues I’ve been in recently have had structural posts in the middle of the seating area. Ruby Tuesdays had a pole like this one on each side of an entry way between the stage and bar area. I could tell that Skippy was more interested in taking his own pictures than being my Voice Activated Light Stand (TM), so I put this flash in place and left it there for the duration of the evening. The best part was that the batteries, Energizer Advanced Lithium, lasted all night. I had used them a bit in prior projects, but probably not more than 20-30 pops. During this event, they powered 200+ flashes at 1/4 to 1/2 power. Toward the end of the night they were getting a bit sluggish, but could still recycle 1/2 power pop in 5-7 seconds.

So, for the most part, I shot using the single off-camera flash, with a bit of ambient-only work using my Jive Thirty Five. Skippy had asked about flash techniques, and I poo-pooed the efficacy of using on-camera flash:

Rotating the head and bouncing off a wall will work well if it is a light colored wall. Most ceilings in bars are dark. Most walls are dark too, for that matter. Which means the flash will have to be pointed right at them.

However, the ceiling in this bar was a white (albeit dingy) panel drop ceiling. So Skippy made great shots using ambient and on-camera pointed about 45 degrees up.

By Skippy, on-camera flash

I, however, neglected to make use of the white ceiling, even though I noticed it early in the show. The off-camera flash yielded some decent results, especially since the front-man was such a great performer, just begging to be shot.

Skippy captured almost the exact same moment.

Ambient shots for me continued to be a bit of a struggle. I spend so much time in manual (with the flash) that I forget that it would be better to shoot in Aperture priority when shooting this stuff ambient. Many of my ambient shots are over exposed or over saturated because I didn’t let the camera make the decisions. Still, I managed to get a few decent shots thanks to my “spray and pray” attitude.

Mike was sitting next to me much of the night, and pointing out detail shots I should capture, or reminding me that I had neglected the drummer most of the night. Yeah. Drummers are a pain in the butt to photograph. And this one was no different. He was in the back where I could barely see him, and the flash could barely reach him.

My favorite shot of the drummer, however, came during tear-down at the end of the night. I shot this with the Jive Thirty Five, but since the show was over, I could stand on the stage to get the angle I wanted.

After Racecar finished their performance, Velvet Smallpants (not sure this is his preferred website) came on and kept us rolling with disgusting adult humor. I found it especially disturbing that I was one of the primary eggers-on from the audience.

Earlier in the night, Mike had suggested that some back-lit shots of Racecar would be cool. We discussed various methods of blinding the crowd with a high power flash from the bass drum, but decided against the technique. When Velvet Smallpants took the stage, I saw an opportunity.

Skippy continued to shoot throughout the night, despite his proclamation that “I want to be sure that I enjoy the gig, so I don’t expect to take photos through the whole thing.” Yeah, I think I might have helped stir in him a little passion for something other than beer brewing.

I think his shot is here.

It was a great time. Racecar really rocked with incredible passion. Velvet Smallpants kept us wishing we could wash our brains out. And Skippy and Mike were great company for someone like me.

ISO 400, f/2, 1/125

The best part about this game was the comeuppance three of the members of the other team received. These guys are brothers that had played on my kids’ teams in the past, but this year they’ve decided to participate at a different YMCA. When we entered the gym 20 minutes prior to the game, they started talking smack non-stop about a) how our team was going down, b) how they made the team last year when they were on it, and c) how we were just going to be crushed.

I love the celebration in the background of the second shot

At the end of the first period, they were losing 4-0. Mid-way through the second period (6-0), I walked by one of them who was still keeping up the bravado claiming that we were “going down” just as soon as he could get back on the court. To which I added “and scoring 7 goals.” The final, by my tally, (the Y doesn’t officially keep score, but all the parents and players try to) was 8-1. Boy was their celebration long and boisterous when they scored that one point. For the rest of their team, I was happy for them. For the sake of the three brothers, I really hoped for a shutout. No, not terribly sportsman like of me, but I think their egos needed a bit of a smack-down. That smack-down came when the final point of the game was scored by our team directly from the face off at center court–the oldest of the brothers was the goalie and had no idea it had gone through. I was too busy talking with the other spectator-parents to notice the mood of the three brothers at the end of the game.

Photographically, the biggest challenge is that with the open aperture, the depth of field is so narrow that it looks like most of the pictures are blurry. They aren’t–its just that the net (or the glove, or the spot on the floor 3 feet to the left of the player) are sharp, but the DOF is so narrow that everything else goes bokeh.

So, maybe next game I’ll try to compromise and shoot at ISO 800 and f/4. That’s still better than I could have gotten with my kit lens at 35mm (f/5.3) but it should render more of the photo in focus. And of course shooting kids moving at broken-neck speed makes keeping the focus point on a face challenging. Fortunately we’ve entered the digital “spray and pray” era, and I can shoot 100+ shots only to post nine.

I was able to spend a little bit of time to work on one shot a couple of weeks ago, but hesitated writing about it in hopes that I would be able to get back to it. Alas, once I posted it to Flickr, my brain was convinced it was done.

The primary idea was to use our knowledge of photography and lighting to elevate a cooking utensil to “High Art”.

Well, perhaps not High Art, but maybe medium artsy.

I spread some dried black beans in a flat black dish, then arranged the butter knives on top. I slid the dish into a light box, and pointed the flash toward the dish at a low angle from camera right. The low angle helped to add shadow and dimension to the beans, but the box helped bounce light all over the place to light it reasonably evenly.

I then converted the pic to black and white (black beans aren’t completely black). I’m reasonably pleased with the result, but might have revisited it to help hide the reflection of the camera in the left handle. I might have also softened the flash a bit so that the shadows at the top aren’t as noticeable. Alas, life got a wee bit busy, and I wasn’t able to think about it again.

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

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.

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.