i guess criticisim never hurt...

[Crettis]

New to the forums. So be nice.
The situation is rather odd. Dark room, LED can lights going to the music, oh yea and the hazer feeding the cloud. I like these shots outta the 300 or so I took. So go ahead tell me what you think.

 

[bp4life71]

Honestly,

I think they look they were taken from a kodak one-time use camera and scanned. I don't know what to say really. I'm almost thinking this has to be a joke, especially considering you stated you took 300 pictures and these were the best.

Again, my tastes may be different than yours.

 

[thenikonguy]

you missed the focus big time... keep trying though

 

[Misfitlimp]

yea none of these do anything for me at all

 

[g-fi]

What are you shooting with? Give us some info.

They almost look camera-phone-ish. The low light and haze don't seem to have contributed much to getting some sharp, in focus images. I think it would be difficult to get really good images out of this situation even with the best equipment.

 

[photo28]

Ouch. Work on focusing...

 

[Jaszek]

Ouch. Work on focusing...

focusing and exposure

 

[musicaleCA]

EXIF for the first image:

File name: 917AndsPromo_035.jpg
File size: 116212 bytes (3008x2000, 0.2bpp, 155x)
EXIF Summary: 1/6s f/4.0 ISO1600 22mm (35mm eq:33mm)

Camera-Specific Properties:

Equipment Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D40
Camera Software: ViewNX 1.0 M
Maximum Lens Aperture: f/3.6
Sensing Method: One-Chip Color Area
Color Filter Array Pattern: 870
Focal Length (35mm Equiv): 33 mm

Image-Specific Properties:

Image Orientation: Top, Left-Hand
Vertical Resolution: 300 dpi
Image Created: 2009:09:17 18:14:30
Exposure Time: 1/6 sec
F-Number: f/4.0
Exposure Program: Manual
ISO Speed Rating: 1600
Exposure Bias: -1 EV
Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average
Light Source: Tungsten
Flash: No Flash
Focal Length: 22.00 mm
Color Space Information: Uncalibrated
Image Width: 3008
Image Height: 2000
Rendering: Normal
Exposure Mode: Manual
Scene Capture Type: Standard
Gain Control: High Gain Up
Contrast: Normal
Sharpness: Hard
Subject Distance Range: Unknown
ISO Speed Used: 1600
Color Mode: COLOR
Image Quality: RAW
White Balance: INCANDESCENT
Image Sharpening: MED.H
Focus Mode: AF-S
ISO Speed Requested: 1600
Tone Compensation: NORMAL
Lens Type: Unknown
Lens Range: 18.0 - 55.0 mm; f/3.5 - f/5.6
Auto Focus: Dynamic Area, Center
Shooting/Bracketing Mode: Single Frame/Off
Color Mode: Landscape sRGB
Lighting Type: NATURAL
Noise Reduction: OFF
Camera Actuations: 1465
Image Optimization: VIVID
Saturation 2: ENHANCED

Other Properties:

Resolution Unit: i
Chrominance Comp Positioning: Centered
Black and White Ref Point Values: 0
Exif IFD Pointer: 272
Compression Scheme: JPEG Compression (Thumbnail)
Horizontal Resolution: 300 dpi
Vertical Resolution: 300 dpi
Resolution Unit: i
Offset to JPEG SOI: 11934
Bytes of JPEG Data: 1360
Exif Version: 2.20
Image Generated: 2009:09:16 10:19:48
Image Digitized: 2009:09:16 10:19:48
Meaning of Each Comp: Unknown
Comment:
DateTime Second Fraction: 60
DateTimeOriginal Second Fraction: 60
DateTimeDigitized Second Fraction: 60
File Source: Digital Still Camera
Scene Type: Directly Photographed
White Balance: Manual
Digital Zoom Ratio: 1
Saturation: High
Nikon Note Version: 2.10
Flash Used: No
Digital Vari-Program:

Fast glass is a necessity for survival in this situation; something that has a constant aperture of 2.8 or lower. So is using manual mode. What I don't get is why you were using center-weighted average metering. Spot metering is your friend in manual mode, and especially in bad conditions like this, so that you can meter various parts of the scene to set exposure. You very much need to work on timing your shots so that you take them when there is as little movement as possible. 1/6 is way too slow at any rate in such conditions. Better to shoot RAW and underexpose.

 

[beni_hung]

Yeah, you really want to focus on getting clear and crisp photos. I can see how this setting wouldn't allow that, though.

 

[Moe]

First of all, welcome to the forum. I'm diggin' the second one. It conveys some emotion. Focus all you want, that's not the problem. With moving subjects, they still aren't going to be sharp because of shutter speed being 1/6. When a dark concert meets a D40/kit lens, the dark concert almost always wins. However, sometimes the motion blur comes out ok, as in number 2. Just an opinion. Keep shooting.

 

[Crettis]

so i take it i didnt focus...jeez. In all reality It was done with some intent. I was asked to make sure faces didnt come through clear. The band wanted the pictures to come through with some sense of obscurity. I do appreciate the few tips I actually recieved, I did use the kit lens for a bit, but I have other photos i did with a 30-700mm, ill have to check the speed on. Like I said before Im new, this was the first time i ever took photos in that enviroment. As for the metering, I didnt even think to change that.

thanks again. Next time ill post something a little less off the wall.

Oh yea, the band loved the pictures, so I get a little victory there I guess.

 

[bigtwinky]

Its good to state full intent when asking for CC. Knowing that the band wanted blurred faces will often have people give you different CC. Most expect pictures to be sharp and clear, so if the intent is blurryness that changes things a bit.

There is obvious grain and noise in the image, due to shooting at ISO 1600. Blurry or not, you would want to shoot at a lower ISO and wider aperture to help cut the noise.

I see you were shooting at -1 EV? Instead of that, I would down the ISO to 800, hopefully helping with some noise.

For your intended purpose, I like 2 and 4. 1 is just odd, no real mood to it, and the blur really hurts as there is alot in the image that is blurred.

2 is great, but if the band wanted to not see the faces, that would of been accomplished with the silhouette, no need for the blur on top of that. Without blur, this would of been a damn nice image, with the face and arm.

3 would of been better if the subject was so much on that one side of the image, probably better if he was more on the opposite side or even centered some.

4 I like mainly the diagonal light in the image.

 

[syphlix]

hehe don't take offense... you asked for opinions and you got them... you can only get better hearing what other people have to say...