Tag Archives: beaches bands

Cover Bands

Munster Terrace – May 23

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This was our first photoshoot of Munster Terrace playing at Beaches of Mornington.

These guys are all seasoned veterans, and it really showed in their slick performance of popular covers from the eighties.

Best of all they played some Angels and Deep Purple numbers, which were superbly executed, and thoroughly enjoyed by the enthusiastic crowd.

A full Flickr Gallery of Photos can be viewed here:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Munster Terrace Band May 23rd 2014

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

Munster Terrace Website

 
 

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Camera
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8
Sony 35mm F1.8
Sony HVL-F43M Flash
Gary Fong Gamma Blade Diffuser
Panasonic Lumix LX7 Compact Camera

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

However for the Band shots without flash I used the Sony F1.8 35mm Portrait Lens, and got some great shots of the drummer like the one shown at the beginning of this write up.

Flash Photography was done using a Gary Fong Blade Diffuser. It looks like a triangular cheese grater, but does a great job for Party People shots, and it is becoming my “Go To” diffuser.

I think the Blade type diffuser is slightly better than the Gary Fong Lightsphere Diffuser, but both do a great job on Party People shots.

This was a really fun shoot because there was a good crowd at the venue, and lots of people were jumping in straight away wanting their picture taken.

All shots were done with the A-77 in “M” fully manual mode, and the Sony Flash also in Manual Mode and set to “50mm” for flash beam width.

 

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Enjoy,
Passy

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

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Cover Bands

The Party Animals at Beaches

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The Party Animals are an incredibly talented covers band; everyone in the band are brilliant players and vocalists.

They made the old songs sound better than the originals; and their drummer is a full energy force,  with the guitar players’ solos making my head spin around.

Definitely one of the best Cover Bands I have ever seen.

 

A full Flickr Gallery of Photos can be viewed at the following Link:

Flickr Photo Gallery of “The Party Animals” at Beaches

 

EQUIPMENT:
Sony Alpha-A77 Camera
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 Lens
Yongnuo Speedlite YN-460 II

Adobe Photoshop CS5.5

This was my first ever shoot of a band using a Speedlite Flash Unit.  I was also required to do candid “party people” shots for the venue; and used a standard slip on rectangular diffuser on the flash unit, and pointed it up at 45 degrees most of the time.

The Yongnuo is a basic $50 flash from China, but has very simple controls with a 1 to 7 power dial on the back and that’s it!  Most of the time I was only using level 1 to 3 power, and in the Sony rear playback screen the shots looked fine. However when downloaded to the PC, the shots were all dull and around one f-stop lower, so next time I will go brighter.

The charge time on the Yongnuo was okay, and provided it lasts a while I reckon it is a bargain compared to the proper $500 Sony Unit for the A-77.

The tricky thing is that at ISO400, it is pitch black in the viewfinder, and so composing shots and trying to get a spot focus was entirely blind guesswork. However when the flash fired, the camera seemed to cope reasonably well with exposure and focus.

Unfortunately it appears that Sony Cameras have their own unique flash hotshoe mount. And although Yongnuo make a flash for the Sony which fits the mount, Sony cameras do not recognise the flash, and so the Sony viewfinder does not brighten up like it does when the inbulit sony flash is popped up. Found this out by watching a YouTube video. So looks like I will be shooting blind until I can afford a proper Sony brand flash. 🙁

For both the band and people shots I used auto white balance, and “S” shutter priority. Band shots were at ISO 400 to ISO 1600, and 1/60, 1/80, and 1/120 shutter speed.

People shots were ISO 400, and shutter speed 1/125 in shutter priority “S” mode.  This was my first time doing people shots of an age 30 plus crowd, and there was a lot of photoshopping needed to remove wrinkles and sunspots. The rubber stamp ran parallel to forehead wrinkles works a treat and all the ladies look at least 10 years younger?  There were also a lot of exposure adjustments to do.

The people shots had a lot of white patches on faces (is that flash reflection in their facial sweat from dancing?  How do you deal with this “snow on the face” effectively is something I need to figure out.