BAND SHOTS FOR E-PRESS KIT prt 1

[newrmdmike]

these are from this last weekends shoot. let me know what you guys think. also happens to be my first time working with strobes. i only used them in a couple that are in this post.

1

i had 3 dynalights, they pretty much sucked.
2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

critiques and criticism are more than welcome. ill post more later.

these are not really portraits in a formal sense, but are meant to convay a mood to the venues, etc. so don't complain if you can't see there faces well . . .

 

[thebeginning]

sweeet. where was that? looks like an awesome place. i love the last one, really nice.


oh, and did i read right or did you just say that dynalites sucked? hm? hmmm? you better take that back

 

[newrmdmike]

yeah dude, they were so old. the way they were dimmed sucked, also i didn't have any snoots, which are a necessity. and they didn't dim down enough to use in a small room.


i'll let you in on the locations later, don't want to just give them to just anyone

here are a couple more.

by far not done yet though.

tons more to come.

 

[newrmdmike]

also, i know the color isn't terribly natural. however, this is how the art director wanted it

 

[gizmo2071]

I think from you side the picture amazing!
Composition, lighting and location are spot on.

taking into account:
"these are not really portraits in a formal sense, but are meant to convay a mood to the venues, etc. so don't complain if you can't see there faces well . . ."

I'd still have liked to see more expressions from the band, but not much you can do about that

 

[ShutteredEye]

I guess I'm confused. You say the dynalites suck b/c they don't dim down enough for a small room, yet a spot check of the EXIF of several of your shots shows that your shutter speeds were 1/30--to 1/80. And as a result of your slow shutters, several of these have camera shake in them, most noticable in #4. Most cameras sync up to 1/250, so you probably could have elimnated a lot of your "too much light" problems by boosting shutter speed, as well as sharpen up the images.

FWIW, I've used dynalites many times and always had excellent results with them. The only time I had too much light was with 4 600W in my living room doing a high key shoot, and a combination of boosting shutter speed and a smaller aperture solved that problem.

Over all they are pretty cool, I like the ambience, and they do scream band/album cover to me.

 

[newrmdmike]

yes, you are confused. these have slow shutter speeds accounting for the shake, however only a few of these are using the lights, they are strobes, so really the shutter speed doesn't do much.


num 4 was using the modeling light on one bc we were at a location not allowing us to use the strobe, and i was leaning way out over some stairs, so even a tripod wouldn't have really helped. it was a hard shot to get, and just didn't really turn out, and since it WAS using continuous light in that one, there wasn't anything i could do about the shutter speed. i was already at iso 500-1000 i believe. also, i was able to sync up to 1/2000th. at 1/2500th i would lose one of the lights, but i do like me some ambient light

 

[ShutteredEye]

yes, you are confused. these have slow shutter speeds accounting for the shake, however only a few of these are using the lights, they are strobes, so really the shutter speed doesn't do much.


num 4 was using the modeling light on one bc we were at a location not allowing us to use the strobe, and i was leaning way out over some stairs, so even a tripod wouldn't have really helped. it was a hard shot to get, and just didn't really turn out, and since it WAS using continuous light in that one, there wasn't anything i could do about the shutter speed. i was already at iso 500-1000 i believe. also, i was able to sync up to 1/2000th. at 1/2500th i would lose one of the lights, but i do like me some ambient light

Shutter speed doesn't matter when you're using strobes?

Well I must be farking crazy then, cause it sure matters when I shoot.....

 

[newrmdmike]

youve got to be talking about continuous lighting right? cause strobes have durations of like 1.2 ms, thats like 19/1,000,000 of a second. the dyna-lites have one of 1/2500 sec. flash duration and thats at full output. if your shooting in a completely dark room with these strobes, and the modeling lights are off then shutter speed will not matter.

the reason i couldn't get them dark enough is because without snoots i can't power them down and get them close enough to simulate a black backdrop, the light just shoots all over the place, and even if i had a snoot it would have been too much light when that close to the subject.

if your witnessing a difference in light by changing shutter speed, then its most likely because of existing light.

 

[ShutteredEye]

youve got to be talking about continuous lighting right? cause strobes have durations of like 1.2 ms, thats like 19/1,000,000 of a second. the dyna-lites have one of 1/2500 sec. flash duration and thats at full output. if your shooting in a completely dark room with these strobes, and the modeling lights are off then shutter speed will not matter.

the reason i couldn't get them dark enough is because without snoots i can't power them down and get them close enough to simulate a black backdrop, the light just shoots all over the place, and even if i had a snoot it would have been too much light when that close to the subject.

if your witnessing a difference in light by changing shutter speed, then its most likely because of existing light.

You know what, I'm just going to bow out of this one.

You're obviously the pro here, so I'll defer to your superior knowledge, talent, education, and charisma.

 

[Christie Photo]

if your witnessing a difference in light by changing shutter speed, then its most likely because of existing light.

Exactly right. That and the modeling lights. But I think that (the ambient light) is what giving this series of images their character... the warmth, and the subtle detail in the shadows.

Nice setting. A very nice series.

Pete

 

[newrmdmike]

" You know what, I'm just going to bow out of this one.

You're obviously the pro here, so I'll defer to your superior knowledge, talent, education, and charisma. ;-)"

hey, why do you have to be a smartass about it?

i'm here to learn, and would hope you are to.

 

[ShutteredEye]

" You know what, I'm just going to bow out of this one.

You're obviously the pro here, so I'll defer to your superior knowledge, talent, education, and charisma. ;-)"

hey, why do you have to be a smartass about it?

i'm here to learn, and would hope you are to.

Who's being a smartass?

You weren't too open to any type of critique, all I got was a bunch of excuses when I mentioned camera shake.

You've already decided that these were the best shots since sliced bread, did you really want a critique, or did you just want us to aplaud you--be honest.

And yep, I'm here to learn. You've taught me something today that I didn't know about strobes. I guess I was under the impression that once you trip the strobes, while the bulbs themselves only burn for whatever ms you said, I assumed all those light rays might just be bouncing around a bit. But I was wrong apparently. Like I said, you're the pro here. I'm just amateur with a cheap entry level dSLR.

All i can draw from is my own experience. I did a high key shoot in my living room. I had waaaaaaay too much light, and was getting spill from the backdrop lights onto my model even with them turned all the way down. It was tough to manage, but closing down the aperture to f8, and then boosting the shutter speed to 1/250th seemed to help.

Good luck, and if you'd like to continue the conversation about me being a smart ass in person, I'd be happy to meet up. I'm only just down the road from you.

 

[thebeginning]

" You know what, I'm just going to bow out of this one.

You're obviously the pro here, so I'll defer to your superior knowledge, talent, education, and charisma. ;-)"

hey, why do you have to be a smartass about it?

i'm here to learn, and would hope you are to.

Who's being a smartass?

You weren't too open to any type of critique, all I got was a bunch of excuses when I mentioned camera shake.

You've already decided that these were the best shots since sliced bread, did you really want a critique, or did you just want us to aplaud you--be honest.

And yep, I'm here to learn. You've taught me something today that I didn't know about strobes. I guess I was under the impression that once you trip the strobes, while the bulbs themselves only burn for whatever ms you said, I assumed all those light rays might just be bouncing around a bit. But I was wrong apparently. Like I said, you're the pro here. I'm just amateur with a cheap entry level dSLR.

All i can draw from is my own experience. I did a high key shoot in my living room. I had waaaaaaay too much light, and was getting spill from the backdrop lights onto my model even with them turned all the way down. It was tough to manage, but closing down the aperture to f8, and then boosting the shutter speed to 1/250th seemed to help.

Good luck, and if you'd like to continue the conversation about me being a smart ass in person, I'd be happy to meet up. I'm only just down the road from you.

OOOOHHH, FIGHT! FIGHT!

naw i'm jk. this is getting a little silly though guys.

 

[newrmdmike]

i myself do not have anything beyond an entry level dslr, i'm shooting with a d70s, if i mistakenly took this as sarcasm then i'm sorry. but thats what it sounds like to me. " You know what, I'm just going to bow out of this one.

You're obviously the pro here, so I'll defer to your superior knowledge, talent, education, and charisma. ;-)"

i never said i have superior knowledge talent education or charisma, certainly not charisma. also, i'm not a pro, i'm a student, who say what i know, or believe to be true.

and your right, i don't take criticism to well, there is motion blur in number 4, speaking of which how are you viewing my exif data? i'd like to know how.

why do you think i believe these to be the best shots since sliced bread?

what kind of meet-up do you have in mind? is it the kind where you think you'll kick my ass? i love a good match, even if it ends with me getting whooped. do you box? martial arts? what? its nice to know before commiting to things, i only weigh 150 lbs, wrestled for a while, picked up boxing and mma since then . . . so if your anywhere near my weight class and would like to have a tpf meet-up slash mma match i'm up for it.

no hard feelings i hope, i'm not mad or upset, i just don't understand the sarcasm i'm getting from you.