mid-day Parade....C&C

[farmerj]

I went to my daughters parade today.

I SERIOUSLY need an off camera flash. Or at least something better than what's on-camera.

I didn't even try using that one today. But this is the results.

It was 2:40 in the afternoon, Clear, Sunny, about 80 degrees. The kids had just spent 4 days at Marching Band Camp and first weekend back they had two parades back to back on Saturday and Sunday. I missed the Saturday parade which was at 6:30 PM due to conflicting information.

I put these up. WOW, picassa REALLY kills the quality.
Nikon D90, 70-300VR, No CPL or fill flash.
ISO 200, f/13, 1/320, Manual, Auto WB,

#1 @70 MM

#2 @300 MM

#3 @70MM.

 

[Crosby]

Did you use a polarizer? Not bad for mid day pics.

 

[farmerj]

Sheepishly I must say, I did not pull the CPL out of the bag today. I had my oldest IN the parade, and the youngest was with me and I was focusing on her and the candy she was collecting.

And in my mind, the CPL was on my "checklist" of things to do when we got there today.

 

[musicaleCA]

Ah well, they're good for mid-days. I'd say those hats make fill flash a must, but you might have gotten weird shadows if you didn't have the flexibility of a sync cable to get it off camera and move it around a bit anyway.

What do the kids play? I'm a saxophonist myself, though I haven't done marching bands (I'd probably die from heat exhaustion ).

 

[farmerj]

The group in the top play clarinets, My daughter is in that group. The one in the second row. Middle of the frame, on the corner of the shelter.

I am really surprised when I went back on getting home, there are very FEW hotspots in the image when I view it in the camera.

All of these girls are friends of my daughter, and I make it a point to get all three of them for their parents as well.

The middle one plays sax, and the bottom one plays the baritone

I will say, this is the first time I got to photograph the band as they were actually doing a real parade and the new routine they have been practicing on all week.

 

[musicaleCA]

Hope you weren't buried in your viewfinder.

Clarinet is fun, if a bit of a PITA at times. >.<

 

[farmerj]

I have GOT to ask though....


How do you maintain the detail in Black, But NOT blow out white? Fill Flash?

As to being buried in the view finder.

The band was past me before I knew it, and then I was able to watch the actual performance in front of the "review stand".

THESE KIDS RAWK.....


They have been taking First Place so frequently, it's incredible.

 

[musicaleCA]

Fill flash may help. You might also use highlight tone priority. It introduces more noise into the shadows but gets more detail into the whites; you basically are expanding the dynamic range of the sensor at the expense of more noise in the shadows, or at least, that's how I understand it. I tend to just let my blacks clip and go all-black.

One problem I can see with this set-up though is that with a flash, if it's relatively close to the band, the light from it will fall off rather quickly (inverse square law at work here; essentially, if the distance from the flash doubles, you get 1/4 the light). That would mean blasting them with an uber-flash from farther back to minimize fall-off, I think. (I'm intentionally saying "I think" a lot; this is all theory to me that I haven't put into practise, and I freely admit that I may be horribly wrong.) That and a gigantic softbox to minimize the shadows cast because of shooting from that angle...Oh, and two other strobes directly above and infront of the band.

That is to say, fill would help. Maybe someone with more experience would know how to pull off good lighting here without a myriad of assistants.

 

[farmerj]

Let's see....

Public street, Parade, Moving band, Sidewalks packed with people.....:er:

OK, not like we having nothing to work with here.

 

[mooimeisie]

1. I think good exposure and steady camera. Lots of detail in the back as well as detail in the uniforms. The thing I learnt from the last parade I did was, get there early enough to pick your spot across the road. People across the road is expected at a parade, the trees are lovely but the white tent thing messes things up.

2. Beautiful girl. The shot shows the concentration in her eyes. Nice capture getting the instrument in fron of her totally above her face as to not take anything away from her.

3. Nice. The only thing I would like to see is the wires in the sky gone. It would be easy enough using the clone tool if you have PS or Elements.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

It's always going to be hard work in that sort of lighting to get the sort of balance you want. The only suggestion I'd make past what the others have said, would be to play around with the Shadows/Highlights tool during your PP - it's kind of like the inverse of what the Levels tool does.

For very small areas you might want to consider using the Dodge/Burn tool, but don't have it set at more than 2-3% and apply with a soft edge brush of whatever size suits the area you need to work on.

 

[farmerj]

This is the script I wrote for PP the images. I generally will not write a script for doing lots of images until I see the trend that is happening. Those specific repeating adjusts get put into the script. This is all that was pretty much done to these images.

def ScriptProperties():
return {
'Author': u'Jon E',
'Copyright': u'',
'Description': u'',
'Host': u'Paint Shop Pro Photo',
'Host Version': u'12.50'
}

def Do(Environment):
# EnableOptimizedScriptUndo
App.Do( Environment, 'EnableOptimizedScriptUndo', {
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

# Unsharp Mask
App.Do( Environment, 'UnsharpMask', {
'Clipping': 4,
'Radius': 1,
'Strength': 139,
'Luminance': False,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

# ColorBalance
App.Do( Environment, 'ColorBalance', {
'OriginalTemperature': 5001,
'OriginalTint': 6,
'DesiredTemperature': 5200,
'DesiredTint': 13,
'SmartSelect': True,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

# Color Adjust Levels
App.Do( Environment, 'ColorAdjustLevels', {
'Levels': {
'RGB': (20,255,0.993874,0,255),
'Red': (1,255,1,0,255),
'Green': (0,255,1,0,255),
'Blue': (0,255,1,0,255),
'Clipping': 0
},
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

# Color Adjust Brightness Contrast
App.Do( Environment, 'ColorAdjustBrightnessContrast', {
'BrightnessContrast': {
'Brightness': 9,
'Contrast': 6
},
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

# Clarify
App.Do( Environment, 'Clarify', {
'Strength': 2,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

# Histogram Adjustment
App.Do( Environment, 'HistogramAdjustment', {
'LuminanceChannel': {
'Appearance': 11,
'Gamma': 1,
'HighClipLimit': 240,
'HighClipLimitPercentage': 0.1,
'LowClipLimit': 0,
'LowClipLimitPercentage': 0.1,
'MaxOutput': 255,
'MinOutput': 0
},
'RedChannel': {
'Appearance': 1,
'Gamma': 1,
'HighClipLimit': 255,
'HighClipLimitPercentage': 0.1,
'LowClipLimit': 0,
'LowClipLimitPercentage': 0.1,
'MaxOutput': 255,
'MinOutput': 0
},
'GreenChannel': {
'Appearance': 0,
'Gamma': 1,
'HighClipLimit': 228,
'HighClipLimitPercentage': 0.1,
'LowClipLimit': 0,
'LowClipLimitPercentage': 0.1,
'MaxOutput': 255,
'MinOutput': 0
},
'BlueChannel': {
'Appearance': 0,
'Gamma': 1,
'HighClipLimit': 196,
'HighClipLimitPercentage': 0.1,
'LowClipLimit': 0,
'LowClipLimitPercentage': 0.1,
'MaxOutput': 255,
'MinOutput': 2
},
'TargetChannel': 1,
'OverlayResultHistogram': True,
'HistogramEditMode': App.Constants.HistogramEditMode.Color,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

# Pan
App.Do( Environment, 'Pan', {
'Horizontal': 1,
'Vertical': 1,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

# Resize
App.Do( Environment, 'Resize', {
'AspectRatio': 0.799802,
'CurrentDimensionUnits': App.Constants.UnitsOfMeasure.Pixels,
'CurrentResolutionUnits': App.Constants.ResolutionUnits.PixelsPerIn,
'Height': 1024,
'MaintainAspectRatio': True,
'Resample': True,
'ResampleType': App.Constants.ResampleType.SmartSize,
'ResizeAllLayers': True,
'Resolution': 72,
'Width': 680,
'SharpnessValue': 100,
'AdvancedMode': True,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match,
'Version': ((12,5,0),1)
}
})

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Not too sure I have a clue what that's doing...

 

[fast1]

may i ask what does the script do?

 

[farmerj]

The script is an automated processing of different tasks in Paintshop Pro.

In the order above.

# Unsharp Mask
Setting are: Clipping': 4, 'Radius': 1, 'Strength': 139

# ColorBalance

# Color Adjust Levels
Also known as 'Levels' Does similar to Histogram Adjust below. But also allows the fine tuning withing the Histogram.

# Color Adjust Brightness Contrast

# Clarify

# Histogram Adjustment
Sets the Histogram to clip the colors at 0.1% top and bottom.

# Resize
Adjusts resolution to 72 DPI and sized to 1024X680

The rest of the information is the setting and levels that those processes are set to.

When you have 40-50 pictures to do, you select the images, run the script and walk away.