[Fat Buff Guy]

critique.



seen this as soon as i uploaded, buts fixt, the light on the right side coming off the border.

[CJW]

Nice use of Rule of thirds on the singer and the baseboard.

i am not a big fan of her expression...but what can you do...

Overall, I like it alot. Good shot.

[Fat Buff Guy]

i have alot more coming. it was really tough. no flashes. and i was in the back and the lighting was REALLY warm.

[Fat Buff Guy]

[Vudoo4u2]

i like em!

came out fantastic despite the lighting toughness

perhaps a smidge grainy? but i imagine you had to use ISO to your advantage just to get them done @ all

the only thing I can suggest is maybe a little less red tint? but only a little less....

[Fat Buff Guy]

yeah, thats takin at 1000iso, maybe even 1250, i cant remember. shutter speed of about 1/30 or 1/40. i should post up one of the originals. lol. its almost blown out red. i had to change the wb all the way to blue on the camera, and than do the same during the editing.

the lighting was really funky to, the whole top of the piano reflected off the back wall. lol i am pretty pleased with them, despite the disadvantages.

i have to say im still impressed with the d300, every other camera ive ever used, at 1250 iso i cant even stand to look at the results. (of course, i havnt used many)

[Black_Dog]

Fat Buff Guy (I feel like I am talking to myself), I took an interest in these photos because I have two high school aged sons that are in the school band and I am constantly confronted by situations like this. You have a lovely subject and the composition is nice, however, the color is still a little off and they are all a bit soft (in the first two, you camera seems to have focused on the piano leaving the singer slightly OOF; in the third, the male singers in the center are in focus but the female is OOF; the last photo is soft overall, perhaps due to camera shake or subject movement resulting from slow shutter speed). Having now shot thousands upon thousands of such photos, here are some things I’ve learned:

1. Shoot at a higher ISO for greater sharpness and slightly overexpose to control the noise. I was a holdout film guy and only made the transition to digital a couple of years ago. As such, I tried to shoot this stuff the way I would with have with transparencies or negatives, which is exactly opposite of what you need to do with digital. After much trial and error, I discovered that I consistently get the best results when I use the highest available ISO, usually 1600, for sharpness and set exposure compensation between +2/3 and +1 1/3. Overexposing in this manner helps reduce the noise incident to the higher ISO, just be careful not to over do it to the point of losing detail in highlights. Later, in your computer, dial the exposure down to proper levels, run a noise filter as required, and use the Unsharp Mask filter to sharpen up the fine details.
2. Use a monopod. It’s impossible to hand hold effectively in this light without creating some image softness from the movement of you and your camera unless you are shooting with bright pro glass and image stabilization built into your lens (IS in camera bodies isn’t nearly as effective). Tripods are usually too cumbersome for performance situations like this. Monopods are much more discrete. I find that with a monopod I can shoot as slow as 1/80 sec. at 300mm with good results.
3. Take test shots to get the white balance correct. The lighting in school auditoriums, halls and classrooms usually confuse my camera’s auto white balance. So before my kids come on I shoot a series of test shots of other performers with the camera manually set to the various white balance settings (e.g. sunlight, fluorescent, tungsten, etc.) and chose the setting that gets the whites correct for that venue. If you shoot RAW, this isn’t necessary as you can adjust the WB afterward without any ill side effects in a RAW editor.
4. Shoot in full manual mode. These low-light situations are difficult for TTL light meters to figure out, especially when the subject is against a dark background, as yours is, and if they are wearing dark attire, as yours is. When I shoot in automatic mode, I discover that my camera is making different exposure choices with every shot as I vary the composition, which can create wild unexpected swings in exposure. In order to get consistently accurate results, I shoot in full manual. Again, I take a series of test shots before my kids hit the stage so I can work out the appropriate aperture and shutter speed for the exposure I desire (slightly overexposed, as described above). One caveat is that my usual lenses have variable minimum apertures, so zooming in or out can change the exposure. So, if I do zoom, I have to remember to adjust accordingly.

[Fat Buff Guy]

holy cow, thanks for all the feed back!

#1 was/is definitly the most usefull piece of advice. i do use a pretty stout tripod, and i do shoot in full manual, i actually do probably 95% of the time and than i am usually there about a half hr early to try and get the wb right. but usually still takes a bit of pp to get right.

as far as the oof ness goes, i guess i should try manual focusing it, im at a 200mm focal lengh, because i am at the back. and i think sometimes the af on the d300 really has a mind of its own.

thanks again! im actually excited to get back into the hall and put your suggestions to use.