Sarah Benck and the Robbers

[ThomasOwenM]

Here are a few shots from my Saturday, March 29, 2008, of Sarah Benck and the Robbers. It was at McKenna's in Omaha, which was a challenging photo environment. The layout of the club is awkward. It's hard to get angles without jumping in front of people. I would therefore jump in take a few shots and jump out so as not to block anyone's view for very long. The club also inexplicably has a waist-high metal fence in front of the stage. It was difficult to get angles in which the fence was not visible. For my full-band shot (not shown here, but in the full shoot), it was impossible to completely avoid the fence.

The lighting was also challenging. Most of the time I needed to shoot in ISO 3200, though in some of the shots I was able to go down to 1600. There was also a tin wall on one side of the stage, which easily reflected way too much light. Flashing toward it was out of the question. Even with available light there was often too much glare from that thing.

Fortunately there was no smoke thanks to Omaha's smoking ban. (Smoking is banned in all clubs that serve food.) I was also able to freely move about to get the angles I wanted.

In this type of environment there was no way I was going to get concertesque photos that look like a Madison Square Garden performance. The light was low and was consistently an ugly drab magenta. I decided that black and white photography would serve me better for this shoot. There was no way I was going to white balance my way into beautiful color when shooting with available light, and I prefer not to flash if possible. None of the shots shown here were flashed.

I'm fine with constructive criticism, both on what worked and what could be improved. I went for a black and white contrasty look with deliberate vignetting. Since I didn't shoot in black and white, I converted to it in PhotoImpact. Most of the shots went through noise reduction with Noise Ninja, then some reframing via crop. Then I used PhotoImpact's spot color lens filter effect and lighting adjustment to give the photos the vignetting. I used a wide aperture (usually between f/1.4 and f/2.0) to bokeh the background. The goal was to combine that bokeh with the vignetting in order to keep attention on the subject being photographed.

I'm curious if you think this type of post-processing worked, and especially if the shots look too dark. The photos look well exposed on my monitor at home, but at work they look too dark. I'm wondering if my monitor needs calibrating. Then again, the monitors at work are nothing special. They're junky old ones that have probably never been calibrated. I did calibrate my home monitor -- but only by allowing the generic command to run when I first got it. I haven't done any in depth calibration.

Here are the photos. I'm also posting the original ones in a followup. I haven't altered those at all except for shrinking and optimizing them for the web.

I used a Canon EOS 20D and a Sigma 30 mm f/1.4 for most of the shots. For a few shots I used a Canon 50 mm f/1.8.
The photos:

McKenna's, Omaha, Nebraska; March 29, 2008

#1 Sarah
http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/sbrmckennas_01.jpg
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/200
Av( Aperture Value ) 1.8
ISO Speed 3200
Lens Canon 50.0 mm f/1.8
Flash Off
---------------------------------------------------------

#2 James
http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/sbrmckennas_04.jpg
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/200
Av( Aperture Value ) 1.8
ISO Speed 3200
Lens Sigma 30.0 mm f/1.4
Flash Off
---------------------------------------------------------

#3 Jason
http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/sbrmckennas_15.jpg
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/80
Av( Aperture Value ) 1.8
ISO Speed 3200
Lens Sigma 30.0 mm f/1.4
Flash Off

#4 Sarah
http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/sbrmckennas_20.jpg
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/100
Av( Aperture Value ) 1.4
ISO Speed 3200
Lens Sigma 30.0 mm f/1.4
Flash Off
---------------------------------------------------------

#5 Zip and James
http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/sbrmckennas_29.jpg
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/100
Av( Aperture Value ) 2.0
ISO Speed 3200
Lens Sigma 30.0 mm f/1.4
Flash Off
---------------------------------------------------------

#6 Sarah
http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/sbrmckennas_34.jpg
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/80
Av( Aperture Value ) 2.0
ISO Speed 1600
Lens Sigma 30.0 mm f/1.4
Flash Off
---------------------------------------------------------

#7 Sarah
http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/sbrmckennas_37.jpg
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/80
Av( Aperture Value ) 2.0
ISO Speed 1600
Lens Sigma 30.0 mm f/1.4
Flash Off
---------------------------------------------------------

#8 Zip
http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/sbrmckennas_38.jpg
Shooting Mode Shutter-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/60
Av( Aperture Value ) 2.2
ISO Speed 1600
Lens Sigma 30.0 mm f/1.4
Flash Off
---------------------------------------------------------

Here is the full shoot if you want to see them all:
Sarah Benck and the Robbers at McKenna's in Omaha, March '08 (http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha08/)

I also shot this same artist in the same venue in August of '07 back in my pre-DSLR days. Back then I used a Canon PowerShot S3 IS. You can see those shots here:
Sarah Benck and the Robbers at McKenna's in Omaha, Feb. '07 (http://www.sarahbenckfans.net/photos/tommeinen/mckennasomaha/) (With my former gear, ISO 800 was the fastest I had available to me. I therefore had to flash on every shot.)

[ThomasOwenM]

Here are the original unprocessed images:

#1 Sarah
http://tommeinenphotography.com/sbrplainsamples/IMG_3327.jpg

#2 James
http://tommeinenphotography.com/sbrplainsamples/IMG_3386.jpg

#3 Jason
http://tommeinenphotography.com/sbrplainsamples/IMG_3581.jpg

#4 Sarah
http://tommeinenphotography.com/sbrplainsamples/IMG_3645.jpg

#5 Zip and James
http://tommeinenphotography.com/sbrplainsamples/IMG_3841.jpg

#6 Sarah
http://tommeinenphotography.com/sbrplainsamples/IMG_3878.jpg

#7 Sarah
http://tommeinenphotography.com/sbrplainsamples/IMG_3910.jpg

#8 Zip
http://tommeinenphotography.com/sbrplainsamples/IMG_3926.jpg

[René Damkot]

Some nice shots, nice B/W conversion, but the vignetting leaves something to be desired: It turns everything grayish instead of darker. (Most notable on #3 and 7)

[jsphotos]

It depends on the venue in Omaha if I will decide to shoot a band or not. Sokol Underground is another hard venue to shoot in since I hate using a flash to take phots. There a few good one with the B & W conversion. I love shooting at the Slowdown and the Waiting Room

[jsphotos]

www.johnshartrandphotography.com

I couldnt figure out to put this as a signature?

[ThomasOwenM]

I've never shot at Sokol (I'm new to town), but I did have a really good shoot at the Waiting Room. The lighting is way better than McKenna's. I've seen shots another photographer I know took at the Sokol Underground. It does like like a lighting nightmare.

Like you, I prefer not to flash. However, I've been in situations (in Denver where I'm from) in which my lens was wide open at 1.8 or 1.4 depending on the lens and at ISO 3200 with the slowest shutterspeed I could get away with and still didn't have enough light. You just have to flash in such a case.

[ThomasOwenM]

www.johnshartrandphotography.com

I couldnt figure out to put this as a signature?

Click on: User CP ===> Edit Signature

[jsphotos]

Do you have a web site?

[ThomasOwenM]

Do you have a web site?

Yes, it's still in its infancy, but I have put up some shots I like:
http://www.tommeinenphotography.com/

Bookmark it. I'll be revamping it very soon.

There's a link at the top of the page to an article that Rockoncolorado.com did about me. I also had a shot published in Guitar Player, but ironically I hate the shot they chose.

It's cool to run across someone local here. If you feel like doing lunch and talking shop for the fun of it, PM me or e-mail me. My address is tomowen1201 at cox dot net. My Myspace is at: myspace.com/tom_zecat.