Dear All Francis suggested that I post a synopsis of responses and perhaps my own experiences for the benefit of the list so apologies for the length, I hope that it proves useful/interesting.
I shot the gig on Saturday and I'm pleased to say it went very well. Contrary to being poorly lit, the gig had choreographed lighting which afforded some excellent shots. That said, the lighting was hugely variable though but as I wasn't restricted to 3 songs, this allowed me to capitalise on the good light. Unforeseen problem was the bank of halogen stadia type lights behind the band as part of the show and the lighting engineer would 'blip' these at certain points during songs - it was like shooting into the sun and three days on I can still see them, I'm sure they're burned onto my retinas! Mainly shot the gig on a D1x/85 f1.4 which was more than adequate. Also hauled in a 135 f2 and 12-24DX. Shot some XP2 and Ilford 3200 on the F100, pushed the XP2 +1 and the 3200 +1/2 because on slower songs, they almost killed the lighting completely and there wasn't enough light to pick up detail at 800 ISO on the D1x. I don't like to shoot the D1X past 800 due to noise but I've taken some shots at a higher ISO to experiment with deleting the blue channel where most of the noise is following a tip from the list. It's worked really well when converted to black and white but as colour, I think I'll stick to less than 800 due to the degradation. It's not a complete write off but I just think you could achieve the same at a lower rating and with less post production in PS. Time is money and all that and as I've already mentioned, the label just needs b&w so that's as far as I needed to go. The D1X was set to auto WB 95% of the gig but I took a bunch of shots on different colour temps for the same scene to compare the differences in tonality when de-saturated. I've experimented with various black and white conversion techniques but have found lab conversion to deliver the best results for my taste and aesthetic of this job. The XP2 has produced some fantastically moody shots and I have to confess to having gotten a bit carried away, it can always go into the portfolio. I'm also going to experiment in CS and Nikon Capture to see the difference in the conversion algorithms - I've been discussing the merits of the various RAW algorithms with listees and am embarking on a lengthy investigation as to which are the most effective for low light photography. I've converted via Nikon for this job though. I'll post a separate entry regarding RAW conversion because I have a couple of questions/observations which may be more relevant to the list at large. The band were not at ease being photographed and their enthusiasm for my work when I presented it was very rewarding - they've insisted that the additional costs I incurred that were not officially agreed upon be met. It was just the cost of film and process but it's made me feel better about the gamble and I think I've inspired confidence all round. All in, a good result and much gratitude is due to the kind assistance of several list members - the beer is on me. Many thanks Alex PS. A Prodigger from Australia mailed me with some sample shots, I'm sorry that I've not replied because I can't find your mail. Thanks for responding and if possible would you mind forwarding your mail again please? I was hoping to pass on some info and ask you a couple of questions if you wouldn't mind. =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
