K-zoo concert pics

[irondaisy]

Hello all :)

It has taken me a while, but I finally got these pics from the NC concert in Kalamazoo last month scanned.

Here goes...

I think I am going to have to post them one at a time. Sorry about that.

Betsy
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[irondaisy]

OOPS!!!! hehehe... forgot to attach the first pic. duh! [splat]

second attempt, coming up!

[irondaisy]

heeeerreessss another...

[irondaisy]

and another...

[irondaisy]

pic #4

[irondaisy]

and #5

[irondaisy]

#6

[irondaisy]

#7, coming up! :D

[irondaisy]

so, why was 8 afraid of 7???? 'Cause 7 ate 9!!! LOL :p
I know, I know, unbearably corny joke. Couldn't resist, sorry. :D

Anyway, here's #8...

[irondaisy]

and here's poor, chewed up #9 LOL wow, I need some sleep!!!

[irondaisy]

*ahem* [shock] composure regained, I present you with photo #10.:D

[irondaisy]

I love how intense the lighting is on Sean; it matches his playing style and facial expressions.
Anyway, on to #11.

[irondaisy]

Here's #12 (don't worry, people, there's only one more after this) ;)

[irondaisy]

And here's my parting shot :)

[irondaisy]

I'm sure the question will come up, so I will answer it now:

yes, I did mean for there to be the blurry movement effect in some of the pics. I used two different speeds of film, one to freeze the action and the other to give the look of movement. I like pics both ways...

I am curious to see people's reaction (if any) to the first one I posted (Chris and Sean jamming in a blur of pink, orange and yellow). I LOVE it, 'cause it reminds me of the energy they played with that night...
Sean broke numerous strings, Chris broke at least one and Sara jammed so hard during one song that her bow strings began fraying. She just kept right on playing, and afterward, broke off the loose strings with her teeth :D I love how down to earth and just FUN these people are!!!!

Later,
Betsy
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[kokomo88]

wow. very cool! all your pics are great but all your pics of Sean are awesome. in #5 Chris looks like a giant fuzzy rooster. those are really well done..Sean always looks good though. blurry or not. he's the less blurry of the three though. chris is most blurry. nifty

[asillittle]

I love that you captured Sean's signature faces that he usually makes...:D

[transformed]

i really like the first one...although you lose the facial expressions, the color and energy like you said are awesome, and i like the composition a lot too. #5 is probably my favorite. such good motion captured there! i like chris :)
i'm anxious to get my pictures back....i have a new nikon camera that i've only taken a couple rolls with, and only a couple pictures in the dark so i don't really know what i'm doing yet. i used the night setting (slower speed) and turned the flash off (since cameras technically weren't allowed, plus i didn't want to annoy the musicicans) so i don't know if they'll come out or not. if they do they'll probably all be blurry because that's what happened the last time i used that setting. i'm just hoping that some of them look like i meant them to be that way.. :rolleyes:

[transformed]

by the way..
i'm going to another concert in a couple weeks...anyone have any photography advice for me?maybe i should start a new thread about that..

[leconte]

I don't know how strict of a rule it is, but the official Nickel Creek website indicates that the band has a no flash rule, regardless of the venue policy. Of course, both concerts that I've been to had tons of people snapping flash pictures left and right... but when I took my concert shots (some of which are on the NC website, Summer Tour 2003, under Kevin Davidson :D ), I made sure to turn my flash off out of respect for said rule.

My camera is a nikon digital, and I had to strain the camera to get decent shots in the lowlight conditions. Plus I was at full optical zoom most of the time. I set the film speed to a 400 or 800 equivelant, and had a wide-open aperture most of the time. Shutter speeds ranged from 1/15 to 1/60, with center-weighted exposure metering (matrix metering was a no-go because of the very dark background). If you're using a digital, you might try playing with white balance to compensate the orange-red tint inherent with no-flash (I wish I had adjusted white balance).

[Elizabeth]

Great pics! Thanks for posting them! I too like the ones of Sean (no surprises there then!). Couldn't help but notice how long both the boy's hair's getting. I like it though, Chris' hair was pretty fuzzy when I saw them a few months back but it's even bigger now! And I must say that however Sean has his hair, he always looks good. Except of course if he were to shave it all off...now that would be a disaster!

[EmilyNCfan]

I like all of the pics..if you show people the action ones, you can tell them that you were up on stage with them....it's raining out, thats why i have come up with bad/weird/stupid ideas this morning.:o ::Yawn::

[transformed]

so is it better to go with a slower shutter speed or a larger aperture? because you can't have both, right? i know a little bit about that stuff, but not a lot, and certainly not enough to know what to actually do with my camera for the circumstances... would using a larger aperture but faster shutter speed be better for preventing blurriness?


i'm not using a digital by the way... i think i had 400 film. yeah i did. maybe i'll invest in some 800 this time

[leconte]

To prevent blurriness, you want a fast shutter speed - 1/15 sec is the slowest I'd use. Something like 1/30 or 1/60 is better though for reducing blurriness when the subject is moving.

The problem is, with a fast shutter speed, you need lots of light. A non-flash concert event is a very lowlight scenario most of the time, so it's like a worst-case situation.

There are some tricks to taking good lowlight shots, but each trick has a drawback as follows:

- use ISO800 or higher film. This helps because the film is more sensitive, thus it needs less light. The higher the ISO, the grainier the picture will be, but a high ISO really buys you a lot of low-light capability. You might even try getting ISO1000 or higher (at a camera shop)

- use a large aperture, to allow a lot of light into the camera. The drawback here is that your focal range will be very short. In other words, let's say you're focused on something that's 15 feet away. Things only a foot or two CLOSER or FURTHER will be out of focus. This is as opposed to a small aperture, in which everything in the picture will be practically in focus.

- use center weighted or spot metering instead of matrix metering. In matrix metering, the camera samples the brightness of the entire frame. In a concert situation, a lot of the background will be totally black - and if you're using matrix metering, the camera will try to compensate for that, but you don't care about the background usually. Using center weighted or spot metering tells the camera that you don't care how dark the background is - you're only interested in making sure the SUBJECT is bright enough - especially important when you're dealing with lowlight. The drawback here is that if you *do* care about the entire frame, then you'll have to use matrix metering which runs the risk of causing blurriness.

- if you use a telephoto or zoom lens, you're sacrificing light. The more you zoom in, the darker the picture becomes. So you should only zoom in when the subject is well lit - ie, when the stage is well lit as opposed to dark lighting.

So as you can see, there are drawbacks to each of the lowlight tricks. If you're comfortable using your camera in full manual mode, then try to set the shutter speed at 1/30 and then adjust the aperture, metering, and zoom as listed above to achieve what the camera's exposure meter tells you is adequate.

Most importantly - and this is easier with a digital camera - you should *practice* first! I know it sounds strange, but I spent a good deal of time practicing taking lowlight pictures well in advance of the Bogart's concert. That way, I knew ahead of time how to adjust the camera to get good lowlight shots. Unfortunately, with film, it gets quite expensive taking practice shots. Additionally, a digital camera with an LCD lets you review the pictures you just took, so you'll know immediately (at the concert!) whether or not your pictures are going to turn out, and whether or not you need to adjust the camera further.

One last suggestion.. get to the concert early, so you can be right up at the front of the stage! This way you can get good pictures without having to zoom in and lose light.

Of course, using a flash would make all of this much much easier... but NC does have a no-flash policy, and we should all honor that.

If I can figure out how to do it, I'll attach a couple pics I took at Bogarts.

[leconte]

In this picture, you'll need to be careful when using center weighted metering... you'll want to lock the focus and exposure while aiming the camera at either Sara or Sean, then re-frame the image to include them both... otherwise, it'll meter based on the dark background in between them!

[leconte]

Sean.

[leconte]

The lighting in this one gives Chris an aura or something

[irondaisy]

Nice pics, leconte!!!! :)

I used 400 speed on some of my pics and 800 on the rest. I actually dropped down well below 1/15th for some, which explains some of the blurriness.

What lens did you use on your pics?
I have a 300mm Canon; it's my baby!!!:D

Betsy
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[transformed]

wow, thanks so much for all the tips!!! i don't know anything about metering....i'll have to look in my little owners manual to see how that works. i'll see what i can do about practicing ahead of time but it will be kind of hard, for the reasons you mentioned. (plus the fact that it always seems to take forever to get film, finish the roll, take it in to get developed, and get back to pick it up...) also i'm not sure how to simulate the type of lighting there is at a concert where it IS very dark, but the subjects have bright lights on them..hm..
those pictures are awesome. the first one of Chris, oh man it's so funny. it's so him.
i hope i can get to the concert early. i was originally planning to drive up myself with some friends, in which case i could leave whenever, but now i'm going with my mom and we have to have a babysitter for my youngest siblings so...i guess i'll have to try to convince her of the need to get there very early (and stay late to actually talk to the band this time...) :(

[JenCFXfan]

I really love the feeling of all the pictures in this thread! Thanks for sharing...

I have found that the lack of flash can give the photos a really warm and vibrant feeling- just like being back at the show:)

PEACE

~Jen

[tangerinefeet]

Wow!!!! Great pix!!!! I, too love the blurry effect. Very kewl. AND YOU WERE KILLING ME WITH THE SEAN ONES!!!!! My eyes were watering!!! That's a good thing, FYI. Aiyyyy....
Anyway, ummmm.... I must say your photography skills are DEFINITELY beyond mine. Cameras are foreign objects to me, thank-you very much[sob] .
Well, until I post again...
~*CiArRa*~

[mandofingers]

Originally posted by Elizabeth
Couldn't help but notice how long both the boy's hair's getting. I like it though, Chris' hair was pretty fuzzy when I saw them a few months back but it's even bigger now! And I must say that however Sean has his hair, he always looks good.

I too noticed that. Shows how busy they have been. No time for hair cuts. *smiles*

As for all the great camera tips..thanks...unfortunatly I didn't know them for my concert and most of my pics turned out blurry, but if you squint and hold them at arms distance they become clear. hehe. about half came out really bad and half came out good. Well.. definite tips to write down for the next concert. :)

[leconte]

Originally posted by irondaisy

What lens did you use on your pics?
I have a 300mm Canon; it's my baby!!!:D

Betsy
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I don't really know much about the lens on my camera... the camera is a nikon cp4500, which has a nikkor lens marked with 7.85-32mm (~4.1x optical zoom) and 1:2.6-5.1 on it. I found that I kept the camera in full telephoto zoom most of the time, to get good close-up shots.

[OkieLovinNC]

I love those pictures! You guys are amazing with those cameras! Kudos to ya! ;)

BTW- Sean is lookin' goooooooooooooood in those! :D

[transformed]

well, i looked and on my camera you can only have center weighted metering in manual mode, so i guess that's what i will be using. for some reason i couldn't set the aperture any larger than f/5.3 even though there are places in the manual where it uses f/2.8 as an example. so i don't know what's up with that.

i have another problem...my camera has a depth-of-field preview light that i could not find any way to turn off. according to my brother it's not nearly as bright as the flash but still pretty bright. i'm thinking that's probably going to be a problem with the no-flash rule. :confused:

[leconte]

I do know that if you zoom your lens, then you can't open the aperture as much as you can when at wide angle. Were you zoomed in at all?

As for the depth-of-field light... I presume this is a light which helps the camera's autofocus functions? If so, then I doubt you'll want to turn it off (or you'll run the risk of things being out of focus). However, I doubt the light will be a problem. It certainly isn't as obtrusive as a bright flash bulb...

[transformed]

yeah, i probably was zoomed in although i never thought to check that.
i'll definitely need the light to have good pictures, i just didn't want it to bother anyone. i can't remember if it went on at the other concert i was at..i'm sure it must have. oh well.
thanks for all your help!!

[NCLuver333]

:D OMG!!!!!! Those pics r incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!![eek!!]