RMM Loc: Suburban New York

This is from a seventh grade choral concert. I'm including the original (raw to jpeg) and one in which I adjusted white balance, clarity and cropped. These were taken with a Nikon D5000 and a Nikon 50 mm f/1.8 D lens. On the D5000, this lens is the equivalent of a 76 mm lens. The lens was wide open at f/1.8, ISO was 200 and the exposure was 1/100 second.

We were about half-way up in the auditorium. I chose this lens for the wide f/stop. I could have used a 55-200 mm lens, which would have allowed closer shots, but it doesn't open up as wide, and would have almost certainly given me more problems with camera shake.

This is the first time I've used this lens at a school concert, and I was quite pleased with the results.

I have cropped and blown up a shot focusing on my granddaughther with satisfactory results on a monitor. Not sure how well it would come out on a print at that reduction.

Thoughts? Comments?

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Nightski

You did pretty well in the conditions. Many of the faces are sharp, the lighting was good enough for you to fix in post. Maybe a higher ISO to help get that shutter speed up a bit?

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

One reason for using that 50 mm lens is the wide open aperture, but it has to be focused manually on my camera. I prefer to use the lowest ISO I can get away with, although the camera is pretty good at higher ISOs. No image stabilization with that lens, but at 1/100 of a second, I wasn't too worried about camera shake, and I took a fair number of shots. There aren't many "Wow!" moments at a concert like this, unlike a sporting event. However, the director is a very energetic lady, bouncing around, short hair flying, and I did try to capture that in a few shots. For that, a longer lens would have helped. The kids love her.

The camera was set to manual mode. I didn't try to set white balance with the camera because there were multiple light sources, and I was shooting raw, so I could correct in post.

Nightski

I hate noise too. :-) If you had used a longer lens, it may have been pretty tough to get everything in the frame.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

I've used a longer lens at these events, and of course, you can zoom in on family members or interesting groupings. Tough to hand-hold the camera under those circumstances, and the aperture doesn't open as wide, so there's more noise. Changing lenses isn't something I want to do in a darkened auditorium with people sitting around me. So, it's one lens chosen when we get seated, and better results than using an iPhone.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

A cropped, much adjusted close-up of the accompanying musicians. Totally different style.

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LLucas Loc: Upstate South Carolina, USA

RMM, I like what you did with the musicians. NEAT!
As for the group photos- I'm most impressed that you caught most every child's face. That's so hard to do in a group setting!

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

Especially with a fixed lens that won't zoom. :)

jgordon Loc: Boulder CO

Nice job.

The only thing I don't love about the group shot is that some of the folks on the edges are cut off a bit -- particularly one woman on the left who is cut almost in half. But then you were using a fixed lens and given your position, you probably didn't have all that much choice with regard to framing the group.

I like the second image -- of the musicians by themselves -- quite a lot. It conveys a mood quite well.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

From where we were sitting, I couldn't get everyone in. I went back and forth a little, but really didn't worry too much about the left side. The woman leading the chorus was in the center, my granddaughter was further to the right, and the musicians were on the end. I've played with shots of the musicians from past performances, probably posted something on UHH with a very different treatment. New drummer this time around.