A Few Pictures I Took Today

[Pope Pertwee IX]

Originally Posted by Ianant

I don't know that I want to do photography full time. I not sure or I can't remember if I said that somewhere. Anyway, I'm not sure about that. Those points you raised, see bold type, is the reason why, Pope. I'd gladly welcome some more work though.

Aside from that, the actual shooting is only a small part of the job. The major part is sales related, selling your services, getting clients, work, etc., then there are other variables, post processing, etc. In short, as you mentioned, very much business or businesslike.

Ian, I’m glad you found my post helpful, speaking from experience.
I wish you success and joy in what you hope to do. I think you need more work on your website, (as you have already said). I would have a look at the competition, to see what you may be up against.
What I found useful was the “Art Directors’ Index to Photographers” books. (I don’t know if they are still published any more), but you can buy past editions, I have the “Europe Edition 12.” They show top work, which I think you would find inspiring. Rotovision are/were the publishers.
I’d also look on the web; whatever of advertisements for the field you intend to work in (Jewellery, etc.).

Here is a link to Rotovision; there is stuff here, which would be relevant to what you may be doing.

http://www.rotovision.com/

As John says, follow your calling; I believe in instinct, I hope you make the right decision. Best of luck.

[Pope Pertwee IX]

Originally Posted by jkelman

GREAT shots, Homer..something for me to aspire to

Just back from three weeks away, and have been working with the d800 a lot, in conjunction with a book that's helping me demystify its complexities. I think I reached a certain level of understanding this past Friday night in Oslo, where I covered a tremendous tribute to singer Sidsel Endresen, with participants including Bugge Wesseltoft (piano, keyboards); Morten Qvenild (hyperpiano, vocals); Django Bates (piano, vocals); Stian Westerhus (guitar); Håkon Kornstad (saxophone, mbira, vocals); Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet, vocals); Eldbjørg Raknes (vocals, electronics); Live Maria Rogen (vocals); Solveig Slettahjell (vocals); Elise Christensen: (vocals); Jan Bang (live sampling) and Audun Kleive (drums, percussion). Plan to take today off and start processing the images tomorrow, so when they're up I'll post here. I think I got some of the best photos I've take with the new camera...suddenly managed to balance all the parameters to get shots that are brighter, crisper and clearer. Hope you agree.

Anyway, the main point here was to tell you, Homer, how absolutely wonderful those shots are. I largely missed autumn and the leaf-changing because I was on the road; your pix almost make me feel like I didn't

And Ian, I can totally understand. My background is not dissimilar, as I was a data center manager, amongst other high tech jobs, until I decided I'd had enough. The choice to do what I am doing was risky, but it's suddenly starting to pay off: I've had more paid work this year than the past 8 years combined, and if it continues this way, then life will be just fine. Great, actually, as I'm now doing something I do so love that it's worth the drop in income. Good luck!

John, I’m pleased that you have found your calling, and the success you are experiencing. You have said you have hit it off with the D800. Good, then your eye will be less obstructed. Look forward to seeing your latest shoot, I hope there will be some contrasty monochromes in there.
I’d like to see the shot I suggested in post # 1434 in B&W. Of course time maybe of the essence.
Keep doing the business.

[NewJazz4Mike]

This one I took quite a while ago... July 22, 1967 in fact, at the Village Theater, which would later become The Fillmore East. I was only 16, and the Byrds were the first band I ever wanted to hear play live.... this was with (L to R) Chris Hillman, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and Michael Clarke. Also on the bill were The Seeds, the Vanilla Fudge, a "special guest appearance" by Richie Havens, and then the Byrds... it was my first ever real concert experience and I been hooked on live music ever since. Came across the slide and thought maybe some of you music lovers may dig it.

[NewJazz4Mike]

Great pics by others in the thread, of course... Homer, Ianant, JKelman... I applaud all of your efforts, as always.

[Pope Pertwee IX]

Mike, we are of similar vintage, I was 15 when you took that shot. Way before I got into photography. It’s nice to see some retro pics. My more serious stuff came in the early 1980’s.

[jkelman]

Originally Posted by Pope Pertwee IX

Of course time maybe of the essence.
Keep doing the business.

Thanks, man. It ain't a living yet...but it's starting to approach one.

As far as reprocessing an earlier image? Yeah, time is the issue. This year, especially, it always is. But I'll be working on some for the next batch for ya.

Cheers!
John

[page]

Originally Posted by Blacryder

I love this one B, really beautiful colours. That pond seems to be an inspiring place.

Originally Posted by NewJazz4Mike

This one I took quite a while ago... July 22, 1967 in fact, at the Village Theater, which would later become The Fillmore East. I was only 16, and the Byrds were the first band I ever wanted to hear play live.... this was with (L to R) Chris Hillman, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and Michael Clarke. Also on the bill were The Seeds, the Vanilla Fudge, a "special guest appearance" by Richie Havens, and then the Byrds... it was my first ever real concert experience and I been hooked on live music ever since. Came across the slide and thought maybe some of you music lovers may dig it.

Mike, I think Jazznik would be interested in this and other photos you might have from that time for his 'jazzchick'-thread. Nice to see that setting. You were really young to be allowed to go to the concert. I remember my mother didn't give me permission to go to a Supertramp concert when I was about 17. I was very disappointed. I didn't get to go to any concert until a few years later.

[jkelman]

Working my way through photos from my recent trip, full set of photos from Enjoy Jazz here, but a few selected ones:


Portico Quartet










Michael Wollny's [em]






Bill Frisell/Bill Morrison, The Great Flood


Manu Katché Group












Manfred Brundl Silent Bass




Manfred Eicher


Jessica Gall


James Farm










Herbie Hancock

[Ianant]

I think, the best I've seen you post here. There are some minor focusing and softening issues, but that is to be expected given how steady you have to be doing these kinds of shoots. Looks like you did some sharpening of some of the pics too? Or maybe this is just after converting to jpeg and uploading to whichever site is hosting the pics, if that is indeed what you did. I can see the pixellation. Anyway, what ISO setting did you use? And what aperture if you can remember, or ball park?

This kind of shooting is tricky. You have to look for or follow the light and that you did. Keep up the hard work.

[jkelman]

Originally Posted by Ianant

I think, the best I've seen you post here. There are some minor focusing and softening issues, but that is to be expected given how steady you have to be doing these kinds of shoots. Looks like you did some sharpening of some of the pics too? Or maybe this is just after converting to jpeg and uploading to whichever site is hosting the pics, if that is indeed what you did. I can see the pixellation. Anyway, what ISO setting did you use? And what aperture if you can remember, or ball park?

It ranged from 800 to 1600 for most, up to 3200 for a few. Yes, I did some sharpening and caused a little pixelation (still learning about way too many things at once with too little time!), and softening happened in some cases when I tried to reduce some grain.

But I do think I'm getting a better hang of the D800 and the software. I appreciate your comments - both the compliment and constructive criticism, as I rely on better photographers like yourself and others here to help me improve.

Unless I want to schelp either a monopod or tripod (i have both, but on the road, it's not always practical to carry with me), I have to rely on my own "arm-tripod" and occasional places to balance the camera when I shoot, especially in lower light. As you probably know, live show shooting isn't always in optimal conditions. That said, others do better than I, so I know it's not that it's impossible, it's just me...and hopefully I can fix that!

Originally Posted by Ianant

This kind of shooting is tricky. You have to look for or follow the light and that you did. Keep up the hard work.

Thanks, Ian; I'm tryin', I'm tryin' !!

[Pope Pertwee IX]

Originally Posted by jkelman

I appreciate - both the compliment and constructive criticism.

Hi John, Here’s some constructive criticism,
I think your monochrome shots should have more contrast. They would have much more impact. Half close your eyes at them for some idea. However, it’s a fine line overdoing it, and having the tendency of making them look vulgar.
It maybe, as I have stated before, time being the essence. You may not have had the time to fine-tune them, as you so desire.
Yes, you are definitely getting better with sharpness, (it’s not all negative).
I am glad you are enjoying what you do, and I hope you can continue to make a living out of it.

Keep tryin’ as you say, and you’ll continue to get better. I am never satisfied; I always want to do better. That’s a healthy attitude to have so long as you give credit to yourself when you have done well, but still yearn to do better, to improve even more.
Best of luck,
Pope.

[jkelman]

Originally Posted by Pope Pertwee IX

Hi John, Here’s some constructive criticism,
I think your monochrome shots should have more contrast. They would have much more impact. Half close your eyes at them for some idea. However, it’s a fine line overdoing it, and having the tendency of making them look vulgar.
It maybe, as I have stated before, time being the essence. You may not have had the time to fine-tune them, as you so desire.
Yes, you are definitely getting better with sharpness, (it’s not all negative).
I am glad you are enjoying what you do, and I hope you can continue to make a living out of it.

Thanks, Pope; appreciate the constructive criticism, as always! Time is always the issue...i've very limited time for processing...hopefully, with some changes coming up, I'll be able to at least partly rectify that.

Originally Posted by Pope Pertwee IX

Keep tryin’ as you say, and you’ll continue to get better. I am never satisfied; I always want to do better. That’s a healthy attitude to have so long as you give credit to yourself when you have done well, but still yearn to do better, to improve even more.
.

I've always figured that the day I reach where I'm trying to be is the day I put myself in the pine box; if there's nothing left to strive for, there's not a lot worth living for, imo, and if I think I've made it, then chances are I am completely mistaken

[tpt1]

I like the shots, John.

Damn, Herbie has some rig!

[Homer]

I have some suggestions that may be helpful. Concert shots are very difficult to capture well due to the low ambient light in contrast to the bright stage lights.

Set the camera to spot metering.

Begin by using shutter priority mode. Given the quality of the D800 camera and density of pixels I would set this speed to the lens focal length divided by 0.75 so that a 100 mm lens would have a minimum shutter speed of 1/150 second.

Set the camera to auto ISO with the max at either 3200 or 6400.

Be careful if the camera always defaults to the widest aperture, it is telling you that it's too dark. If the light is not changing, switch to manual mode as soon as you begin to nail shots. WATCH YOUR HISTOGRAM and EXPOSE TO THE RIGHT. Most of the image data is in the right of the histogram. Images may look blown on your camera LCD but can be recovered in LR when you pull the exposure down. This will give you the best image quality from your raw capture.

Expose to the right does not mean clipping the image. You cannot recover clipped data. It takes practice and familiarity with the camera to get this correct. You should set your LCD to negative contrast for a more accurate historgram.

I bet you find an immediate increase in sharpness and a reduction in noise. If you shoot raw, you need to apply import sharpening. I would default to try to capture detail. Using Lightroom consider the following settings:

Amount: 50
Radius: 0.7
Detail: Keep this low on high ISO images, about 25
Masking: I always hold down the alt key and adjust to taste. Less masking means more areas are sharpened.

Noise reduction and sharpening are related to one another. Your best way of addressing this is to set up import parameters that apply NR for different ISO settings. I set mine up by shooting a scene at base ISO and another at the peak ISO. Once these two endpoints are set, I just math out a linear change for the inbetween ISOs. It take some time to set up but you only do it once in LR and it get applied to every image that you import.

John, you're very good at this. Keep it up and you'll have a body of work that could be part of your retirement nest egg. With your access to musicians try to find unusual shots that others do not have access to. On stage are common, back stage less so. Follow the light, it's all about the light.

[Ianant]

Originally Posted by Homer

John, you're very good at this . . . .

Ditto. You were getting nice results long before you even had the new cam. The reason I asked about your ISO settings is because I do the most insane things to shoot at ISO 100, yup I said 100, even in impossible lighting situations and I have pulled it off. How will take a bit to type up, maybe later on I'll explain, but why I do that is because I don't like seeing digital noise in photographs and if there's too much of it, it looks no where as artful as noise or grain from a film shot.

In fact many times noise from digital cams just looks plain bad, or awful, especially in dark or shadow areas of a photo, so I try to avoid the high ISO shots.

Prior to asking you that question, I had googled and researched a bit on what photogs were doing at night with these newer cams to get the kind of results they were getting. I was amazed that so many were shooting at ISOs of 800 and higher, so Sunday night at Somethin' Jazz Club I did some experimentation at ISO 800 and as it turned out I was able to take one of the best photos I ever did.

It was not exactly a walk in the park, I had to shoot with a superfast prime lens at it's widest aperture which is 1.8, manually focus (since autofocus is practically a joke in poor light) and I had to be able to hold the camera still at a snail's pace shutter speed of 1/50 of sec.

At those speeds of course you can get motion blur if the musician makes a rapid movement(s), but I've experimented shooting at 1/50 many times before at live shows in horrid light and pulled it off.

There are tips and techniques but I don't want to get into too much writing about all that crap right now since I don't have time. Maybe later. In addition it is not practical to try and do this for most of the times one may want to shoot in the very challenging situation that a live gig presents.

There are a number of problems and challenges. I know of no zoom lense that works on a Nikon with a 1.8 aperture, so getting those close up intimate takes is a no no. And even if there was one, I would not be able to afford it. Can't even afford to spend money a decent 2.8 zoom, not even third party. And then of course I don't want to shoot at 1/50 either if I can avoid it.

So what's to do? One option is to experiment with shooting at even higher ISOs than 800 and I will now that I see from your shots and around the net that you could get damn good results.

One of my ways to get around the challenges was to use a much dreaded option called flash. It is a headache, in many ways. One is you have to know how to do it without blasting away and destroying the ambient light in the place. It's a headache, you have to constantly weigh and measure how far you are from your subject then adjust your flash power, so that just enough falls on your subject as a fill without destroying the ambient light.

I said I didn't want to talk about any of this crap in the least but I did anyway. Anyway, this time I'm out!