Battle of the Bands

[blakemcguire]

A shot of my friend Kier playing at the university radio station's battle of the bands.

It's so much more fun to shoot a band that likes to move around and plays with some energy.

[Loose Canon]

Nice Blake!

Here is what struck me when I first opened your thread…

I really liked the distortion of the head/neck leading back to the picker! Nice use of that.

And ain’t it the Truth about a band that plays for the camera/audience?

[blakemcguire]

Yeah the distortion really adds to it in my opinion. It was shot at a 24mm equivalent (17 on a d300s), I was basically face to face with the players.

[Donald]

That's really good, imaginative use of a wide angle lens.

[RustBeltRaw]

If that's uncropped, then I applaud your timing. If it's cropped, I applaud your aesthetic choice.

Excellent use of on-camera flash, as well. Kier is nicely separated from the background. But the flash threw a shadow of the head onto those two grey cards in the background. It's a little distracting, but you can probably paint over them with black.

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[blakemcguire]

If that's uncropped, then I applaud your timing. If it's cropped, I applaud your aesthetic choice.

Excellent use of on-camera flash, as well. Kier is nicely separated from the background. But the flash threw a shadow of the head onto those two grey cards in the background. It's a little distracting, but you can probably paint over them with black.

I cropped a little from the top and left. In the original frame you could just see past the tip of the bass on the left, to give you an idea. I wish my timing was that good.

Perhaps I'll paint them down a bit, thanks for the feedback! I've always been a little afraid to use direct on camera flash, but after this I'm feeling it's not so bad. (the ceilings were black so bouncing was not an option)

[RustBeltRaw]

Perhaps I'll paint them down a bit, thanks for the feedback! I've always been a little afraid to use direct on camera flash, but after this I'm feeling it's not so bad. (the ceilings were black so bouncing was not an option)

I maintain that direct flash is extremely useful, but mainly for fill light. I shoot roller derby with a pair of 580EX II remotes as the main light, and one 600EX-RT on the shoe for fill. Shoot direct, by all means, but always diffuse or (as you did) turn the flash exposure compensation way down. To me, direct flash's shadows are far more irritating than the light quality (assuming the flash is color-balanced to match the conditions). Fortunately, in this case, the background was clear enough that there are very few shadows.

Nice work all around.

[blakemcguire]

I maintain that direct flash is extremely useful, but mainly for fill light. I shoot roller derby with a pair of 580EX II remotes as the main light, and one 600EX-RT on the shoe for fill. Shoot direct, by all means, but always diffuse or (as you did) turn the flash exposure compensation way down. To me, direct flash's shadows are far more irritating than the light quality (assuming the flash is color-balanced to match the conditions). Fortunately, in this case, the background was clear enough that there are very few shadows.

Nice work all around.

I'd like to add that the main reason the background was so much darker than the subject is because of the inverse square law. I was basically face to face with the musician, so the background was about 10-15x as far away which is what made it so much darker. Had I been farther back and using a telephoto lens instead of a wide, then the background would have been much closer in brightness to the subject, and things like the amps to the right would be clearly visible.

In addition, the subject wasn't overexposed not because of any flash compensation, but because I was using the flash in manual mode with manual exposure. Since my subject to camera distance didn't change much, the exposure didn't have to change either. There were a few photos at the beginning that were over or underexposed as I got the settings right, but once it's set, it's fine, just like your normal shutter speed/ aperture/ iso.

Just a quick tip for anyone interested in flash who stumbles across this.