Eleonor England and the Shep Meyers trio played at Lestat's in San Diego last Friday (Apr 20th.) Eleonor's voice is incredibly rich and nuanced and she is wonderfully complemented by stellar instrumentalists... Shep Meyers on the piano (he played for Ella, Sarah Vaughan and many other legendary jazz names), Tripp Sprague (fantastic saxophonist) and Bryan McConnell (virtuosic bassist.)

Here are a few photographs from that night...














Comments and criticism always appreciated! Thanks for reading!

Nikhil

[Nixarma]

One more...

[bc_the_path]

I liked the bassist shot best.
Missed listening to jazz...

[PeterAM]

Very nice! Looking at a b&w poster of Sonny Rollins as I write this.

Curious about how you shot these; lens, settings, etc. Did you have to get permission to shoot in there?

[Nixarma]

Thank you for your comments!

Camera: K100D. All shots at ISO 800. Shutter speeds between 1/8s and 1/30s with shake reduction activated. All photographs shot at f/2 (except for the first) with -0.5EV exposure compensation.

I used the FA 35/2 for the shots of the marquee and the distance shots of the whole band. I shot the closeups with the FA 77/1.8.

Lighting, as you can imagine, was fairly low. The FA 77/1.8 really comes through for me in these kinds of settings. I considered the DA 70 for a while but I don't think I'll trade it for the FA 77 and the primary reason for that is the wider aperture of the latter... f/2.4 would just not cut it in the available light of most concerts I shoot, metal or jazz.

Thanks for your interest!

[NaClH2O]

Great shots, and another reinforcement (4 of them actually) to get the 77mm ltd.

NaCl(I'm saving my pennies)H2O

[volosong]

Gotta love that SR, huh? The image of the sax player (3rd image) really "grabs" me. The lighting is fantastic. Would you care to share your color to B&W procedure? Impressive images.

[Nixarma]

Great shots, and another reinforcement (4 of them actually) to get the 77mm ltd.

Funny thing is that I was greatly disappointed with the 77 when I first got it. Over time and with use at a few concerts I have come to greatly appreciate its capabilities.

I first "tested" the lens in my apartment under fluorescent light and outdoors in bright sunlight. The purple fringing at aperture settings of f/1.8 to f/4 was hideous. It got progressively better until f/8 and then disappeared.

But one does not buy an f/1.8 lens to use it at f/8! Oh, how was I going to live with a lens with such pronounced PF? Perhaps I was sent a defective lens?

I asked a couple of people who have had extensive experience with this lens whether their observations were similar to mine. And it turns out they were!

Over time, and having observed the wide-open and near wide-open shots that many people posted on DPR and this site, I have come to the conclusion that this lens shows off its best when used under

1. Muted light conditions - overcast skies, no bright sunlight on the subject; and/or
2. Incandescent light - PF at wide apertures can still be a bit of a problem, but nowhere near as bad as under fluorescent light.

It truly is a gem of a lens. Like that girl you just cannot stop thinking about, it has its quirks. Once you learn to side-step those issues, it delivers every time!

Save up those pennies!

[Nixarma]

Gotta love that SR, huh? The image of the sax player (3rd image) really "grabs" me. The lighting is fantastic. Would you care to share your color to B&W procedure? Impressive images.

Thank you, Steven!

I liked the lighting at the venue. Very moody - just right for the audience, not terribly bad for a photographer (good enough for ISO 800 throughout.) I am so glad that they don't have those ugly monochromatic red stage lights... I HATE shooting in that light.

I typically use one of two procedures for my color to B&W conversions:

1. I follow the steps provided in this link but the percentages and curves are determined by each individual photograph's values.

Journal Of A Photographer - Photojournalism Blog | A website and a photoblog about photojournalism and photography by freelance photographer Martin Fuchs

2. I run an action that simulates various filters - infrared, green, red, orange and yellow. I then determine the mix of filters that I think would give me a nice image and then "flatten" the image.

I usually perform one of these procedures first, save the result as a snapshot in Photoshop's history, go back to the original image, run the other procedure and save that result as a snapshot as well. I then pick the one I like better.

Once I have a B&W image, I adjust the curves, sharpen it, duplicate the layer, choose a blend mode (overlay, soft or hard light), dodge/burn if necessary, and make a final adjustment to the curves.

Takes a little time but I love B&W photographs! I'm still learning and I would love to hear about techniques that you and others employ to your satisfaction.

Nikhil