Calm Before the Storm

One more from a week ago when I was photographing the band for our churches college and young adult ministry called The Gathering. They took the show on the road so to speak and was doing a service at one of the local colleges. I was over before the service to see how the light would be and once again it was absolutely horrible. Dim room lit by bright background lights. Oh well high ISO and poorly lit faces for the most part. I was going to be able to use flash for a very short while so I had to nail down the shots I wanted very quickly.

The image above is from the pre-show set-up and everyone had taken off except Bob who is a fantastic guitar player. Without being amped Bob just was getting into the music very softly and when I saw this in my minds eye I knew it would make a great image. I shot it with the 5D2 with an EF 16-35 f/2.8L USM lens mounted. The specs are an ISO of 5000, 1/40 at f/4. Post was all done in Lightroom using corrected white balance (did I say the lighting was absolutely horrible), and some pulls on a gradients that dropped the exposure 2 stops on the top and 3.5 on the bottom. What a tool to modify the light to something that gives a sweet mood.

Speaking of Calm Before the Storm, we are heading out to Maryland this week for the expected arrival of grand baby number one. If I am a little sporadic here on the blog this week you will know why.

Take care and I'll cya... Hmm... some time in the next few days... Doug

I Had to Do It!

I had driven to Columbus so I brought my gear bag with the 5D2 and an assortment of lenses. It was really cold and while I was not prepared to do outdoor shooting I did get an opportunity to shoot a band at a local restaurant/lounge called Hoggies. I had shot this band with my G9 about a year ago and with the really really bad high ISO images the G9 produces I could only turn to an artsy image. With the 5D2 in ˙and it would be interesting to see how I could get the images.

This first image of the band was using the EF 16-35 f/2.8L USM lens 1/10 second at f/4 with an ISO 0f 6400 and a focal length of 35 mm. Locking in on the lead singer tended to blur the others in the band as they were moving around a good bit. The other problem I had going on here was the band had no front lighting what so ever. Add to that the bright wall lighting in the background and there you have it. Big time lighting issues.

Here are a couple more images from that night.

This one is at 1/15 second f/2.8 ISO 6400 with the EF 50 mm f/1.4

This again is with the EF 50 mm f/1.4 only at 1/15 second f/2.8 ISO 6400 

This one is clearly the winner with the little guy banging around on the drums. The specs on this shot were still on the EF 50 mm f/1.4 shot at 1/15 second, f/2.8, ISO 6400.

That was all last Wednesday but could not get to the images until I got home and could fire the RAW's up in Lightroom due to the previously mentioned hose job by Adobe. I am still looking forward having the office done so I can upgrade to CS4 and be done with this mess. It would also be nice if Adobe would put put the Mac version of Elements 7.0 so I could put it on my PowerBook G4. The time will come!

Hey, it's time to spend so couch time with my dear wife so I am outta here!

Cya... Doug

The Gathering

Good Monday morning, I hope you all had a great weekend. My daughter was in town for a wedding and it was real enjoyable to hang out with her as often as we could.

The montage of images in this picture below I took last Sunday night for a ministry at our church. It is a new ministry focused on the college and career group in the age range of 18-33. I used to be one of the teachers of this group o Sunday mornings until the church hired a full time pastor for the position which it really did need. Anyhow I am still associated with it even though I am well out of the top end in age. But that is more of a physical thing anyway.

All the images were shot on the same evening. The room was very dark and the lighting was mostly reflected off the wall which put the people in a backlit condition. I had a pair of EX 580 II's mounted on light stands and was firing them with the little Canon remote trigger. I had the flashes pointed about 30 degrees off vertical which blew out the white tile ceiling but gave me enough light on the band to get the subdued lighting effect I was looking for.

I have yet to see this in print but I think it will look pretty snappy when it is done.

Have a great rest of this Monday. Cya... Doug

Movie Review Friday

Ok... I know what you are thinking. "Doug, you didn't really go see Mamma Mia!" Well actually... I did. But I was not by myself. That would be just a little too creepy. Evelyn and I were out in Maryland visiting our kids and my daughter, wife and I went and saw the movie.

So what's with the movie? What I can tell you is that when you leave the theater, you feel good, funny, entertained, and weird all at the same time. If you know absolutely that you do not like musicals, then don't go near it. Otherwise it was a really fun movie with one exception. Pierce Brosnan just can not carry a tune. He tries (sometimes too hard) but I'm sorry Pierce, this is one Bond that should avoid the musicals.

The really coolest parts of the movie were when the actors started to sing in the nasty actor trying to sing really well voice. After a couple moments there was an audio transition that went from set to studio voice with all the enhancements that come with a really good mixer.

So by the title one would think this is a story about the band Abba. Well, the music certainly is! There was only one song that I heard that I could not clearly identify as an Abba hit. It was really interesting how the mix of music lyrics and movie subject came together in the film.

Recommendation: If you like Abba music, or musicals in general, go see it.

Have a great weekend. Cya... Doug

Flashback

Last Thursday, the 31st I took Evelyn up to Cannonsberg Ski area for the Grand Rapids Symphony's Picnic Pops presentation of Abba The Band. 

Ok... I know... Really... Abba?

Now back in the day, I can admit to having an Abba album (real vinyl) or two... I don't think it was ever three though. Actually they were very good. "The Band" is the only sanctioned tribute band by the original group. To that point the dude that played the sax for the original group was there playing during a couple of the sets. I thought that was cool cause this dude was seriously gray but jam-en really good. 

It is now Tuesday and I am still trying to get S.O.S., Knowing Me Knowing You, Fernando, and a couple of other songs out of my head. Maybe I need to filter it with a little Bon Jovi.

Take care... Doug

Phantom Sunday

My wife gave me this Playbill from last weekend and I just had to scan it and post it. Last weekend in New York if you kept up on last weeks posts we hooked up with my Daughter Sandy and Son-in-law Chris fro a weekend in NYC. One of the events we had planned as a surprise for our spouses was going to see Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater.

I must tell you, seeing a play on or off Broadway is something to behold. The sets and costumes are spectacular, the actors are spot on, and the music... Oh the music! Phenomenal is a word that comes to mind. For a bunch of musicians buried beneath the stage it was absolutely better than CD quality. The opening Overture when the chandelier was raised off the stage and traversed the audience was just WOW! It must be seen to understand and experience.

As far as the How2 part of this post. The scan was done at 600 dpi and clarified in CS3. As usual print media when scanned has a lot of ink pixels on the surface. To correct that I copied the layer, did a 1.9 gaussian blur then on the mask exposed the background edges of the type edging to give it a sharpened look. As far as the Phantom mask I isolated it so I could re-blackened the playbill cover. Thats it!

Enjoy... Doug

Monday, Monday.

Gee... Wasn't that a song from the sixties? Maybe my mind is slipping. Anyhow it has been a really nice Monday. I have been at the computer most of the day. Actually I woke up at 4:00 this morning eyes wide open. No groggies what so ever so up and in the shower I arose. 

I am getting ready to tear apart the office in hopes of installing a larger work platform so I can get some better organization and workflow into the biz. I will keep you posted on the progress.

This past Saturday Evelyn and I stopped buy one of the area churches where Word of Life was having there Area Teens Involved competition. I wanted to take my camera and run around in a photojournalistic fashion taking shots of the daughter of one of our friends. As our church teens participate in the competition to a very large degree the youth pastor asked me to take as many shots as I could. I had brought my 70-200 f2.8L IS lens and a 16-35 f2.8 wide angle so I was somewhat prepared. What I had not expected is how much shooting I would be doing. Note to self, make sure the batteries are fully charged. You guessed it just I was taking a shot the world came to an end. Fortunately I had the other battery in the car but it was dead as a door nail. I was able to juice the original battery in about 15 minutes enough to allow the dead battery to charge enough to the allow the original battery to fully charge. The world was again at peace.

I took about 130 shots and one of my favorite it this on above. Kearstin on the left is about to perform a vocal solo with Wendy having been her coach and doing the accompaniment. All the competitors and coaches pray before each performance for the usual "Lord don't let me mess up" prayer. The rooms are small classrooms at this church and the tremendous support our church give these kids just packs the house out.

I say all that to explain what I did with the image. I was diagonally across the room about 20 feet away with the 70-200 mounted. It as a combination of natural light from the right and the standard fluorescence overhead. With people packed in the room the people behind the piano really detracted from the shot. A slight gaussian blur, a darkening layer, and a couple of layer masks and we have a nice image that brings the purpose into focus. Bringing glory and honor to Jesus Christ.

Thats all for tonight. 

Doug

One Last Note

Here is an image of the band that I was listening to last night. They are called Sirens and is just the coolest local band that plays various types of music but a really nice mix. My buddy wanted me to take a picture of the band and I knew it would be atrocious for the G9 as I was going to have to push the ISO and as nice of a camera the G9 is, ISO 1600 sucks.

So with the ISO pumped up, f/2.8, 1/2 sec on the shutter with a 2/3 powered flash (in camera... Yuck!) set to the second curtain, I took the shot. I wasn't below the hard deck for more than... Oh wait a second, wrong life.

When I downloaded the image today it turned out quite as expected. I liked the composition and the lighting, but there was way to much noise to be useful for a print. The options were to send it to the bit bucket or take it into the artistic world. A little watercolor filter and here we have it.

Ok, I think that will be it for today. We have an airplane for tomorrow and I will be talking most of the day so I chould go rest my chords.

Cya... Doug

Special Sunday Blog

Figaro... Figaro... Figaro...

As we were out of town on Valentines day I wanted to do something special for my wife other than just dinner out. We did do dinner in Grand Rapids (The Chop House rocks) and during dinner I suggested that we walk down to the boat show and see what was there. So after dinner we are walking to the convention center which is just past the performing arts center. We ducted into the performing arts center with a questioning look on my wife's face. To which I pulled out two tickets to the Opera Figaro.

This was the first Opera either of us had been two and it was a full blown out Opera. Singing in Italian and all. Hidden in the document above was a short summary of the Wedding of Figaro which we did not discover until after the Opera. Thankfully there were short but broken sentences being displayed above the stage to help tell the story. There were five acts to the Opera and we really did not expect the whole process to take three and a half hours. The Grand Rapids Symphony was outstanding, singing was top notch even though we couldn't understand a single word of it, and the acting was very entertaining.

It was truly one of those experiences that I glad they we did but am not holding my breath until I can go to my next Opera. That may change though if it were in english. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend... Doug

This ROCKS - Really

You have to jump over to Mike Ricketts website  to get the skinny on this very talented musician. Mike just rips the daylights out of a guitar. Click here for the link.
The above two images are the front and back cover to a CD case. Why you ask, are these on a photo blog? Because I did a CD cover for a buddy of mine last year and it is my blog. Really there is more here than meets the eye. While I did not take all the pics on the case, I did do all the composition. In Elements no less. I was still fairly new to the Photoshop/Elements gig and it was a very fast learning curve. Issues of color space going from sRGB or Adobe RGB to CMYK which Elements does not support. Fortunately the CD case printer accepted the Adobe RGB and did the transition.
These are two of the inside panels of the tri-fold case. Above is Mike relaxing at a sunrise at home. Mike gave me this photo and I was able to pull the dark shadows to life so it could be used. While this CD will blow you away, these three people are the coolest. They all have careers and do the music gig out of the love for the craft. Hmm, sounds like photographers. 

Both Mike and Molly are in the Columbus OH area. Molly plays every Wednesday night in a little band at a BQ place called Hogies (62 & Moorse road if you must know). She is tremendous on base.
Below is Jeff the drummer. This panel is a composite image and was from Mikes studio in his basement. The only elements in from the original photo that made it into the composite were the main set of drums, the amp, and speaker. The picture of Jeff he send me form one he had taken on his couch. The image in the TV is a shot of Jeff in concert. There was a lot of work in this panel but it was a blast to create.
All in all the CD case project was a lot of fun and a tremendous learning experience in digital editing and manipulation. I have to say it was the project that started my creative juices flow and has blossoms into the business I now have in photography. Thanks Mike!