The Daily Photo #48- February 17th, 2016

Jesse Michael Barr Trio

I have shot Jesse once before for the Daily Blog, and this time I also shot the musicians he is gigging with. This is a band of amazing musicians, with talent for days. In front is Jesse Michael Barr, lead singer and guitarist of the band. In the middle is Justin Campbell, one of the best drummers in the Columbus area, if not the best. On the right is Mitch Deitrick, a bass player with mad skills and a hilarious, dry sense of humor. Check them out at Due Amici on Monday nights, get a drink and listen to some rad musicians play their hearts out.

We did a couple of set ups around the restaurant, all very simple and quick. For this shot I used a 12×36 stripbox turned sideways, with an grid on the front. The grid helps give that ‘spotlight’ look by controlling the light from spilling everywhere. If you follow this blog at all, then you probably already know that I love using the stripbbox in a lot of situations… especially with a grid. I like the low-key look for a lot of situations, and simple is better when you are on the run.

The lens I used is the new Tamron 35mm f/1.8 DiVC USD. I talked about the Vibration Compensation yesterday, but this time I was shooting with flash at 1/160th so it is a non-issue. What I needed was a slightly deeper depth of field. Look closely and you will see that Justin and Mitch are actually slightly out of focus. At the close focus distance I used for the composition, f/11 didn’t give me the depth of field that I needed to truly have them all in focus. I was aware of this at the time, but I also knew the lack of critical focus would be unnoticeable in most situations. I could have shot at f/16, but that would have meant changing the flash power or the ISO, which I didn’t want to do at the time.

I wanted to shoot up close to put the emphasis on Jesse, since he is the front man and namesake of the band.. The wide angle of the 35mm helps to make the subject that is closest to the camera appear larger in relation to other objects in the frame. Every member of every band is important, but this photo was designed to make sure you know which person is the front man.

Gear used:

• Nikon D610 FX Body
• Tamron 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD
• LumoPro 12×36 Stripbox
• LumoPro 12×36 grid
• Profoto B1 500 AirTTL head
• Profoto Air Remote

See you tomorrow.