Thanks for all the advice, Bruce.
I do most of those to one extent or the other, though I have a tough
time making myself bump the ISO up, even though the camera is capable of
it. I never go above 3200 unless it's just to show someone that the
camera will do it. I should probably get over that, huh?
Being prepared for the very small keeper rate, on the other hand --
that's my forte!
I usually keep my camera in center-weighted, average metering, as I've
been less than impressed with the matrix metering in the past. And I
agree that does tend to produce better results to my eye.
Where I have the most difficulty is in a situation like the one I was in
most recently -- indoors during mid-day, huge windows with lots of
sunlight under a hazy sky in a room with very high ceilings with
recessed fluorescent bulbs, plus dropped fixtures (about 7 ft or 2.5 m
high) with incandescent bulbs, PLUS some very, very white light spilling
in from a kitchen area, just off to the right. All of this in a room
with fairly bright yellow walls.
I got some crazy-looking colors out of that one. The AWB just threw up
its hands and said, "Your guess is as good as mine, dude."
Thanks again!
Walt
On 8/15/2011 1:49 PM, Bruce Walker wrote:
Some quick advice, Walt.
Switch away from matrix metering; go with center-weighted or spot.
Chances are the stage lights are focused on the performers, so they're
the brightest things in the room.
If you go spot metering, meter off of faces. They are close enough to
18% grey so the meter is about right.
Raise the ISO higher than you think is reasonable. :) Either the
camera's ISO is great (eg K-5, K-x etc.) or you can use Lightroom or a
noise-reduction plugin, or simply go black and white and call the
grain art.
Take the fastest lens(es) you've got. Learn to like (or at least get
along with) their field of view.
If the action is too fast for manual focusing, pre-focus on a point
and snap when the action gets to that point. Be prepared to have a
very small keeper rate.
-bmw
On 11-08-15 8:06 AM, Walt Gilbert wrote:
You got some great shots in there, Larry --
<http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ellarsee/6044114689/>20110813-LRC24134.jpg
<http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ellarsee/6044114689/> has to be my
favorite of the bunch and20110813-LRC24174.jpg
<http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ellarsee/6044666818/> is a close 2nd.
I really need to learn how to work better in mixed lighting
situations. I've lost some potentially nice shots because I don't
know what's going to freak out the metering.
I wish I could've stayed out in CA a while longer. There's just so
much to photograph out there.
-- Walt
On 8/15/2011 12:10 AM, Larry Colen wrote:
For the past two years there's been a weekly dance in SF called The
Rent Party. Lindy hop in one room, Blues in another. For various
reasons, they decided to close up shop and last night was their
final night, with two live bands.
The lindy room had a couple of lights in the middle of the room
aimed at the floor, but the musicians were primarily illuminated by
a couple of lights aimed at the wall behind them. The blues room was
light by four clamp lights, with red bulbs bounced off the walls.
Two of which were behind the musicians.
I also didn't want to use flash, because it's rather obnoxious when
you're dancing in a dark room to have a strobe go off in your face.
So, all in all, the lighting was quite challenging. There were a
few shots where I just took the bad lighting and tried to see what I
could do with it, pushing it even further over the edge in post
processing.
Not everything is quite as sharp as I'd like, but I think I got some
fun shots out of it:
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157627311775827/
--
Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est
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