Cover Bands

Single Income – May 16th

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Here is another Photoshoot of one of my favorite Cover Bands, “Single Income” playing at Beaches of Mornington.

On this shoot I used the Lumix LX7 for the Non-Flash Shots of the Band, which is a great compact camera for low light.

A full Flickr Gallery of Photos can be viewed here:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Single Income Band May 16th 2014

Further information about Single Income can be found at their Facebook Page:

Single Income Facebook Page

 

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Camera
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8
Sony HVL-F43M Flash
Gary Fong Collapsible Lightsphere Diffuser
Panasonic Lumix LX7 Compact Camera

This shoot was the first time we have done Flash Photography using the Gary Fong Lightsphere Diffuser.

This diffuser is a largeish Tupperware Bowl apparatus which is semi-transparent, but seems to work reasonably well. It definitely gives better results than a standard Stofen Diffuser.

The following video gives a run down of this lightsphere device.

We used the collapsible lightsphere with its white dome turned down into the bowl to give more forward power, as the ceiling in the venue is high up and will not give any reflected light.

The collapsible version can easily be carried in a coat pocket, and is not overly huge to have on a camera while walking around a venue, with the pull tight velcro attaching system being very secure.

All of the Party People shots, as well as the Flash Band shots, were taken with this Lightsphere Diffuser attached to the Flash, and all shots were done with the A-77 camera in full manual mode.

On this shoot we also used our Low Light Compact Camera, the Panasonic Lumix LX7, for all of the Non-Flash Band Shots.

Panasonic LX7 White Top & Front

The LX7 is a great little camera and seems to give better results than putting an F1.8 35mm Portrait Lens on the Sony A-77, which we have tried previously.

The main way it is better is not so much in its focussing and clarity, but in that way it creates an overall ambient low light in the photo, which is not dark or full of stark contrasts in each picture.

All shots with the LX7 were done in manual mode at F1.4 Aperture, Shutter Speed of 1/60 to 1/125, and ISO settings of 400 and 800.

To see pictures taken with the F1.8 35mm Portrait lens for comparison, see our previous Flickr Album of Single Income at the following link:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Single Income at Beaches in April

The Lumix LX7 was the first camera we ever used to shoot bands in low light, and it is definitely going to be in our kit bag for upcoming live band shoots.

 

Last but not least, I encountered my first on the job painful injury during this shoot.

ChowieShirtWEB

The two impromptu models were supposed to pose with me, with them pointing at the Band Photos T-Shirt in amazement. This T-Shirt was designed by my photographer friend Eric Chowie. However the women decided to play a nasty trick afterwards, and they both bit me very hard on the chest, immediately after this photo was taken. It really really hurt!  (Luckily there was no damage done to the designer T-Shirt.)

 

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Enjoy,
Passy

Cover Bands

Size Matters at One Fourteen

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Size Matters are one of my Favorite Cover Bands, with two vocalists, brilliant keyboards, and great everything else.

They play songs from the 80’s and elsewhere, and everything is done to perfection.

They also have awesome stage presence and are a great band to photograph.

One Fourteen is a great band venue in Mentone, with reasonable lighting and a good crowd of well to do Melbourne bayside residents.

I have been looking forward to doing my first shoot there with the Sony A-77 camera, but found that the pictures were not as light and bright as previous photos I had done with the A-55 of another band called “Takin’ Cover”.

The main reason for this is that Takin Cover bring their own additional lighting to their shows, and this really makes a difference to the brightness and clarity of the resulting photos.

 

A full Flickr Gallery of Photos of Size Matters can be viewed here:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Size Matters at One Fourteen

 

Further information about Size Matters can be found at their Facebook Page:

Size Matters Facebook Page

 

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8
Sony HVL-FM43 Flash
Gary Fong Gamma Flash Diffuser

For this shoot I took along both of my Tamron lenses to do a comparison of picture quality.

For the low light conditions, the 24-70mm lens which is bigger and much more expensive than the 17-50mm lens, only produced photos that were perhaps 10 to 15% better in quality.

This just proves again what great bang for buck the Tamron 17-50mm lens provides.

Band shots were done with no flash, in Manual at ISO 1600, Apertures between 2.8 and 3.2, and shutter speeds of 1/60th to 1/125.

Party People shots were also done at ISO 1600, as well as ISO 1250, and this meant that the band was quite visible in the background.

The Gamma Diffuser seems to do a good job of focussing the light onto the people, without overly lighting up the surrounding background, and this was a pleasing result.

Due to its flat profile, it is very easy to carry in a cargo pants pocket, and move around the venue with once connected to the flash. The velcro fastening system is great and there is no chance of the diffuser coming off the flash.

This diffuser is only $30 to buy on the Internet, but then cost another $30 in postage and handling.

The Gary Fong Gamma Diffuser is made especially for the Sony A-77, as demonstrated in this video by its creator: Gary Fong.

(Note that there are similar “Blade” / “Cheese-Grater” diffusers available for non Sony cameras as well).

 

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Enjoy,
Passy

Nature

Autumn With My Nieces

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This Autumn in Melbourne photoshoot was done on Mothers Day when my Nieces were visiting for Lunch.

The idea was to get some Autumn Leaves shots, as well as try out the Sony A-77 Multishot function, with the girls throwing leaves into the air and doing Star Jumps.

The pictures were taken late in the afternoon around 4:30pm, to obtain nice skin tones on the girls, as well as have maximum sunlight shining through the leaves.

The leaves pictures worked well, but with the multishot for the Star Jumps, about every third picture was blurry and looked out of focus. Maybe this was because the daylight was getting weaker, or perhaps I did not have something set up properly on the camera for the Multishot.

 

A full Flickr Gallery of the Autumn Pictures can be viewed here:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Autumn Leaves and My Nieces

 

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8

This was my first shoot using the Multishot Function on the A-77, and apart from some photos which blurred, the results were reasonably good.

Multishot is something I need to experiment with a bit more. It might work a lot better in full daylight conditions.

The adjustable to all angles LCD screen on the A-77 is brilliant. I used it to photograph looking upwards to the sky through tree leaves on some shots. For my Nieces Star Jumps I was able to have the camera sitting on the ground, and then fully compose the shot in the tilted LCD to produce maximum jump height effect.

For the Autumn Leaves, it worked really well to shoot these in the late afternoon, when the sun was shining through the leaves on the trees, producing nice full colors.

Pictures were taken in fully Automatic Mode, and the camera produced pleasing results.

The photo taken looking directly into the sun was tricky, and it took about four attempts to get the right amount of flaring.

The vibrance of the color produced by Sony Cameras is awesome, and this is one of the main reasons I love shooting with Sony Equipment.

 

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Passy

Shazam feature Image
Cover Bands

Shazam at Beaches

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Shazam are a brilliant party band who gets everyone up dancing. Talented musicians with a great repertoire of crowd pleasing covers.

This was our first photoshoot of this Band, and our first shoot using the new Sony HVL-F43M Flash unit.

A full Flickr Gallery of Photos can be viewed at this link:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Shazam at Beaches

 

Further information about Shazam can be found at their Facebook Page:

Shazam Facebook Page

You can also check out Shazam’s Website at this link:

Shazam Melbourne Website

 

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8
Sony 35mm F1.8 Portrait Lens
Sony HVL-F43M Flash
Stofen Diffuser.

In this shoot I followed the general approach I am currently using for shoots at Beaches. Everything is shot as JPEG, and mostly in full Manual Mode.

Step 1 is to get some low light no flash band pictures using the 35mm F1.8 fixed lens. About 1 in 6 of these shots work out, but I use the good ones in the middle of the final photo album to break things up a bit. I am still getting a lot of “Martian” and “Smurfs” photos from this, but these are real images of what the lighting was really like at the gig.

Step 2 is to attach the flash and diffuser and do some more band shots, as well as “Party People” shots of venue patrons for the Beaches Facebook page.

Most band shots were taken at ISO 1000, with shutter fixed at 1/125th or even 1/250th. Party People shots were taken at ISO 1000, with aperture priority used, so that aperture of 4.5 or 5.0 could be used for group shots to try and get everyone in focus.

For this gig, I tried using the EVF viewfinder, rather than the LCD screen for “chimping” (eg. for checking shots). The pictures looked great in the EVF, but when I loaded them onto the laptop the next day, they were a lot brighter than I was expecting.

The new Sony Flash has zoom lens adjustments, such as 24mm, 50mm, 110mm. I am assuming these govern how wide the flash beam goes out, and also focuses its power on a small area at 110mm?

It also has easy to access Power Levels in fractions as 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/16, 1/32 etc, as light intensity in physics follows an inverse square relationship. I understand the maths, but I have not figured out the optimal settings for people pics yet. A lot of the People Pics were way too bright.

Another interesting thing is that I am shooting my people pics at 1/125th of a second, but several YouTube videos and Forums say to do nightclub people pics at super low speeds of 1/10, 1/20, or 1/30, as the Flash in manual mode will freeze the action. I will have to try out these low shutter speeds, and see what happens, even though it does not feel quite right.

This is the first time I have used the Sony Flash, and I set it tilted up at 45 degrees, with a Stofen cap diffuser from my old Yongnuo flash on it, since Sony do not provide you with one.

Sony also do not provide the hotshoe adapter needed for the A-77, and so I had to rush out to the Sony Shop in Nunawading to grab one of these a few hours before the gig.

I reckon Sony should give you a Stofen diffuser with the flash, and throw in the adapter as well. Even cheap Chinese Yongnuo give you everything you need with their flash.

I am still to try out my Gary Fong Light Sphere, and the Gary Fong Blade Card Diffuser, but hope to give them ago as soon as I get the opportunity.

It is challenging at the moment with Flash photography, trying to get the settings and diffusers right, but once I figure it out, it will hopefully become a set and forget.

The next step will then be to get a copy of Adobe Lightroom, and start shooting in Raw; as all the professionals say that Raw + Lightroom is the way to go. It sounds like Lightroom has the ability to make adjustment presets, which greatly speed up post processing and touch ups.

 

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Passy

MelBdayFeature836x463
Birthday Parties

Mel’s 18th Birthday

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Recently we did the Photos for a young lady’s 18th Birthday party.

The event was outdoors and indoors with a great Marquis area setup for sit down eating, complete with Popcorn and FairyFloss Maker.

This made for some great color and photos.

 

A full Flickr Gallery of Photos can be viewed at this link:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Mel’s 18th Birthday

 

The full photo gallery can also be found on the Photos By Passy Facebook Page:

Photos By Passy Facebook Page

 

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8
On Board Sony Flash (for fill flash)

Most shots were taken with the camera set to an automatic “Portrait Mode” using the SCN setting on the Sony A-77.

Due to the bright sunlight, we knew that we would need to do Fill Flash to blast away sharp shadows on People’s faces.

We were set up to go with the Yongnuo Flash and a Gary Fong Lightsphere Diffuser; however Yongnuo incompatibility problems arose and the flash refused to communicate with the camera, and would not flash in any shooting mode, even with forced fill flash turned on.

This meant we were forced to use the Sony A-77’s inbuilt flash, with no diffuser, but surprisingly it did a reasonable job.

Many shots were a bit overexposed, but this was easily fixed during post-processing in Photoshop.

There was a problem with people squinting in sunlight, but we did our best to reposition subjects in their poses to avoid this.

Taking photos inside a Jumping Castle was also a difficult job fraught with danger!

We were very happy with the performance of the Tamron 24-70mm lens, coupled with Portrait mode on the A-77. This combination produced some very nice soft but reasonably sharp portrait shots.

 

For the party someone had made a nice portable painted cardboard picture frame, that people could hold around them while photos were taken.

When we saw this Photo Frame, we thought it would be a good idea to have a dark uniform background to do the frame pictures in, but it turned out that this was a bad idea.

We wasted a fair amount of time and effort trying to setup a good photobooth area to do handheld frame shots in. It turned out that it was better to just wander around the event, and grap people weherever they were and get them to hold the frame around them and snap the shot.

Something else we need to watch out for at parties, are bright yellow power extrension leads draped all ove3r the place. They are very bright, stand out strongly in photos, and are very hard to photoshop out during post processing.

 

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Enjoy,
Passy