First Gig Pictures

Hi Everyone
These pictures are from my first gig, the band are Penknifelovelife, a metal band from Leeds, England. The venue, Josephs Well, is small and dark. The lighting was all yellow so I took the majority of shots in B/W. I used a Canon 350D, Sigma 24-70mm f2.8, ISO 1600, aperature wide open, shutter speed mainly 125. Any comment or criticism would be appreciated.

#1

Excellent captures !
However I would prefer slightly higher contrast in these pictures - they look a little too "milky" to my taste ...

Hi Olegis
Thanks for the comments. When you say milky, do you mean the skin tones or the overall picture? Could I have got better contrast in camera or afterwards with photoshop, etc?
Cheers
Rachel

I too think the photos lack a bit contrast, as whole. If you turn the permission of editing the images you post on in your profile, I can have a try. If you shot them in color, then there are multiple ways of doing the black and white conversion. The final look will be determined by the method used. The most straightforward method is to discard color information and use the luminosity of the color picture. Another way, often considered better, is to use for instance only red color channel of the image. That is - discard all blue and green information of the image and then map the brightest red to equivalent gray... A bit hard to explain. This is a direct equivalent of using color filers for BW film photography. For instance, screwing a red filter in front of the lens would make blue sky look very dark as blue gets filtered.
If you
On this page you can test the effect of different ways of doing the BW conversion, and if you use Photoshop, there's also an action for it there:
http://www.thelightsri​ghtstudio.com/TLRB&WCo​nversion.htm

I personally use the channel mixer to do BW-conversions.

Yup, we need the IMAGE EDITS OK flag turned on. Go to UserCP in the menu bar (right under Reply to Thread) and you will find it.

Why are these children without shirts? Why are their pants falling off? Oh, well, they like themselves that way I guess.

I think these are very good and that you were clever enough to do them in B&W speaks well of your judgment. I agree about the contrast making them flat but you can always correct that.

Hi guys
Thanks for the comments, the images I posted were actually shot in b/w, is there anything more I can do with them? I've posted one of the colour pictures here, feel free to have a play. Not only am I new to photography but photoshop/post processing, any advice is greatly appreciated.

Would your preference have been to shoot in colour and convert later? I was concerned on the night that the yellow lighting would totally ruin the shots so I put it in b/w. I was just really nervous!

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Ha, ha! About half through the set they all decided to strip off (long story, they were all very drunk!) As for the pants thing this phenomenon has been sweeping the country over the last few years, and no I don't get it either!

Some nice images, but lacking contrast. Maybe next time shoot in color and convert to B&W in photoshop. Gives way more control.
I did a quick and dirty 'curves' adjustment layer which I masked off at the corners on #1:

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Hi Rene
The photo looks a lot better, I'll have to have a go at mastering the curve technique. I'll definitely try more in colour next time.
Thanks

Here's my try, I just slid the slider in levels on the right inward until I liked it, and used an unsharp mask. It's probably too bright and oversharpened, but just wanted to show you how to do it and how simple it is. Interesting shoot, congrats on your first gig.

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Some very nice shots here, I like the energy.....the edits are both good and you've already got the advice on the shooting side!
Roger.

Their mothers do not feed them enough or they are wearing their older brothers hand-me-downs. Actually never thought I'd see a metal band dressed like a pack of indie-geeks, next thing you know they'll be wearing hoodies!!!!!

What sort of music does this band play?? From their look, name & a metal band as you said, I'd guess at a family friendly "my son is just going through a stage" nu-metal rather than "my son is a devil worshipper it's time for an intervention" Nordic/Ayrian death metal

The shots themselves, the editing comments have said anything I could add, so I will merely say well done