Project 52: Week 48, Carol Concert and Capture One

[billtils]

I'm a week behind ... but nothing happened in Week 48 so I'm posting some from this week along with a wee bit of an additional rant about Phase One's upgrade pricing for Capture One 12.

Week 47 had images of the Rosenethe Singers' Winter Concert in Dunblane Cathedral. This Sunday I shot the choir again but in a modern venue where they were the guest singers at a fund-raising concert on behalf of the local branch of the MacMillan cancer support charity.

The lighting was better than in the Cathedral - but not by much, with ISO settings in the 4000 to 6400 range required but allowing about 1 stop faster shutter speed. In summary, the processing workflow was Capture One 11 to develop the raw images, individually tweak the WB, exposure and levels, and then denoise with batch round tripping to NIK Dfine2.

1: Rehearsal





2: Audience





3: Soloist





4 and 5: The choir









One of the reasons for there being nothing new to post on the real Week 48 is that I've been exploring options that will let me get off the annual update with Capture One after the disincentive of the size of the price hike to upgrade from V11 to V12, with not nearly enough added functionality to come close to warrant it. As far as I can see, what I have identified above as and example workflow will last as long as I really need it, especially when the extra functions in Affinity Photo are included. However, just in case ... I have been exploring other options and so far the best looking one is this week's release of a significant update to Luminar. I have downloaded it and had a quick look, and will give an update later as the Week 49 post.

[Shadowman]

Nice effort on the processing, lighting didn't seem like it needed such a high ISO though.

[rpcrowe]

Shooting a performance of any type from the rear of the audience is always a tricky situation. So often, you are confronted with the backs of the audience's heads or a row or rows of OOF partial heads in the foreground.

Elevating the camera might be a help but, you would need to place yourself strategically in order to do this without blocking the view of people in back of you.

If you have "official photographer" status, you can often avoid tows of people in the foreground by slipping out in front of the audience. Obviously, despite "O.P." status, it is impolite to stand in front of the audience blocking their view.

If there is a balcony or choir loft in the rear, you can often use that to avoid having people in the foreground.

I am wondering if using a camera on a monopod and raising it above the crowd might not be a way to isolate the performers from the audience. Using a wide angle lens and a remote release might also help.

Perhaps, I am overly sensitive to the backs or partial heads of people in the foreground...

[billtils]

..., lighting didn't seem like it needed such a high ISO though.

Thanks John

In regard to the lighting, the ceiling and rear wall were light coloured and there were down lights above the stage. This meant that when I exposed for the choir it was somewhat like shooting a a subject against a window, but fill flash was not acceptable. Dial in a not too slow shutter speed, and a reasonable depth of field and that's the ISOs that came up.

[billtils]

Thanks for the comments Richard. I see the value of what you suggest but the various physical options were not available, Some of these were shot at 24mm and on an earlier occasion I tried out a 14mm (but didn't like the result).

As it turns out, the "back of the head in the foreground" seems to be a matter of taste. I had some of that choir at a different venue Dunblane Cathedral) shot from right at the back with a 300mm lens and used the backs of the heads to frame the soloist. My co-ordinator in the choir absolutely loved them!.