Alabaster Fox, The Alarmists (Calm Down) - Fort Wayne - 9/15/07 (PP okay??)

Here are a couple from a recent gig. Kind of new ground for me as this was my first show with my the 35L and 135L, so I wasn't quite used to the focal lengths...and how far I could drop my shutter speed with the 135L (I was semi-successful to about 1/100).
Also, this is my first time really using lightroom to process a set of images. I'm trialling lightroom and bibble and trying to find a decent workflow. Anyway, I did leave these a little warm intentionally (too much?), and of course there is going to be some noise and general issues because I was shooting ISO1600/3200 and still had to push the exposure a bit. I also had an issue with lightroom displaying brighter than other programs on my computer. I think I have that resolved, but the brightness level may not be exactly where I intended it to be as a result.

Anyway, thanks for looking. Any comments in general and on the pp especially would be appreciated. Exif and more photos here.

1-4 Alabaster Fox
5-8 The Alarmists (Calm Down)

1.

Nice set (perticular the first band)
Loose the filter! The flare might be the lens, the ghosting is the filter.

René Damkot wrote in post #4024047
Nice set (perticular the first band)
Loose the filter! The flare might be the lens, the ghosting is the filter.

Ha, I agree on the filter...I kind of posted that shot as an example. The flare I can maybe live with (well, like I have a choice since it's a 'feature' of the lens), but that ghosting is just awful. I've had the filter on there for protection, and I've never seen it perform quite this badly. Needless to say, I think I'll be removing it from now on in situations like this.

i think the pp is good. i like the graininess to them.

but what is that on the wall on #4?

thelightofsound wrote in post #4025389
i think the pp is good. i like the graininess to them.

but what is that on the wall on #4?

heh, that's where they patched the wall or something. I thought about cloning it out, because it is kind of distracting, but I'm not the best at cloning on large graduated surfaces like that.

First band are two siblings? Second band has tympani? What a bizarre yet appealing gathering!

First band is husband and wife (to my knowledge they aren't sibligns!). The second band was pretty cool...pretty straight up indy rock with a little twist. It was a fun (interesting) gig, for a coffee house show anyway.

http://www.myspace.com​/alabasterfox

http://www.myspace.com​/thealarmistscalmdown

how is jury duty going btw?

Nice set! It looks like a fun, laid-back show. I do have a couple of suggestions: move around more when you shoot. Other than the final shot here, and a few on the external link, it looks as though they were all shot from relatively the same angle. Judging from the photos, it didn't appear that there were many impediments to changing position - and more angles and variety makes for a more interesting set of photos.

Secondly, I would b+w all of the photos. Warm neutrals dominate the color photos, and don't distinguish the subjects very well. The photos you have already converted are much more contrasty, and very visually appealing. I particularly like the first three on the external link!

donmynac wrote in post #4043057
Nice set! It looks like a fun, laid-back show. I do have a couple of suggestions: move around more when you shoot. Other than the final shot here, and a few on the external link, it looks as though they were all shot from relatively the same angle. Judging from the photos, it didn't appear that there were many impediments to changing position - and more angles and variety makes for a more interesting set of photos.

Secondly, I would b+w all of the photos. Warm neutrals dominate the color photos, and don't distinguish the subjects very well. The photos you have already converted are much more contrasty, and very visually appealing. I particularly like the first three on the external link!

Thanks for the excellent feedback. I was actually pretty limited for shooting positions. There was quite a crowd, and many of them were sitting on the floor. So, I tried to choose shooting positions that did not impede the crowd's view. However, your point is well taken, I need to work on seeing other angles, and I think sometimes I'm a bit overly cautious when it comes to moving about.

As for the colors, I run into the problem of a non-distinguishable backgrounds a lot. I'm glad that you like the b+w's. This was my first go around with Lightroom, and I processed the b+w's a bit differently than I have processed b+w's in the past. I used a pretty heavy dose of 'Fill Light' slider on those. I wasn't too sure if they would go over well.

I love the b & w controls in Lightroom. I have take a few marginal shots and really made them special with just the LR controls. Nice set. The first band has this appeal to me...probably too much time hanging out in downtown NY...lol.

i like the 1st set the best; the props definitely help. the unfortunate wall marking in #4 is a bit of a drag.

the noise is rendered pretty well. did you add gaussian noise?

narlus wrote in post #4055503
the noise is rendered pretty well. did you add gaussian noise?

Nah, I used my secret recipe. I think I used default NR in lightroom (or maybe just a bit over that in some cases if there is a lot of chroma noise) and then sharpened to .3 120 USM in CS1 via Dr. Browns batch script. I suppose masking or smart sharpening would give a less noisy result...but hey, it's not like I'm getting paid.:p Keep in mind most of these were pushed 1/3-2/3 stop in processing, and several have a rather hefty dose of shadows/highlights/fil​l light type adjustments as well.

I generally try to just take the edge off the noise without causing significant artifacts or 'smoothing'...trying to find a balance between loss of detail, and the ability to apply output sharpening without bringing out too much noise.

By the way, I noticed you mentioned you purchased the Pieker calibration settings for LR, are you liking them? I just picked 'em up, but haven't processed any high-iso stuff using the settings yet. Seems interesting.

bacchanal wrote in post #4058254
By the way, I noticed you mentioned you purchased the Pieker calibration settings for LR, are you liking them? I just picked 'em up, but haven't processed any high-iso stuff using the settings yet. Seems interesting.

i just loaded the values into ACR a few days ago and haven't processed any photos w/ them yet. i might tackle the magnolia electric co shots tonight.

narlus wrote in post #4058540
i just loaded the values into ACR a few days ago and haven't processed any photos w/ them yet. i might tackle the magnolia electric co shots tonight.

I'm very interested, too, as Rene thinks LR calibration is very useful and at $15 per camera it's cheaper than a POTN neckstrap!

bacchanal wrote in post #4042056
how is jury duty going btw?

Heart wrenching but the evidence is finally done. Hope to be done early next week, sigh. I'll comment on it when the judge has released us.