[mojoe_24]

Nice shots.

[UnknownVT]

Nice shots.

Thanks so much for looking and for the kind comment.

Hope you're doing well with your K-x - the best way to learn is to just go take pictures -
but note conditions, settings (and possibly the most important - intent or pre-visualization) -
fortunately every shot has EXIF data so manual notes can be reduced.

Anyway yesterday was big band day at a local venue:

ISO400, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm -
quite a bit brighter than my usual conditions -
but note how the K-x still picked f/3.5 wide-open
and dropped the sensitivity to ISO400?
So on "P"rogram the K-x seems to have a tendency to pick higher shutter speeds, then lower ISO for the conditions
- hence wider-apertures.
Just as well I am actually happy with the 18-55 kit zoom at wide-open apertures.......


Favorite shot of the session:

ISO5000!! f/5.6, 1/160, 160mm
I am shocked that the sensitivity was ISO5000! - I mean it's daylight - and the scene was very strongly back-lit - I actually had to brighten the main subject despite already having +2/3 stop compensation.
That's a Maynard Ferguson like high note he's blowing.


ISO3200, f/5.6, 1/200, 150mm
using the dark tarp/awning as a backdrop makes so much difference.


ISO2500, f/5.6, 1/250, 200mm
way in the back - this the 50-200 on full extension - and wide-open
(seems to do quite fine for a mediocre lens ......)

Didn't I see him last night?

ISO500, f/4.5, 1/125, 73mm
That's a copper alto sax - pretty rare as most of them are brass....
copper gives a more mellow/darker tone.

Close to being a silly shot -
another person that was way in the back and hardly visible -
this is actually one of their regular drummers sitting in -

ISO5000!! f/5.6, 1/250, 200mm
central spot focusing and naturally shallow DoF due to the long focal length and being wide-open.....

[UnknownVT]

I was back at the dark jazz club last night -
needless to say it was dark there -

it was sparse so the gig finished about 12:30am.

After the show some musicians hung around playing -
so I got on stage to take a few shots of the pianist through the open lid of the piano -

While I was doing that, more musicians started to arrive -
remember this was after the gig had finished -
but they just came right in and started to play along with whatever was being played.


the guy who jumped up on drums is actually an alto sax player -
the regular bassist is on the djembe ....


no lights on under that alcove so the shutter speeds were slow - as one can see by the hand movement
and look at the first overall shot to see the illumination difference between stage center and the alcove......

Then a drummer came in -

as well as other horn players.

and much to everyone's surprise the alto sax player started to sing wordlessly from off stage -

eventually I figured out he was scatting his alto sax lines........

people played and sang from wherever they were in the room -
I was rotating in a circle to to take shots -






a real singer -

the "white light" on the side of her face was from a phone-cam.....

a sing off -


during all this the female vocalist went and showered money over some of the musicians -
which gave me this "show me the money" shot -





the area in this shot is pretty dark, significantly below both the AF and metering spec limits - but the K-x still managed to focus.

This after hours session ran for over 1.5 hours and the staff actually had to ask the musicians to stop.......

What about the actual show itself?
well with Russell Gunn leading, and Kebbi Williams - it had to be good (as usual)
and gave plenty of photo opportunities -








Basically a great night for both music, and photography......

[Zaneus]

A couple of mine from the last two weeks. I've only had my camera for that length

[UnknownVT]

A couple of mine from the last two weeks. I've only had my camera for that length

Interesting way of framing/composition.

What was the lighting for the flower shot?

Was that natural water drops, or sprinkled on for the shot -
and did the purple color come out the way you expected or saw it?

[Zaneus]

Lighting was overcast and it had just stopped raining within the minute of that shot taken. Taken with the Kx flash from about 1 meter away. The flower was a bit more pink in real life, I think the flash washed the colour out a bit, and it came back slightly more purple in post production. I wasn't completely worried about the colour when taking the shot, more worried about illuminating the water droplets

[UnknownVT]

Lighting was overcast and it had just stopped raining within the minute of that shot taken. Taken with the Kx flash from about 1 meter away. The flower was a bit more pink in real life, I think the flash washed the colour out a bit, and it came back slightly more purple in post production. I wasn't completely worried about the colour when taking the shot, more worried about illuminating the water droplets

Actually most digital cameras have difficulty in reproducing purple and violet -

So it's real interesting to hear that the flower was actually more pink
and the camera turned it more purple.

A guess: I think if you were using AWB (Auto White Balance) - then the pink of the flower tended to make the K-x balance toward blue/cooler - and the electronic flash - would then be more blue in the color balance - hence turning a more pink toward purple.

As I said it's just a guess - if you want to be sure - set fixed white balance to flash, and take the pic again - the flower would probably look more pink then.

[UnknownVT]

Hello, my name is Vincent,
and I am an addict -
to this dark jazz club.....

My first shot of the night -

ISO5000, f/3.5, 1/4, 18mm
I've titled it "oh-oh" - I knew something was not right -
the shutter seemed to have stayed open longer than usual -
and the shot (I chimp) seemed over-exposed.
Looking at the exposure details at home that is an exposure value I normally get for the off stage in the audience area
- now even for me that's dark!
- even stage center was barely reading level.........


ISO5000, f/3.5, 1/15, 18mm
may not seem that dark in the pic -
but I've obviously exposed and pp so that one can see the subjects clearly -
look how dark everywhere other than stage center is -
that glare/flare through the top left corner window pane is regular night street lighting.

Stage center still gives good photo opportunities -

ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/15, 88mm


ISO5000, f/4, 1/50, 50mm (on 50-200 zoom)

Of course off stage action was still always going on -

ISO5000, f/3.5, 1/6, 18mm

Center spot makes for good photos -
see how everything else is deep black?

ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/80, 80mm
this shot almost looks like a studio lighting set up.


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/50, 80mm

Wait! there's more....
but I'll leave it for the next post.

[UnknownVT]

Hello, my name is Vincent,
and I am an addict -
to this dark jazz club.....

ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/50, 80mm

Wait! there's more....
but I'll leave it for the next post.

.....if you read in the next 15 minutes we'll double.....

ooops, sorry, wrong high pressure 3am TV commercial -

It is related to the shot above - the yellow t-shirt caused white balance problems -
AWB -

way too yellow/warm.

pp solution is to bring the JPG into PDCU (Pentax Digital Camera Utility)
and use the white balance override and set tungsten balance -

this looks almost right - may be a bit on the cooler side and the yellow t-shirt seems less vibrant/saturated.

Looking on PDCU for the other white balance presets - I tried the Warm white Fluorescent -

a bit warmer - perhaps just a little too warm on the face - but the rest looks about right to me.

Ah but what if I shot with tungsten balance in the first place?
well the big sized shot in the quote above was exactly that
- and that balance seems just about right to me -
but and it's a big BUT -
some of the time I was shocked to get this kind of balance -

holy-moly that is just awful - blah! yuck!

OK from my experience above what if I applied the Warm White fluorescent white balance using PDCU -

good - but too warm - not quite as bad as that first (IMGP6121) AWB original - but still too warm

Just for the heck I actually tried what should have made NO difference
since the original was shot with Tungsten White Balance already
- I selected on Tungsten White Balance override - and got this -

still not perfect - perhaps a little on the cool side - but at least it's not that yucky cool blue of the original.

But a lot I shot with tungsten white balance were acceptable.

I have been shooting at that venue with the K-x since Dec/2009 with 26 sessions/albums to show for it
- AWB had always worked fine there - with only minor selection of subtle or strong tungsten correction
(these days I prefer subtle correction all the time - I think that's because I switched from Bright to Natural Color balance) -

Off stage I sometimes have to select Tungsten white balance -
but until this last Thursday had no cause to change from AWB for the stage -
it is obviously the yellow T-shirt that cause the difficulty -
and unfortunately the Tungsten White balance on the K-x can sometime cause the shot to go blue -
of course that's nothing one could not correct pp -
especially with PDCU (Pentax Digital Camera Utility - which is supplied with every Pentax dSLR)
- but still it's a shock to see the blue result on the LCD screen - I chimp all the time.

It is strange that in the end the best correction for that too blue shot was to use the Tungsten White Balance override in PDCU -
it should have made no difference since the shot was already using Tungsten Balance
- but it did.

[UnknownVT]

Tedeschi-Trucks Band

ISO800, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm


ISO4000, f/4.5, 1/200, 125mm


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/125, 88mm


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/60, 115mm (balance was too cool, had to do some color correction)


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/125, 80mm

Who would have credited it - from first shot posted - this looked like a well lit venue with real stage lights -
but look at the rest of the photos - they are mostly at ISO5000 (one at ISO4000) ......

FWIW - they've posted some of the photos on the Tedeschi Trucks Band FaceBook page.

[UnknownVT]

ISO5000, f/3.5, 1/15, 18mm - dark......
I like the reflection on the floor of the bass drum head logo - showing the outline of the drummer's head....


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/13, 38mm -
needed +0.7 compensation to bring out the face in the shadow of the hat peak
- this was about optimum exposure - there was very little pp needed other than to resize - a tiny bit of brightness/contrast adj, and sharpen - that's it........
shutter speed was slow - one can see the movement of the fingers on the flugelhorn valve.


ISO5000, f/3.5, 1/6, 18mm - can you say dark? (look at first pic to put in context)
My Kryptonite nemesis still lives, he might not be wearing a hat -
but the light level is so low - on the border or just below the metering and AF limits of the K-x - most of my shots show subject movement/blur......


ISO5000, f/4, 1/5, 24mm -
now two of them are hiding in that dark corner.


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/20, 35mm -
like this shot...... had to use -1 stop compensation because of the dark surrounding and dark clothes otherwise the face would have been over-exposed.


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/25, 43mm, -0.7 compensation.

From the previous week -

ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/80, 68mm
needed -0.7 stop compensation otherwise the face would have been over exposed, and the background would have been too bright to depict the scene properly.




both shots of the bassist - ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/20, 88mm

[UnknownVT]

Wood Brothers this Saturday May/7 -


ISO2500, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm
good lights but still needed HighISO and wide aperture.


ISO200, f/4, 1/100, 26mm
look - low ISO - but this was underexposed by about 2 stops due to the strong back lighting.


ISO2500, f/4, 1/60, 33mm
Chris Wood (also of Medeski, Martin and Wood)


ISO200, f/4, 1/60, 24mm
again underexposed due to strong back lighting - brought up in pp.


ISO320, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm
despite the predominant difficult magenta - I really like the coloring of this shot.

They had the opening act the lovely Abigail Washburn sit in:

ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/60, 40mm

Then as their encore/finale they brought out Bela Fleck:

ISO800, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm

I like the way Abigail (also a banjo player) is looking at Bela Fleck -

ISO2500, f/4, 1/60, 31mm

[UnknownVT]

Having been away for a couple of weeks -
because I did the entire 500 Songs for Kids 2011 event -
that's 500 songs in 10 days =
50 songs per night =
7 minutes/song
(that 7 minutes includes set-up, sound check - the actual performance, and then changeover for the next band).

No time even to go to the bathroom -
no, I didn't use my K-x I did the entire 10 days with my Canon G10 compact -
just because it's more maneuverable and I know how to use the fill flash better than my K-x
- as it was many of the shots were done without flash - surprisingly its ISO800 performance was pretty acceptable -
of course the K-x would have blown it away even with ISO3200 -
but sometimes it's better to use a tool that is more comfortable for the circumstances than to aim for "ultimate" quality -
anyway here's a "ringer" -

if anyone really wants to see the rest -
link to the 500 Songs for Kids - 2011 album.

Back to the K-x - that dark jazz club - one of my favorite gigs -
for the music obviously - but also the photographic challenge.


ISO5000, f/3.5, 1/15, 18mm; -2 stops compensation
to be in keeping with the scene - the dark clothes would have over-exposed the scene.
Notice lights in the alcove and the piano has been moved
so my kryptonite nemesis is no longer hidden in the shadows.
But there is also a theme to this
notice the attractive reflection in the raised piano lid -

ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/25, 73mm; -1 stop compensation

develops into -

ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/15, 63mm

and then finally after hours when Kenny Banks Jr comes in a sits down at the piano -

ISO5000, f/4, 1/15, 33mm; -0.7 compensation.


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/60, 40mm
underexposed due to the bright shirt - had to bring up with pp.

It's still dark - and some scenes ridiculously so -

ISO5000, f/3.5, 1/5, 18mm
definitely below both the metering and AF limits of the K-x
color balance was a bit too warm/orange (adjusted pp) -
tungsten white balance makes it too cool.


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/6, 40mm; +0.7 compensation to bring out the face in the shadows - but still had to use pp select the face and bring up the brightness.

[UnknownVT]

I don't consider myself particularly altruistic -
but once in a while there are causes that are just so overwhelmingly worthwhile -
I confess I did not do this off on my own -
but was asked by a musician friend to photograph the fundraiser house concert for The Global Village School -
the best is for me to just paste in the GVS own description:

www.theglobalvillageschool.org

" The Global Village School provides an enriched education to teenage girls whose formal education has been interrupted by war and refugee camp experiences. Pioneering an innovative curriculum, the school provides teenagers with intensive English language training and enhanced education, including an emphasis on science and math, the humanities and integrated arts. "

and the e-mail from the musician friend:
" The students at GVS are from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Congo, Thailand, Kenya, and Liberia. I am working in the classroom with the teachers (English, Math, Social Studies), using Singing to help the students learn. So far we have written songs about Fractions, Leadership, Prefixes/Suffixes, Fables and Oral Tradition. The students have also learned a lot of "american classics" such as This Land is Your Land, This Little Light of Mine, etc. As the program develops, I am also looking to build a performing group with the students. The repertoire will be a mix of songs from the students' home cultures, and songs in English. Please come and support the important work of this wonderful school! Peace with harmony,
Elise "

It is funded entirely by donations as they say:
" GVS receives no federal or state funds. "


ISO2500, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm


ISO3200, f/3.5, 1/15, 18mm


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/60, 45mm


ISO5000, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm


ISO5000, f/4.5, 1/30, 43mm


ISO1000, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm


ISO3200, f/3.5, 1/50, 18mm

[rawr]

More great work in this series Vincent. And always very instructive.

I am particularly struck by how lucky you are to be able to shoot 1/5, 1/15 sec etc in your dark jazz venue so often without incurring subject motion blur. Those guys must be fairly slow movers on stage.