Arab Strap, 06APR06

[narlus]

Arab Strap are a Scottish band who sing mainly about the travails of pub life, chasing down birds (not feathered), and the resulting desultory sexual activities. not surprisingly they tend to be a bit morose, but aidan moffat's lyrics are quite poetic.

i caught the band (augmented by 3 other musicians; typically it's just aidan w/ gtr malcolm middleton) a month or so ago, and wanted to share a few pictures. this was the 1st time i'd shot RAW and so was able to get decent color correction (even though i'm still a complete neophyte w/ RAW processing in general), and really only the 3rd time i'd attempted to shoot live music. as usual, my trusty combo of 350D and 50mm f/1.8 was in use the whole time. a mite of pp work using Picasa was done.

#1
http://img332.imageshack.us/img332/2405/IMG_5876.jpg

#2
http://img332.imageshack.us/img332/985/IMG_5822.jpg

#3
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/1927/IMG_5888.jpg

[DwightMcCann]

I like the first one but wish the headstock was not cut off. I would recommend setting your camera to Av and setting the lens wide open rather than shooting Program Mode. The compositions and "feel" are nice but the images are a bit soft.

[narlus]

i was right in front of the stage, and i think i missed the headstock because of that (ie, couldn't backpedal to get a full-framed image).

i believe i was using Av and not program mode, wide-open (at least i think i was; i can check the EXIF data when i get home. clearly i need to learn the USM and other pp tools. maybe the 50mm f/1.4 might as well find a home in my bag, if it helps w/ AF issues in lowlight.

[DwightMcCann]

The EXIF is in the images or I would have no idea. The second images says f/2.2 and auto exposure mode. The third says f/1.8 and auto exposure mode.

And while I would prefer the headstock I am all too well aware of the limitations of shooting Live Entertainment. :-)

[narlus]

cool, gotcha! weird that i was using program. maybe i was just experimenting to see how they came out; i'll have to check the rest of the batch when i get home.

[DwightMcCann]

Did not mean to embarrass you ... these cameras have so many settings that if you are the experimental type (as I am) there is always a good to excellent chance that you will forget to set something back to where you want it. I got caught last night with OneShot and Single Frame drive when I wanted AI Servo and High Speed ... thank goodness those are pretty obvious and I got it switched pretty quickly.

[narlus]

re: settings, yeah, i found that out last night when i was taking some pictures of my son's t-ball practice and was wondering why the shutter speed was so fast...the ISO was set to 1600. doh!

i was thinking about the aperture and sharpness relationship a bit during my run before lunch today...it's generally accepted that most but not all lenses are a bit softer full open then stopped down a bit, right? so will it matter w/ the 50mm lens if i shoot @ 1.8 vs 2.2? or is that difference negligible, and i'm better off getting a faster shutter speed, all other things being equal?