The Daily Photo #19- January 19th, 2016.
By Tim Neumann of Softlite Studios.com
More Than a Feeling
I have followed and photographed Fat Dog for a number of years and I can’t think of a time where I have had more fun shooting artists at work. In addition to being a great group of guys, the passion and commitment they bring to their performances is infectious and it’s clearly noted by all those that come to see them.
Gear used:
- (Shot A) | ISO 3200 1/160 @ f/2.8 at 85mm
- (Shot B) | ISO 3200 1/500 @ f/1.4 at 50mm
- (Shot C) | ISO 3200 1/800 @ f/1.4 at 50mm
- (Shot D) | ISO 3200 1/640 @ f/1.4 at 50mm
- (Shot E) | ISO 3200 1/160 @ f/2.8 at 14mm
Shooting bands, in bars, is always a challenging prospect, with lighting being the biggest and continually changing variable in the mix. I typically shoot these images in Auto White Balance and let the colors fall where they may. I set the ISO to get me shutter speeds that are likely to freeze most of the motion, but maybe leave just a little bit of blur in faster moving sections of the image (drummers hands/sticks, guitar players hands, etc.), but still mostly capture facial expressions cleanly. A good music performance is usually about expression and the movement of the music, I like to capture some essences of both.
Apertures are more often than not wider open, or pretty close to it. Don’t need a lot of depth of field in most of the shots and more often than not, I want that background separation from the subject that a narrow depth of field provides.
Check out the classes that Tim teaches at the MPEX Learning Studio, including Photoshop and Lightroom courses, at mpex.com/learn!
