School Play Shoot

Last evening was the final dress rehearsal for a school performance of "A Murder is Announced." I've uploaded a gallery of images from the rehearsal to http://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/murder.

I've shot several plays in the same auditorium so I know what settings to start out with. The only variables being what lighting is used in the various scenes. An aperture of f/2.8 and ISO 3200 seems to work well for all but the darkest scenes. Here are a couple of shots followed by an embedded slide show.

Something different this time was that instead of using off camera flash and a reflector for head shots we simply used a single spotlight against the closed stage curtain. Much quicker and easier and I like the results.

The total time required for shooting the over four hundred original images, editing and processing the best ones and uploading them to zenfolio was between nine and ten hours. With about five hours of sleep wedged in the middle. 

School Production of The Wiz

Last evening was my annual volunteer shoot for my local school's musical production. This year they are doing The Wiz with a cast of over 70, including elementary children as munchkins.

In addition to shooting the "dress rehearsal" I do somewhat informal head shots just prior to the rehearsal. From start of the shoot to the end of processing and uploading took about eleven hours this year. I had almost 600 images from the rehearsal and almost 80 head shots to process from RAW files.

I feel that shooting in RAW is necessary to be able to adjust highlights and shadows or white balance as needed. I've learned over the years not to worry so much about white balance as the varied color lighting they use makes certain scenes look strange and that's not my issue.

I used a 7D and 24-70mm f.2.8 lens for the head shots so that I could wirelessly control an off camera flash and fill with the built in flash. For the rehearsal I used my 5D Mark III and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. The 5D Mark III has better high ISO performance than bodies I've used in the past so I used ISO 3200 with no trouble. I'd even go higher if necessary to get needed shutter speeds.

Here are a few samples followed by an embedded slide show:

Shrek, The Musical

I came close to filling a 32 gigabyte CF card last evening shooting the dress rehearsal of a school production of Shrek. On Monday, I got most of the head shots but the lighting for the production itself was not yet ready.

So last evening I returned to shoot the dress rehearsal and ended up with 1,056 files taking up over 26 gigabytes of space. It took an hour to load the files from the CF card to my MacBook Pro via a USB card reader. I have yet to upload the 150 JPGs I'll be putting in a Zenfolio Gallery. Once they're uploaded you can view them here.

For the head shots I used an EOS 7D with a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. I mounted a Canon 430EXII Speedlite to a light tripod off to the right of the camera and bounced the light off of a Rogue Flashbender. I used the built in flash of the 7D to control the Speedlite and provide fill flash from the slight left of the lens.

For the production shots I used the same camera body with the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 lens. At ISO 1600, shutter speeds ranged from 1/15 to 1/1000 of a second depending the lighting of the scene. Some scenes were simply too dark to get a useable image with moving subjects.

Here are a few examples:

And here is an embedded slide show of the gallery which the school district is putting on their web site:

Another High School Musical

I did my local high school musical Pro Bono shooting this week. Last Spring it was a production of Grease, and you can view my blog entry about that experience here. This Fall the school is doing a production of You Gotta Charleston which is kind of a jukebox musical from the 1920's.

While this was a "dress rehearsal" so that I could walk up and down the aisles and in between rows of seats, parents were still working on uncompleted sets and instead of the performance microphones singers were using hand held microphones.

Like last time I used the EOS 5D Mark II and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for the performance shots although I now have the IS II version of the lens and went without monopod for mobility purposes although my left arm was sore after a bit. This setup weighs about six pounds.

Also like last time I used the EOS 7D for head shots although instead of the 50mm f/1.4 lens I used my 24-70mm f/2.8 lens zoomed out to 70mm. My 430EXII speedlite was bounced off of a Rogue FlashBender above and to the right of the subject while the on camera flash of the 7D provided fill from the left.

All shots are wide open at f/2.8 to get the background of the head shots out of focus and to get adequate shutter speeds for the performance shots. Head shots were made at ISO 400 and the performance shots at ISO 1600. Here a few examples and you can view my shots of this event on my Zenfolio site here.

More Better Beamer Flash Extender

Back in July, I wrote about the Better Beamer Flash Extender. That post, with a picture of the extender mounted to the flash, can be read here.

Yesterday, I used the Better Beamer to make some shots of birds in the shade of trees to add to the Avian Fieldguide which you can visit via the link on the left.

The first is a White-breasted Nuthatch. In addition to the caption information, I used a Canon Speedlite 580EXII with the flash extender attached.

Canon EOS 50D, 300mm f/4.0L IS USM with EF 1.4XII, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO 200

The second shot I got to add to the Avian Fieldguide was of a female Northern Cardinal. The bird was up in the tree canopy and backlit by the sun. The flash had not recycled for one of the shots so I can show you what the scene would look like without the flash and extender firing.

All in all, the shots are softer than I would like. Next time, I'm going to leave off the 1.4X extender and just shoot with the 300mm lens.

Canon EOS 50D, 300mm f/4.0L IS USM with EF 1.4XII, f/8, 1/45 sec., ISO 200

Canon EOS 50D, 300mm f/4.0L IS USM with EF 1.4XII, f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO 200

The Better Beamer Flash Extender

Wildlife tend to be most active when, and where, the outdoor lighting is less than optimal for using long lenses with sufficiently fast shutter speeds. The Better Beamer flash extender is a great tool for outdoor photography in poor lighting such as under a tree canopy, on cloudy days or at dusk or twilight.

The Beamer is designed to be used with lenses of 300mm or longer focal lengths. There are also models designed to fit the various brands and sizes of flash units. My Beamer is designed for use with Canon's 580EX II Speedlite.

Here is a shot of the Beamer affixed to my 50D with the 580EX II and 300mm lens:

A few weeks ago I was trying to find out how close I could get to an Eastern Chipmunk with the outfit shown above, without the flash. I could get close to the minimum focusing distance of the lens but in the lighting under a tree canopy I had to shoot wide open and at a higher ISO in order to keep shutter speeds high enough to get a sharp image. And a lot of the shots were fuzzy due to camera and/or chipmunk movement. Here is an example of the results:

Canon EOS 50D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, f/4, 1/90 sec., ISO 400

Yesterday, with the flash and extender added to the setup, I was able to use a lower ISO and stop down to f/8 for greater depth of field. I was not as close, which also helps with getting more of the subject in focus. None of the chipmunk photos are cropped. Here are two examples:

Canon EOS 50D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, f/8, 1/60 sec., ISO 100

Canon EOS 50D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, f/8, 1/60 sec., ISO 100

For another illustration of the difference the flash extender makes, I shot some hosta about 25 feet from the camera location first without and then with flash. Here are the results:

Canon EOS 50D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, f/4, 1/10 sec., ISO 100

Canon EOS 50D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, f/4, 1/60 sec., ISO 100

One thing the flash does is even out the light so that background highlights are not blown out as they can be when the camera is metering a darker area.

You can shop for your own Better Beamer flash extender at Adorama here.

Playing Event Photographer

For the past couple of days I've been in Rochester, New York, helping to shoot the Synod Assembly of the Upstate New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Photographing events like weddings and conventions is not something I'd like to do for a living. There is a lot of pressure not to miss anything that someone will be expecting to be photographed.

When you're volunteering your time, the pressure is less. It also helps lessen the pressure that the entire event is being streamed live over the internet and recorded for posterity. A difference between a fluid convention and something like a wedding is that there are no posed photographs. In a way, it's more like documentary photography than a typical wedding shoot which mixes candids and posed shots.

In a big convention hall, lighting can be harsh and uneven and there is no practical way to use flash. While some photographers have no problem climbing on chairs or walking right up into the action, I approach it more like I were shooting wildlife - trying to be unobtrusive and grabbing candid shots where they are available.

I would not be a person to solely shoot an event like this but I think I can add a different perspective and some quality images to document the experience. All of the examples I included below were made with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II at ISO 1600. All except the photo of communion during the worship service were made with the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM at F/2.8. The communion photo was made with the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM at f/2.

Nearly all the photos I made required white balance adjustment in post processing and most required exposure and contrast changes before saving as .jpg files. Cropping was mostly to remove distracting portions of the image.

I ended up with 46 shots in a gallery on my Zenfolio hosting site. The ones I uploaded there are ones I felt had both photographic interest and an importance to the event. Here are some examples. My favorite is the shot of Pastor Leonard Johnson. You can visit the gallery at http://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/assembly2012.

UPDATE: You can see how the photos were used in this PDF file 2012 Assembly Wrap-up. I provided all the photos except for the last two.

Synod Bishop Marie Jerge

Pastor Leonard Johnson, marking his 50th anniversary of ordination

Installation of elected officials

Communing at worship

Recognition of outgoing Secretary Sandy Moncrief

Flash - It's Not Just for Indoors

I've been reading up lately on using flash units to modify available light. This, of course, is what all artificial light photography does whether it's studio strobes, flood lighting, flash units or a camera's built in flash. How you can use the artificial light varies greatly depending on what tools you're using.

The DSLRs I'm currently using do not have built in flashes. I shoot mostly outdoors or on location so I'd have little use for studio strobes or floods which need either AC power or large battery packs. And, I really don't know how to use them anyway. Maybe someday.

So that leaves flash units. Modern flash units work seamlessly with the cameras they're attached to and several units can be used together, all controlled by the camera's menu system and/or the main flash attached to the camera. A wireless controller which isn't a flash can also be attached to the camera to coordinate remote flash units.

Canon calls their system of flash units Speedlites. You can see what their lineup of Speedlites and accessories consists of on their web site here.

In addition to providing extra light for indoor photography, flash can be used to even out lighting in a harsh outdoor environment. I was taking pictures prior to a prom last weekend on a very sunny day in the late afternoon. The lighting choices were bright sun, shade with sunny background or backlighting from the sun. Flash was vital to fill in shadows and provide light in shade.

Here are two similar shots, the first without flash and the second with a Canon 430EX II Speedlite on the camera:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-70 f/2.8L USM at 45mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec., ISO 100

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-70 f/2.8L USM at 58mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec., ISO 100

In this photograph, the shade took care of the harsh sun on the subjects but without flash, if the subject were properly exposed, the background would be totally washed out.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-70 f/2.8L USM at 55mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec., ISO 100

And finally, in a backlighting situation, flash is needed to, again. light the subject and prevent blowout of the backlit highlights in the hair.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-70 f/2.8L USM at 70mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

Yes, I realize there's distracting background. With over 100 people milling about it was difficult to catch just the right moment.

Christmas Cocktail

This looks so good I can almost taste it. The drink itself was made with ice which had fallen off tree branches after the ice storm in December, 2008 which left many in our area without power for days. The beverage is, of course, Scotch. I don't recall what brand.

I will be enjoying similar beverages this weekend, but with more normal ice cubes. Everyone have a safe and enjoyable Christmas weekend.

Canon EOS 30D, EF 28-90mm f/4-5.6 at 47mm, ISO 100, f/9.0, 1/250 sec., Speedlite 220EX