Radar Love 22nd March 2012 at the Venue, Derby

Hi All,

Back in May ago I went along to the Shakespeare Inn here in Derby to photograph a music event called Fontana Sound System.  At the time I'd never photographed a band in concert and had no idea what to do. In the finish I decided to use my SB600 flash which, in hindsight, was a mistake. Admittedly the pictures came out fine but the flash had illuminated the band in such a way that the atmosphere created by the on-stage lights was lost. Thankfully the bands concerned seems pleased with the pictures so all was not lost. 

Last week I had an opportunity to photograph some more bands in concert at a small club in Derby called the Venue. The bands in question were; The Black Fuzz, The Kickliner and Whitemoor. This time I decided to take a different approach with the photographs. This time I wanted to capture the concert atmosphere. The big problem photographing concerts is that the bands are illuminated by multicoloured lights, quite often through a haze. The reflected light emitting from the band, although bright to the eyes, isn't too bright as far as the camera is concerned. This means opening up the lens and ramping up the ISO. This in turn gives virtually no depth of field so consequently problems getting a focus and of course noise on the image. 

Luckily I'd watched a couple of tutorial videos by Jared Polin of froknowsphoto.com fame. In his tutorials he shows how to use open lenses and high ISO's to the photographers advantage. With this information in mind I went along to the gig with a different perspective. I also went along equipped with a Rogue Grid which I purchased at Focus on Imaging. The idea being that if I did want to use a flash then I'd set it up with a Grid to narrow it in such a way that it would illuminate the subject but leave the background lit by the on-stage lights. 

During the gig I tried all sorts of different combinations of Lens, ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture and Grid settings. I've posted a few examples of the images taken below. The details are given under each image. The rest of the images can be found in the gallery on my website www.carrington-imagery.co.uk.  

As always, click an image to see it bigger,

The Black Fuzz (ISO 500, f4, 1/160", 50mm)

The Black Fuzz (ISO 500, f2.8, 1/250", 50mm) 

The Black Fuzz (ISO 500, f3.5, 1/250", 50mm with Grid) 

The Black Fuzz (ISO 500, f2.8, 1/125", 44mm with Grid) 

The Kickliner (ISO 1000, f2.8, 1/80", 50mm) 

The Kickliner (ISO 2500, f4, 1/250", 34mm) 

Whitemoor (ISO 1600, f2.8, 1/100", 50mm) 

Whitemoor (ISO 1600, f4, 1/100", 50mm with Grid) 

Whitemoor (ISO 800, f8, 1/100", 80mm with Grid) 

Whilst I'm not the best band photographer in the world I was quite pleased with the outcome and VERY pleased with the way the the grid worked.. The Grid was in its stacked setting giving a narrow beam at 16 degrees which seemed to do the trick. 

Out Of Bounds Effect (Gavin Hoey Technique)

Hi All,

Back in May last year (2011) I visited the World Superbike Championship at Oulton Park in Cheshire. Whilst I was there I took the opportunity to take a lot of photographs. On the whole they came out really well and I was very satisfied with the results.There was one particular photograph (below) that I really liked but for some reason it lacked punch. 

Original Image

As with all of these sorts of images I put this one on the hard drive and forgot about it. Then on evening I was looking through various tutorials on the internet when I came across an Out Of Bounds Technique devised and presented by Gavin Hoey. The tutorial was on YouTube and it can be found on the link at the end of this post. 

I won't go into the details of how this effect is done as Gavin explains it better than I ever could. The reason why I'm posting this is because if I can make this effect work then anyone can and I encourage you to give it a go. Follow the steps in the tutorial and you can't go wrong. This was my first attempt at this but it won't be my last. It's just a case of finding a suitable image. 

Final Image

The YouTube tutorial by Gavin Hoey can be found here LINK 


My thanks to Gavin for another wonderful tutorial. 

Focus On Imaging 2012

Hi All,

On Monday 5th of March 2012 a couple of friends and I took a trip over to the NEC to visit this years Focus on Imaging exhibition. 

We had a great day, in fact, virtually 8 hours of walking around, viewing the new products and of course watching the various talks and demonstrations.

As you would expect all of the usual exhibitors were in attendance although Sony were conspicuous by their absence as indeed was Adobe's large stand. However there was plenty to look at. This year I decided to take along the Nikon Coolpix S3100 bought for me by my kids for Christmas and take a few pictures.

We arrived pretty early ans were inside the hall by 10:05. At that time the hall was pretty slack and we were able to move around really easily

View down the Hall

The first talk we watched was hosted by Rogue and presented by Bjorn Thomassen Daymen and demonstrated how models can be photographed by simply using speedlights and Rogue modifiers.

Rogue Lighting 

As we continued we stopped in on a lighting demonstration by Westcott once again showing the correct way to light models using soft-boxes and reflectors. The shot below was taken using my S3100 and the light provided by their soft-box. 

Taken using the light from the soft-box

One of the most impressive stands in the hall was the Nikon stand. With the new D800 and the D4 having just arrived there was plenty to look at. It was nice to see the D4 in the flesh and also see it being used. Nikon provided video demonstrations by several well known photographers.

watching the Nikon demonstrations

Demonstrating the Nikon D4

As the day progressed we continued to watch the tutorials and demonstrations. At midday we made our way to the Colour Confidence stand to watch Gavin Hoey as he gave a Photoshop Tip & Tricks tutorial including how to use the Nik software products such as Color Efex Pro. 

Gavin Hoey

Gavin Hoey

As the day drew to a close we stopped in on one last talk. This one was being given by photographer Drew Gardner. Drew showed us how he took some of the images included in his Golden Greats "Britain's oldest Olympic Gold Medallists" collection. This included how Drew sunk a Manfrotto tripod into a swimming pool !!!

Drew Gardner

All in all a great day was had by all. I only wish I could have attended the other days too. My thanks go out to all those who organised the event and to those professionals who put together the talks and tutorials. Roll on Focus 2013 !