Andre, Nice to hear about your interest in music photography. Maybe we can keep in touch some way and share experiences. Should we found a subdivision: Pentax Music Photographers? :) I looked at your picture of David. It's good. (Personally I think I would have cropped some maybe 10% from the left, but you obviously have a very good eye for visually essential "musical" moments. Your approach sounds good. (I am mainly shooting in color, and could do a whole lot more of technical fine tuning.)
Thanks, (being brief since rather busy at the moment) Lasse ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andre Langevin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I'm into jazz and world music but I find most music making inspiring > photographically (and musically). > > I follow the local musical scene (in Quebec). Yesterday, I tried a > newly acquired A85/1.4 in a low-light bar where three women were > singing, backed by a rhythm section. Among them, the bartender who > has, as far as I'm concerned, a nicer voice than Celine Dion (whose > music is not my cup of tea). > > On the technical side, yesterday I used TMZ at 1600, 1/60 on a > monopod, f1.4 or f2 depending on the position of the musician. I've > done all my developping in D76 until now but I found an old can of > Microdol-X in my stuff and I'm thinking about trying it on yesterday > film. Microphen will also be tried eventually. But D76 is always > fine, of course. > > I scan at 2700 dpi my very few good negs, go to Photoshop, transfer > to CMYK mode, and then play (in Image/Adjust/Selective color) with > the black and grey "colors" of the black layer to get rid of some > noise, grain and dust and reach an unperfect deep black around the > lighted musicians. I finish the job with the Airbrush Tool in Burn > mode. There, you sometimes have to be very carefull around the > lighted forms to "feel" where the form ends and where the > surroundings begin. I begin with a big brush and get to smaller ones > to finish the job around the people. This is easier to do in > Photoshop than in a darkroom, and I can peek at the window once in a > while... An example is on the PUG: > > http://pug.komkon.org/03mar/david.html > > There, I had enough light to use Tri-X and 1/125 at f2.5, so no pod. > It is a lot easier to get nicely exposed photos in such great > lighting conditions. Although musicians either move a lot or get > into more introspective improvisations and then it's hard to grab the > decisive moment out of subtle changes in posture and face > expressions. So I have to shoot a lot to get a few good ones. And > the LX is too loud when the music is played at low volume so I > restrain my shooting then. I have yet to finish a home-made blimp > case to address this problem. > > I also jam once in a while on flute (chromatic panpipes, diatonic > notched flutes, transverse flute). I'm very fond of scandinavian > melodic invention. I love the Christmas album by the Kaasinen > sisters and dig high energy groups like Hedningarna, Groupa and > others. So many groups out there. And long winter nights... > > Andre > -- >
