Audacity Imaging: Mold Ex-Servicemen's Club

Saturday night my wife had a singing gig at Mold Ex-Servicemen's Club and I went along as "Roadie" and took the camera.

I'll get my excuses out of the way first and point out that many Live performances will have the benefit of spotlights. They make a photographer's life easier and do a great job of isolating the subject. It's rare that I am so fortunate and Saturday was no exception.

She takes a LED light stand that flashes in multiple colours to the beat of the music and that was the only light for the pictures on this occasion.

Guessing the lack of light I took along the K-5II camera, which is a very good high ISO performer, and a trio of fast prime lenses. They were the DA 35mm F2.4, tha DA 50mm F1.8 (which are both modern auto focus) and a 1970's M85mm F2.

In a Working Man's Club venue I don't often have opportunity to wander around getting in the way and I was sat so that the 85mm was going to be the best lens for the job. It also meant that I had no modern conveniences and had to manually focus and set ISO, aperture and shutter speed. The saving grace being the back screen that gives you a quick look at how you're doing.

I ended up with some shots I was pleased with, although my wife has almost never liked a picture I have taken of her. For that reason I am left with this obscure corner of the internet to share them.

f2.8 @ 1/125 ISO800

Part of the challenge is getting a flattering expression whilst the light from the LED's is shining at a suitable colour. Green's and purples don't really work unless you're going for psychedelic but this moment worked for me.

One of the other bonuses, that I hadn't mentioned, with the Pentax is the "Catch in Focus." It's not fool proof but the function is a bit of crutch in so much as it will allow the press of the shutter but not fire unless the image is in focus.

Pushing my luck a little I decided to open the lens up to it's maximum F2 aperture. Although I can now increase the shutter speed or lower the ISO it has the down side of having a smaller Depth of Field.

In this next instance I have taken advantage of the wider aperture to increase the shutter speed to 1/250 which reduces the chance of motion blur.

f2 @ 1/250 ISO800

The final point from this little record of the event is that when you do get a picture you like but the light colour wasn't favourable you can always go monochrome. In the old days you would have to add a coloured filter to your camera to alter the resultant image but with digital and computers you can emulate this old tradition.

The following picture was not a flattering colour being emitted from the LED but I liked the pose. To rescue it I went mono and chose a flattering filter in post processing. I also happen to like mono which is a good thing for me in this instance.

f2.8 @ 1/160 ISO800

So that's what I wanted to share from Saturday's outing. I would add that I have no problem putting the camera in "machine gun" mode so that I increase my chances of getting the right moment. Without the consideration of film limitations I think it's better to have the option of choosing from several images than to miss the right moment.

I'll just leave a few more of the pictures I liked from the gig.

Until next time...

Steve