LensBaby Concert
This weekend I was hired to go up to a party in Seattle and shoot a few bands: Sigourney Reverb, Breaker Breaker, and The Union Stewards. Talking with the party’s host, I decided to do something just a bit different and crazy.
The venue was small which made lighting relatively easy. I could have blasted lights off the ceiling which would have given more even lighting and made shooting the concert-goers more doable, but I wanted to focus on getting as good of light as possible on the bands. The AB800 from the stage right wall was used as a key, with a back/drummer light coming from behind a curtain on stage left. I tossed the LP 120 in optical slave mode onto a small balcony in the back of the main area which I would turn on whenever I wanted something other than silhouettes from the back of the audience. I’d have probably lit the same way no matter what lens I used, but the thing that really took the photos to the ‘wacky-cool’ level was the plastic optic LensBaby Muse. Besides the neat effect it had on the photos, it also forced me to manual focus, bypassing the K20d’s terrible low light autofocus system. Enough of this nonsense though, let’s check out some shots. These are all literally straight from camera. Not a single point of post production.
It’s a bit of a cliche shot, but I love the way the light’s hitting his hair and the blurring brought forth by the plastic tilt-shift. I shot the entire first band in tungsten white balance.
For the second band, I switched to a warmer white balance. In this shot I used the tilt shift to maximum effect to simulate a wall of sound coming out of the lead singer’s lungs.
Here, in correct white balance, is the lead singer of Sigourney Reverb. The paintings on the walls of the venue were super cool, and this shot really shows them off I think.
Half way through the show, they busted out a pinata filled with small bottles of alcohol. Its head, still dangling from the ceiling after its body had been emptied, was a must-get detail shot.
With the head diligently facing the right direction, I knew I had to frame it on top of Breaker Breaker’s singer’s body.
An accidental shutter hit while the camera was aiming down showed me how good the light looked on these tights and sneakers. I promptly spent 10 more frames trying to get the perfect shot of them. Love the light.
This I share because on my first time using this lens, I noted how terrible the flare in it was. But apparently the the right specs of light, it can do some pretty cool things as seen on the MC’s glasses.
The event showed me that the lensbaby was a great purchase (I love how it can make blurry look good), the client dug their photos, and I had an awesome time. All in all, the best kind of job.
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