The photography thread

[NNotN-ENN]

Gonna cross post an old post from another forum to contribute a bit more to this thread.

Back in July I shot The Amity Affliction touring their new album 'Youngbloods', supported by Misery Signals, Confession, Flood of Red (any of you Scotts know this band?) and Reigner. I initially wasn't too happy with these shots but managed to score a front page feature on the website I shoot for (www.fasterlouder.com.au) and have had a guy from the company that distros Framus gear in Aus trying to hit me up to use some of the shots of Clint from TAA who plays Framus guitars.. Unfortunately he's gone silent, but I ended up happier with these shots than at first.

Here are a few random faves:

1.

reigner by natedoggity, on Flickr
2.

flood of red by natedoggity, on Flickr
3.

flood of red by natedoggity, on Flickr
4.

flood of red by natedoggity, on Flickr
5.

confession by natedoggity, on Flickr
6.

mis sigs by natedoggity, on Flickr
7.

mis sigs by natedoggity, on Flickr
8.

amity by natedoggity, on Flickr
9.

amity by natedoggity, on Flickr
10.

amity by natedoggity, on Flickr

 

[arv_foh]

DUDE! I want that mantis pic as a background on my desktop.

what's your res kyle and I'll make you one

 

[grywolf627]

Just a few more. Trying some subtle use of HDR just to capture a little more light/color detail, but nothing really spectacular.

And after seeing the Mantis pic, I came home to find this little guy on my window by my door (though not nearly as good a pic as ARV's)

 

[NNotN-ENN]

Shot some photos at the local gig for Despised Icon's farewell/first Australian tour. Touring with The Red Shore and Thy Art is Murder and supported in Canberra by Corporate Takedown and Aeon of Horus.
Aeon absolutely shredded, Thy Art is Murder were actually really legit but the Red Shore were disappointing. Despised were tight as all hell and crushing. Great live band.

(this gig was lit so badly it nearly made me cry... thank god metal heads don't usually mind a bit of flashing to the face haha)
01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

06.

07.
Alexgrind is an absolute beast of a drummer. Plays with marching band sticks backwards (if you didn't already know) which is insane for how fast he goes and how consistently he hits.

More at my flickr which is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanmollison/

 

[Carlsman]

Some of my photos.

 

[NNotN-ENN]

Hey those are really nice man. You've got a good eye! And I like the post you've done on them too. What are you shooting and editing with?

 

[Carlsman]

Thanks man! The post processing is half the fun!
I'm shooting with a Canon EOS 550D and a Canon EF 50/1.8 lens and a Sigma EX 70-200/2.8 lens. I've also begun to shoot some nightlife photography were I always use the 50mm and a Canon 430EX II flash.
I'm editing all my shots with photoshop. Tried out Lightroom a couple of weeks ago but I feel more at home with ps so I'm sticking with it.

I really like your photos also. What do you use to shoot and edit?

 

[StefTD]

I actually have no cam, use the cheapass 5 year old cam of my girl, but I think the pics are halfway decent.
Gonna get me a better one when I finish college.

These are from my last holiday with my girl (2007-need more...)

And my favorite shot:

These were shot in a small park here, many options for great pictures there:

This is the only edited one, because I wanted to try out a few things:

 

[kev]

Wow, you guys are really very talented at this! Maybe I will order up a decent camera for Christmas and see how it goes.

 

[StefTD]

I'm editing all my shots with photoshop. Tried out Lightroom a couple of weeks ago but I feel more at home with ps so I'm sticking with it.

+1, just not my cup of tea, my old boss used it a lot, but he was the only one there.
Gonna try it out again, soon, but at the moment, ps works well enough for me.

 

[NNotN-ENN]

Thanks man! The post processing is half the fun!
I'm shooting with a Canon EOS 550D and a Canon EF 50/1.8 lens and a Sigma EX 70-200/2.8 lens. I've also begun to shoot some nightlife photography were I always use the 50mm and a Canon 430EX II flash.
I'm editing all my shots with photoshop. Tried out Lightroom a couple of weeks ago but I feel more at home with ps so I'm sticking with it.

I really like your photos also. What do you use to shoot and edit?

Thanks boss. I'm a Nikon guy, shooting with a D300. I think that last lot were shot with just the Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye, and my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 (great cheap little lense, but Canon and Nikon). The other shots of mine up the top of the page might've also had shots from my 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 which is not really ideal for gigs and hence I've just forked out for a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 - haven't got to use it to it's full potential just yet though. For gigs I'm usually just carrying around my SB-600 on a sync cord so I have a bit more flexibility. I think I just had it hot shoe mounted at the Despised gig though because of the dynamic nature of things... I try not to use on-axis fill too often (hence the heavy PP in some of these).
Other than that I've got a couple of Vivitar 285hvs and a Qflash T2d for off camera lighting.

At the moment I'm just using Lightroom 3, but I can understand the thoughts you're having with it vs. Photoshop proper. I'm only really using it because a license for it is cheaper than PS! But it is really great when you've got hundreds of photos to get through... Helps with uniformity. The sharpening algorithm sucks though and I really need a PS license so I can go back through and sharpen my stuff after I process in LR, methinks.

 

[LeSedna]

Carlsman, your pics are absolutely fabulous. They have some sort of soul only few can reach today. How do you get these ?

I've been shooting a few chicks recently, and I'm trying to start earning a little money with it. I invested in an SB600 too, this thing is great especially when controlled by my camera. I wouldn't have imagined it's so easy to place and control a flash by distance with the nikon system.

I have put my book online : www.mateo-inhstudio.book.fr nothing on it for the moment and it's written in french but basically it is to try to be hired for little shootings like portraits, private parties, maybe mariage eventhough I wouldn't accept it for the moment as the main photograph, artists, etc.

 

[LeSedna]

BTW, I have to post some of my latests pics.

Carlsman : how do you process the colours and maybe blur effect if you do ? I love the charm it gives to them.

I love Lightroom but don't get it as what it is not : it's intended to let you manage your whole library, and edit them in a row. And if you need special editing, on a case to case basis, open PS. I think you can even link them so that inside LR you can open PS, edit, close, and this is saved as a new picture (to save the first one in case of destructive editing). If your computer is powerful enough it would be a practical solution. It's how it works with external plugins.

 

[arv_foh]

This is all stuff I've shot in the past month

and I'm scouting locations to do a custom album cover shoot for JeffTD

 

[Carlsman]

LeSedna:
I begin with doing some levels adjustment if needed. Then I apply a crossprocessing action, made with curves. This is mostly where the coloring come from.
I then add a Black & White adjustment layer. Making it look good in black & white, setting the blending mode to Soft Light and then decreasing the opacity 'til it looks good. That's about it. No blur effect. It's all from choosing the aperture.
You really need to try and think about the natural lightning to make it look good, in my opinion. I'm by no means a pro but I always try to make the best of sun light.
Hope you get some help from this.

 

[kramer1309]

you know arv, i'm going to stop saying ur awesome coz its true and all, but yeah, its like im saying the same thing over and over!!!

@StefTD: dude! I really like ur 4th shot of the empty small lane!

@Carslman: dayum! i love ur first shot's composition dude! is there any post-proc on in?

@NNotN-ENN: some cool work with a fish eye i see!

will post a shot i took soon.. its nothing great technically, but i feel its really expressive of my state of mind at the point of time...

 

[exoslime]

wowwwwwwwwww, stunning photos@all
@Carlsman
i love yours,.. the composition, the colors, WOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
thanks alot for you tips!!!

@NNotN-ENN
your pictures are brilliant,
may i ask you how you get your shots so bright?
are u using a flash? if yes, the d300 built in or an external?
my concert photos are always dark as hell maybe i should get an external flash?


and here are some i took more or less recently:

Schloss Chiemsee

Cinque Terre

Venice

Pseudo-Makro:

Garden:

Guitars:

cheers
exoslime

 

[Carlsman]

Kramer: Thanks!
It's the same processing as I explained in the earlier post. Crossprocessing, b&w set to soft light. I think that's about it.

 

[arv_foh]

you know arv, i'm going to stop saying ur awesome coz its true and all, but yeah, its like im saying the same thing over and over!!!

lol thanks dude glad people dig the stuff I do around here

I picked up a new lens, a 24-70mm f/2.8L that I've been LOVING

 

[NNotN-ENN]

@NNotN-ENN
your pictures are brilliant,
may i ask you how you get your shots so bright?
are u using a flash? if yes, the d300 built in or an external?
my concert photos are always dark as hell maybe i should get an external flash?

Hey mate, to be honest I usually try not to use flashes for gig photos. The stage lighting is usually good enough to work with. You just need to crank your ISO up a bit (I shoot between 800-1600 max in these situations on my camera) and find the slowest shutter speed you can whilst the band is moving around (1/20th is probably the absolute slowest you can get away with if you are good with your timing) and just work with the lights.
I only used my flash in these last ones because the lighting of the venue was terrible - only backlights in a purple colour I think. If you absolutely do need to use flash (and to be honest, a lot of metal venues do seem to have terrible lighting) then try and get it off camera with a sync cord. Or if you've got remote triggers and at least 2 flashes, you can try cross lighting the stage. I've seen some good results this way (although all the pics tend to look the same) and am keen to try it out next time I shoot a band and venue that don't mind me setting light stands up next to the FoH.