Danceworks!, Concerts - Recent Work

krisbphoto · May 7, 2007

I was asked to photograph, with permission from the director, our university dance department's "Danceworks!" 2007 by a good friend who was a performer.

It was kind of awkward. I believe that the only dance department staffer that knew I was shooting was the director, because I had multiple staff members come up and tell me that there were "no recording devices allowed."

Here are some results, everything was with the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO 3200:

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7)

I felt kind of bad at first for sounding so obnoxious, but later decided that in a week, the audience would have forgotten hearing a light click, but in 10 years, the performers would appreicate having record of their production.
C&C appreciated!

krisbphoto · May 7, 2007

Concerts
I also shot two small concerts this weekend.

1) Guitarist from Exit Clov (an indie-rock band from DC that is becoming increasingly popular)

2) Exit Clov - these two rocked out on the violin!

3) Tommy from Jukebox the Ghost - a band comprised of three GW students

4) Something different...

5) Ben from Jukebox, a personal friend - just released a solo album. He is a clasically trained pianist, music major at GW, and a really great performer

6) Tommy

7) Midway during their last song, Jukebox invited the audience up to the stage - it was their CD release show!

8) Ben also performed the night before at a different show

I hope that you were able to enjoy viewing the photos as much as I did taking them.

C&C would be greatly appreciated!

gpphotos · May 8, 2007

i shoot a lot of music/opera/drama/ect. on my campus. I'm also a music major and i perform quite a bit...so i've been on both sides of the camera. I'd be very wary about sitting up close and taking pics. in a quiet performance (dance, drama...pretty much anything without an orchestra or mic'd performers) the camera click can be very distracting to performers (its louder than you think in a quiet environment. I was once on stage singing and i could hear a guy shooting canon clicking away...and he was up on the balcony)

when i shoot events where noise could be an issue, i shoot from either way in the back (70-200 f2.8 gives me plenty of reach) or i shoot from the stage wings (basicly backstage). Especially if it is a musical concert, like a string quartet or something, i try to avoid people. If i've been hired by the school or asked to shoot the event by the director or someone, i sit in the back and warn the people around me before the show starts about the camera noise. "most" of the time, your hoity toity snobby types that get pissed at people like for making noise taking pics sit in near the front, and the people who will most likely sleep through it anyway sit in the back.

another option is sitting in the sound booth. its kinda nosebleed depending on your school's theatre, but its better than getting yelled at during intermission for click click click sounds. also...i try to shoot the final dress rehersal instead of the real thing. schools especially will want a full run through in full costume just to make sure there arnt wardrobe malfunctions of any kind during the actual show.

krisbphoto · May 8, 2007

Thanks for the reply!

Actually, I was in the very back. The way the theater was designed, there was a stage positioned low and in front; then the seating rose up to the back. I was seated behind the last row, towards the center - using a 70-200mm f/2.8. I shot in ISO 3200 because of the smaller aperature (compared to 50mm f/1.4), but they still turned out fine.

Regardless, a few people stopped me - I just informed them that I was working for the director.

I spoke with a couple friends (who afterward, I found out were in the program), and none of them had noticed the noise.

Since you have experience with dance and theater, as well as photography, can you offer any critiques for my photos (technical or technique)?

Thanks!

gpphotos · May 8, 2007

well...im not sure if you're shooting raw or not, but the biggest problem i have is usually white balance. the guy who does the lighting for all the stuff at my school tends to use a lot of gels over the lights, so i end up with either too much red or yellow most of the time. usually i have to tune the wb down much cooler for my situation, to around 2200 - 2400. im not sure how much pp you've done, but it looks like the lighting isn't too yellow or red, which is nice.

i dig the composition of these pics.

there are a few blown spots, which is very hard to avoid in this environment. I tend to underexpose mine a stop or two to avoid this and compensate for it in pp if needed with the shadow/highlight or whatever is needed. i usually go into the theater with the camera on shutter priority, ISO 400, f2.8 1/40-100th shutter is usually enough for musicians esp with VR/IS. dance needs a higher shutter so i use higher ISO and ditch the VR.

oversaturation is also a problem when shooting under lights with gels. a couple of yours look a tad oversaturated, but dialing back the exposure to make sure the highlights are blown from the spot will usually take care of this.

the rock concert shots look great. its very easy to get oversaturation from the lights...again i tend to dial down EV back to as much as -3 depending on how bad the lighting is. some of my best rock shots have come from my trusty 50 1.8 and my full manual 105 1.8. i bet that 50 1.4 comes in really handy...im looking at getting the sigma 30 1.4...but finding one is a challange

krisbphoto · May 8, 2007

Thanks for the input! WB wasn't a big problem as I was shooting in RAW (I do for most events), so I use LightRoom to make adjustments.

It was really dark though, so I was shooting ISO 3200 the entire time.
Fortunately, there weren't a lot of reds. I've shot a couple concerts with those - talk about PP nightmares... I usually end up selecting that channel and doing a partial desaturation.

When you talked about underexposing to avoid blow highlights, do you bring that back up in PP? I've tried to recover under-exposed photos and it usually messes with the levels and gives it a nasty green tint.

As far as the 50 f/1.4 goes... I love it! For the last show I stopped it down to f/3.5, was shooting in ISO 1600 and was still able to get a decent shutter speed, but still have a decent DOF.

Good luck with finding that 30 f/1.4! I'm considering a Canon 28 f/1.8 right now...

Here are a few more concert photos:

9) Bassist from Love Arcade

10) "Snow White" from Love Arcade

11) Guitarist from Love Arcade

12) Sheryll Crow, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill

13) Faith Hill

gpphotos · May 8, 2007

dude i just read your sig...you're transferring to scad? rockin...i live in augusta, and i have a ton of family in savannah, so i make it down there quite a bit. maybe we can have a mini dgrin shootout in savannah! where you there for St. Patrick's day?

i underexpose just enough to get rid of the blown-out spots, and its usually ok w/o compensating in pp.

This gallery is of a fairly recent theatre festival at augusta state. The first few pics are blown (i went from ISO 400 to 200 by the 4th or so img) but the EV is set to -1 throughout. there's nothing really spectacular about these images, but towards then end i was shooting at 1/320 or so at ISO 200 -1 EV. no blown spots even though the stage spots were bright has hell...and the rest of the image seems fine. no pp except for a bit of wb. losing 1 stop of light seems to do the trick for me to avoid blowing out the bright spots on stage.

krisbphoto · May 8, 2007

Hey! I just checked out your gallery. You've got some pretty cool stuff! Nice work on the play! I've really come to love photographing events with controlled lighting. It's like shooting in my own studio, but I don't have to do any of the work!

Meeting up would be awesome! Right now I go to The George Washington University in Washington, DC; I've been pretty busy with school and cheerleading, so I haven't been able to visit Savannah yet, but as soon as I move out (May 21), we're taking a trip down. I've never been there, but I'm reeeally excited!

What year are you? I'm a freshmen. Probably will be for another year. Most of my credits aren't transferring...

Here's my website:

KrisB Photography

gpphotos · May 8, 2007

yea ive already taken the liberty of checking our your website

you've got some pretty nice stuff in there! it looks like you shoot a lot of school stuff. you should talk to the department of public relations about shooting stuff for the school. i shoot poster shots for events, brochures for different departments, stuff for the school website (buildings, student shots, ect). its a lot of fun to see your stuff in mass production on flyers and brochures. the staff really loves having me, they have some dslr's in the office but no decent glass or any other equipment to shoot with. they even gave me my own office and computer! (well...i have to share the office now, but for a year...all mine!)

dude you're gonna love savannah. its a beautiful city...its much smaller than DC but believe me...they know how to party down there. lots of historic stuff...jazz festival, lots of art.

Danceworks!, Concerts - Recent Work

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