Aardvark Jazz Orchestra

[Compact Diss]

These shots were taken at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston. This thread has more to do with a question about harsh lighting. This club was tough, you can see in this set and at my Flickr site that a lot of people were "blown out" or faces totally gone due to lighting. How do you avoid this problem while shooting performances? I have another shoot at the same club this week and I am hoping for better results. Here is a little mix of pics. Thanks-Joe
1
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2007/1930919550_b2a4a98cab.jpg
2

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2091/1929984615_83c9d042a8.jpg
3

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2381/1931120106_236d1a5f16.jpg
4
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2349/1930968670_e12671b13a.jpg
5
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2165/1929969359_3f579cf41c.jpg
6
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2109/1930810150_60092eb269.jpg
7
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/1930064975_dabdfc1982.jpg
8
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2218/1930807430_df1c5411a3.jpg

[René Damkot]

Some nice images. Some odd crops.
I like #7.
#2 is very much overexposed.

[Compact Diss]

OK so on #2. I know you mention that it is overexposed but I feel it is due to the harsh lighting. That's how the pic came out, the guy was under a light and it showed up like this on a lot of shots.

Any way to work around that problem?

Yes, weird crops. I was in the back of the venue, most crops are made just to cut out the audience heads...

Thanks for the input.

Joe

[René Damkot]

Much like slide film: Expose so that the (important) highlights (like faces ;)) don't blow.
Take care of the darker parts in post processing.

[Compact Diss]

sounds good, need to do some homework for PS...

Thanks for the help!

[martinsjc]

OK so on #2. I know you mention that it is overexposed but I feel it is due to the harsh lighting. That's how the pic came out, the guy was under a light and it showed up like this on a lot of shots.

Any way to work around that problem?

Yes, weird crops. I was in the back of the venue, most crops are made just to cut out the audience heads...

Thanks for the input.

Joe

From my little experience its all a question of choices... You choose what is most important in the picture and expose for that, then according to the rest some stuff will go over or under but your main subject is well exposed.. On 2 your main subject is over exposed while the guy in the background is well exposed.. so the ideal here would have been to expose for the guy in the foreground and let the background go dark...

just my 2 cts

[narlus]

Joe, just checking a few of these EXIF via flickr, it looks like you were shooting shutter priority, and using pattern (evaluative) metering. there's a lot of dark space in the backdrop, so it was probably fooling the camera's metering and hence the over-exposure.

i'm guessing that the lighting was probably pretty static. what i might have done in this situation is to figure out where the 'hot spots' are, use partial metering to lock yr exposure via test shoots and chimping/looking @ the histogram, then using those settings in M mode. i don't think the rebXT has spot metering, so the above method would be a good fallback.

i shot David Kilgour @ TT's sunday night, and they usually have pretty bad lighting - thta night was no different...if i was to use evaluative metering, the main guy would have been totally blown out.

also, this could be personal preference, but i only use Tv when shooting sports. for concert shooting, it's all M or Av.

[René Damkot]

Good advise by Narlus..

I'ld only like to add that when lighting is changing, and you are using Evaluative, using Exposure Compensation might be of use.

[simonSE15]

what the others said, expose for the main subject.

6 & 7 are cool

[Compact Diss]

Thanks for all the help! I am going to write these suggestions down so I can remember them. I shoot a show tonight at the same venue so I'll post the results, we will see if I can come up with anything better. It's not a big band so it should be much easier...

THANK YOU!

[PixelMagic]

Switch your Metering mode to either Spot or Partial and then meter the brightest part of the image. Lock exposure, recompose and shoot.

[DwightMcCann]

Well, I'll take my usual thrashing and suggest bracketing, sigh. Given the amount of discussion that occurs about the difficulty of good exposure I am always amazed at the resistance to this suggestion, but given that I make about $30K a year shooting concerts part time and always shoot RAW and bracket I guess there's nothing more I can say. As to these images, the first four all seem to "feature" the trombone and yet his face is covered in all four. I agree the lighting is VERY harsh, a little of which can be reduced in post processing particularly if you are shooting RAW.