One subject too dark

This is the background: I'm in this dark bar shooting with my friggin' kit lens and this was the best I could do at ISO 1600. Everything about this shot is wrong. The secondary subjects are in focus and the primary one isn't. Working around the lighting basically meant blowing out that neon sign - there was no way around it, needing a decent shutter speed to freeze the action somewhat. The guitarist was also standing in front of the meager lighting setup, so he's unusually dark.

Basically, it's time to move on to a fast prime that will really let that ISO 1600 shine. But in the meantime, I have what I have.

Would someone be willing to descibe to me how I might go about brightening the guitarist up a bit? I've had trouble with this before, but thus far I have only been able to grasp how to alter the entire image at once (in CS)

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I am at work, so I can't do anything with the shot, but I did want to comment on something you said. Primes are nice, contrasty lenses, BUT a "fast prime" is not a miracle cure.

For example, in the 85mm slot Canon has two choices. The f1.2 $1,499.00 at Samys or the f1.8 which is $349.00. For the additional $1,150 dollars you get the additional f1.2 to 1.8 range in aperture size.

What do you thing f1.2 would do to the shot you have? It would shrink your depth of focus down to the area between the singers microphone all the way back to his ears. For this shot to work, you would need it shot at f8 or so to have enough depth of focus to get all the band members. F8 on a $350 lens is no faster than f8 on a $1500 lens.

So when thinking about a "fast prime" keep in mind that they are faster only at the open end of the aperture, and as such, you are stuck with all the DOF issues that come with that.

Rad

Well, I will say that the kit lens was supremely ineffective and that this shot, as well as every other I took that night, was merely a product of my trying absolutely anything in hopes that some random thing might work. If I had a prime with 1.8 aperture I would've taken shots farther back of a wider view - I doubt that I would've gone for this shot. Screw the 1.2 model - The 1.8 would've been great.

About your only choice to get the lead guitar as the focus is to use some flash. No matter what sort of lens you have, if the neon sign and the brightly lighted drums are in the picture, your main subject will be underexposed or the sign and drums will be overexposed ("blown out"). Maybe you could combine two exposures, taking an in-focus well exposed shot of the lead guitar and put him in the image of a somewhat underexposed backgroud.

Good luck!

Dale

It's a little late for this, now, but had you the opportunity to swing around to the left a bit and zoom in a little tighter, you would have had a much darker background, which would have put you in a much, much better lighting situation for your lead player.

Considering your vantage point, you got about everything you could expect to get without coming in tighter.

Hindsight is 20/20!

If you can send me the original file or link then I'll have my fiance(Spiral Photo) fix it and post and explanation with it.

Huh? How does a faster aperture help you take a wider shot from father back???? I'm not sure what you are trying to say.

- d

Well, it seems everyone has good advice but you know that a faster lense will help.
To answer your actual question, you would use the Dodge tool (looks like a pin/needle/thingy) in photoshop to lighten the areas of choice. You basically set the amount (0-100%) and paint over the dark areas. The opposite is the Burn tool ... it will make things darker.

I have attached 2 copies. The first one is simply using the Dodge tool and the second has a bit more work... not that the second is better but its another way.
Let me know if you prefer that and I will explain.

Cheers,
Peter.

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Thought i'd have a go...

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too sharp, but the best one so far.

care to explain how you did this?

fotov wrote:
too sharp, but the best one so far.

care to explain how you did this?

Well - it went something like this ...

Ran it through mike's Velvia CS2 script 2 times (4,5,0) (2,3,0)

Reduced the Red Channel saturation to help with the blown face on the drummer after brightness/ contrast adjustment from Velvia

Bought the master saturation back up to compensate

Adjusted levels via the shadow/Highlight control

Made some small adjustments using curves

Ran it through noise ninja

Small amount of USM

Cheers.

I don't think a fast prime will solve any of your real problems here. Check your camera manual on metering modes. Narrow your metering down to just your main subject.

A second option would be a good flash, expose for the background and let the flash fill the front of the image.

Karl666 wrote:
Well - it went something like this ...

Ran it through mike's Velvia CS2 script 2 times (4,5,0) (2,3,0)

Reduced the Red Channel saturation to help with the blown face on the drummer after brightness/ contrast adjustment from Velvia

Bought the master saturation back up to compensate

Adjusted levels via the shadow/Highlight control

Made some small adjustments using curves

Ran it through noise ninja

Small amount of USM

Cheers.

Cool, Thanks for the explanation but it looks too 'plastic' and overworked for me.

Yeah - I know what you mean. Was only a quickie
cheers.