Al Green in Concert [Large Images Warning]

[DwightMcCann]

I shot the Reverand Al Green last Thursday and just haven't had time to post until now. First three songs only photo rule and he didn't do much in that time so the variety isn't too good. First is the collage ... as always I will say that this isn't for an advertisement and I'm not looking for suggestions on how I should include my name ... it is a requirement of the contract so that the managers can put these up on their office walls. :)

http://www.dwightmccann.com/Images/ChumashCollages/AlGreenCollage-1000.jpg


http://www.dwightmccann.com/Images/AlGreen08172005/AlGreen4174-1000.jpg


http://www.dwightmccann.com/Images/AlGreen08172005/AlGreen4189-1000.jpg


http://www.dwightmccann.com/Images/AlGreen08172005/AlGreen4314-1000.jpg

There are more of Al on my website at http://www.dwightmccann.com/ChumashCasinoResort/AlGreen08172005.htm for your viewing pleasure. I shot James Brown last night ... a truly marveous event and will try to get images uploaded here this weekend. ;)

[Keiffer]

God Dwight, I love your shots! Man your shots are always sooo sharp and perfectly exposed. Do you ever shoot a bad shot? LOL J/k As usual Dwight fantastic shots! Always makes me feel as if I'm right there.

[DwightMcCann]

Keiffer, ROFLMAO ... I shot over 300 frames in the first three songs and threw away probably half of those to start. Yes, I shoot A LOT OF BAD IMAGES ... but I shoot so many images that there's almost always a half dozen good ones. The 1D Mark II and IS lenses make it a lot easier than it could be but I can remember back when all my stuff was always a bit blurry or uninteresting, etc. It's taken me a long time to learn to get these shots ... plus the best equipment in the world ... and the Chumash Casino Resort management and staff are absolutely the best there is. Last night at the James Brown concert (images in the pipeline) they even moved an artificial tree out of the way for me and a few concerts back they moved the U.S. flag six feet over for me.

[SurfKahakai]

That man sure likes his gold.

Very nice, as always Dwight. Hey I'm pretty bored right now and am looking for something to shoot. Do you have any reccomendations for evening/night photos around the area?

[DwightMcCann]

Surf, that's what I thought! As for shooting ... there is a thread here somewhere on "What does your main street look like tonight?" You could drag your tripod downtown and shoot a series of street images as the sun goes down. Or you could drive "over the hill" to Hwy 135 and drive down to my house (I'm only going to be in it two more weeks ... I'll make you help pack if you come) ... and we could both shoot Bell Street tonight! :-) Email me off one of my websites if you want to do this option. Another idea but far away is to take Hwy 154 to the top of the pass and go West on West Camino Ceilo (toward the gun club) and shoot off the top somewhere down onto the ocean or go East and see if there is a vantage point with ocean and Santa Barbara (I really need to go there myself to check it out.) I think the moon is only about half, but on a full moon shooting Santa Barbara from the foothills should be awesome. I'm sure that off Hwy 154 itself there are places to shoot the city and ocean. But, Hey, the Beach Boys are coming!!!!

More shots:

http://www.dwightmccann.com/Images/AlGreen08172005/AlGreen4222-1000.jpg

http://www.dwightmccann.com/Images/AlGreen08172005/AlGreen4350-1000.jpg

[Keiffer]

Wow 300 shots in the first 3 songs huh. Like most I know its always better to shoot away and have a few good ones out of a lot. But the few you get are truly perfect! I love your work and you are truly an asset to this forum, not only for your great shots but your willingness to share your work,stories and insight on photography. Keep up the great work! And yeah it "rocks" when an employer goes above and beyond for "your" comfort and needs to do ones job.
Keiffer, ROFLMAO ... I shot over 300 frames in the first three songs and threw away probably half of those to start. Yes, I shoot A LOT OF BAD IMAGES ... but I shoot so many images that there's almost always a half dozen good ones. The 1D Mark II and IS lenses make it a lot easier than it could be but I can remember back when all my stuff was always a bit blurry or uninteresting, etc. It's taken me a long time to learn to get these shots ... plus the best equipment in the world ... and the Chumash Casino Resort management and staff are absolutely the best there is. Last night at the James Brown concert (images in the pipeline) they even moved an artificial tree out of the way for me and a few concerts back they moved the U.S. flag six feet over for me.

[Medalta]

I feel kind'a silly making any suggestions to someone who takes pictures of this quality but you asked a question about signing your name.

Have a look at how I handle it here . . .



http://www.lwsdesign.com/contents/picweek.html (http://www.lwsdesign.com/contents/picweek.html)



It's no big deal, but I have created a psd that is straight text on a transparent background and named the file WaterMark. All I do is open both the watermark and the image I want to add it to and drag the Text layer in to the image file. Then I resize it to fit, while on the Text Layer I select the text tool, select the color option and then use the eyedropper to select a prominent color from the main image. As well I add a shading style consistently. “Drop Shadow size 2 and distance 2”.



Let me know what you think.

[RockSlut]

Nice work, Dwight. Its great to see you have such a good relationship with the venue. There are obvious mutual benefits.

[DwightMcCann]

Medalta ... no, I said I didn't care about feedback about my name!;) That's the way I have done it for them since I started. I normally don't put anything on my images (as you can see from all the others.) But I keep getting people telling me that what I am doing "is not professional" so I try to cut it off at the pass ... I really don't mind as they pay me anyway and no one at the casino has ever made any negative comment on it. I will, however, check out your signage!

[myth337]

More great shots!! Got my new lens last week.. so now I have to go find some concerts!!
.. Lee

(some time I have to try this collage thing... very nicely done.)

[DwightMcCann]

Keiffer, you're a hoot! I shot over 600 in the "first three songs" for James Brown last night ... although his songs seemed to go on and on and on! I'm going through them now and have tossed out a third already, but there are lots of dupes that I have not trashed. I was shooting at 3fps with +/- 2/3 bracketing. I'm thinking that I will bump the bracketing to use two above and two below! And there's still only a handful of good ones.

[mdm]

Very nice Dwight. What lens is your favorite for this kind of show? Also what settings or mode do you shoot in ?

[DwightMcCann]

Lee, yes, but try to find a well lighted venue if at all possible ... it makes a world of difference! And shoot until your cards are full. And bracket. And use a monopod if possible (do what I say, not what I do!) EXPERIMENT!!! :-) And share with us, both successes and failures.

[DwightMcCann]

mdm, I always start with my 70-200mm f2.8L IS, ISO 1600, Av f2.8-3.2 and adjust from there. I chimp like a madman! I think the EXIF is in all the non-collage images and you are always welcome to copy them off, adjust them, whatever makes them useful to you ... except claiming you shot them, of course. My second lens is usually my 24-70mm f2.8L. And if I get a chance, I love to mount up my 300mm f2.8L IS, but that's rare with a first three songs rule in effect! If you go to my website and look at the Tom Jones images, the four head shots across the top of the collage were shot with the 300mm. I am planning on using my wife in the back with the 300mm and 1.4 or 2.0 TC on my 20D on my Wimberley during the first three songs when I get a bit more organized and she can make it. And I have a 500mm f4 in my equipment plan that will serve a similar purpose. I'm also thinking of picking up a 200mm f1.8 if they come out with an IS version.

[myth337]

Thanks Dwight..
Got the monopod, and the QuickRelease is already welded to the lens!! ;)
Never bracketted much... I always shot Manual / RAW, and had 2 up or down with pp. Guess I'll try that. my throw aways were not usually due to exposure, more because of movement, out of focus, bad framing (due to lack of good zoom lens...)
I also wanted to ask about the lighting on your shots.. because the background blacks and colors are great!! The places I shoot always seem to have too much smoke...
There may be a concert around this weekend.. I'll see what I can find.
.. Lee

[SurfKahakai]

You've got mail, Dwight.

[mdm]

Thanks Dwight.

[DwightMcCann]

You, too, Ben!

[DwightMcCann]

Well, there you go! Surf rode his board over tonight for a taste of our Sideways' Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir and we talked photography for a few hours ... best of both worlds. We also updated firmware in our 20D's, traded war stories and generally had a grand time. Surf will be going to the San Diego area in a few months so I hope you Southern California POTNers will be sure to latch onto him!

Of course, this has delayed James Brown images for a day! Well, watching my eBay auctions is probably more to blame, but I will finally be rid of all my Nikon gear when I ship this lot out on Monday! :-)

[SurfKahakai]

Of course, this has delayed James Brown images for a day! Well, watching my eBay auctions is probably more to blame, but I will finally be rid of all my Nikon gear when I ship this lot out on Monday! :-)

I take full responsibility for the lack of James Brown images (they're not too impressive anyway...we all know Dwight's work stinks).

Dwight, thanks for the wondeful evening and I'll be seeing you real soon. The Beach Boys are only two weeks away! Thanks again for all the film. I am going to have to shoot a lot of pictures now that I have these and my rolls coming from B&H on Monday.

[Croasdail]

Dwight - brilliant stuff here. I am dying to start shooting some of events, but haven't been able to wrangle any opportunities down yet as I am still negotiating this falls sports shoots. We have a blues festival here in town in the next couple of weeks and I would love to shoot one night of that if possible. I was going to blow it off for another year but maybe I will ping them anyway - worst I have learned they can say is no. I still haven't mastered the sports thing yet - I hate to spread myself too thin until I can do one right. Great shots though. Thanks for posting them.

[neil_r]

I for one think it is great that you do not deface your images with intrusive copyright notices or your name. I do sometimes have a chuckle at pictures that no one in their right mind would steal being even further degraded by intrusive text. Great images and we get to see all of it.



N

[myth337]

I do sometimes have a chuckle at pictures that no one in their right mind would steal... does a poor man not protect his worn out shoes from theft??

(however.. sometimes I agree with you...) ;)

[DwightMcCann]

Medalta, checked your watermark ... strange as it may sound, that is almost exactly what I do with that big red vertical name! :-) I appreciate your time in sharing your process with me.

[René Damkot]

Very nice pics... One Q about the bracketing: In my experience with it, expression is always the best in the worst exposed shot. So I gave up on bracketing & expose as best I can. What's your experience in this? 300 shots in 3 songs? Wow! I mostly don't manage that in an entire show... And I thought I was 'filming' since going digital....

[DwightMcCann]

I find very often that I get the best face in the best exposed shot, but it always varies. Since I shoot the brackets at 3fps they are usually pretty close. I guess my final word is that I'm always pleased when I bracket and irritated when I forget, sigh.

[myth337]

Hey Dwight... I just read my manual about bracketing... and of course tried it with my camera for a bunch of shots around the living room... (daughter on the couch, view from the balcony, bookshelves, etc.)

tested it on manual.. it adjusted the shutter speed,
aperature prio.. it did shutter speed again,
shutter prio.. it adjusted the aperature.

interesting results. you said you shoot aperature prio... so your shutter speed varies with the course of the evening. I normally did manual... because the lighting was usually too erratic, and adjusted the exposure as best i could in post processing.

either way... I will definately try this in the next concert situation.

[DwightMcCann]

Hey Dwight... I just read my manual about bracketing...

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! DON'T READ THE MANUAL! How un-manly! :evil: Yes, my shutter speed varies across each set of three images. And it is often enough to be the difference between the performer blurring or not.

Of course, since I never get blurring or OOF or any other blemish on any frame this really doesn't matter to me. :confused:

Yes, bracket! I am going to try to increase the number of bracketing intervals on my 1DMII since it is clearly frequently the difference between a poor exposure and a perfect one.:lol:

[neil_r]

I guess we are asking too many questions but here goes, have you any feel for what % are spot on, on the "correct" exposure and ditto for the over and under.

I feel I should bracket but you can get away with so much shooting RAW.

N

[DwightMcCann]

Neil, there aren't too many questions in the universe ... and when I can no longer answer questions I expect I won't be having sex either 'cause I'll be dead.:evil: I am currently using Evaluative Metering most of the time and spot metering part of the time. In EM, I think the 'correct exposure' is most often good, but because of all the blackness in these images, I will often get even better exposure at -2/3. I almost never get a better exposure at +2/3 ... BUT ... it does happen maybe once a shoot. One problem with even determining what the correct exposure means results from the huge dynamic range that exists in Live Performance shooting ... so I generally "weight" on faces, but I think it is very subjective and can become very technical. But when I shoot I am really overwhelmed by "the fog of war" and am usually happy just to discover that I didn't use a really bad white balance, again!

[myth337]

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! DON'T READ THE MANUAL! How un-manly! :evil: .. had to see where / how to switch it on.. :confused:
Of course, since I never get blurring or OOF or any other blemish on any frame this really doesn't matter to me. :confused: ahh.. yes... that explains the quality of the photos you post! ;)

[myth337]

But when I shoot I am really overwhelmed by "the fog of war" and am usually happy just to discover that I didn't use a really bad white balance, again!... umm... that's one of the next topics on my list...
for some reason, my camera says it is on Custom, and I just select what I want with DPP later... daylight, tungsten, flash, etc.

[DwightMcCann]

... umm... that's one of the next topics on my list...
for some reason, my camera says it is on Custom, and I just select what I want with DPP later... daylight, tungsten, flash, etc.

My favorite trick is to switch it to tungsten when shooting at the Maverick Saloon(s) and forget to switch it back ... then I shoot a whack of images outdoors or some other "normal" place without chimping and am sick when everything has an overwhelming blue cast, sigh. Lost my best ever red tail hawk images to that Senior Moment®.