Bursting Lights

I know I very recently added a similar photo to this but I had taken a lot of photos while in the tent with the flashing lights. I was debating which of the photos I should upload; this photo or the one I uploaded previously, in the end I gave up and decided to upload both of them.

This photo, I actually took before the previous one. I took this in the same manner as the other photo, with the camera in manual mode. I took this photo very quickly because the lights were changing very fast and I didn’t have much time to set up the camera in between shots. This photo had a shutter speed of 1/30 and an aperture of F5.6; I also preset the ISO to the maximum setting the camera had (ISO 1600).

When I edited the photo I Increased the contrast but also I turned the highlights down a bit. I did this to make the white more pure but also so the light didn’t white out. After this I cropped down the photo so the pattern was more into the upper right corner, I think this helps the composition because it looks like the light is bursting out of the corner into the frame. As I used a high ISO there wasn’t much I could do about the noise level, so I used the noise reduction tool to dampen the noise levels to a reasonable amount.

It’s the weekend again! Bex and I have been planning a wander for this weekend, so hopefully the weather will hold out and we can carry out our plans.

Mat

Prep- fest

This is yet another photo from my festival weekend! I may be over doing it slightly, but there are so many pictures that I want to upload, and this is one of them.

I took this on the Sunday, whilst waiting for the next band to come on stage. I noticed how all of the equipment for each band wasn’t put on the stage until just before they were due. This meant it was left piled up at the entrance for about 10 minutes before each set.

I liked how the tambourine was left on top of one of the drums; it made it look like it had been forgotten. I decided that it might make an interesting shot and I wasn’t disappointed! I took this picture in aperture priority, as I wanted the background to be blurred. I decided to under-expose the shot slightly to enhance the shadows.

I’m really pleased with how this photo turned out; especially as I thought it would be more of a snapshot.

Bex

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Light Effects

This is another photo from our trip to the festival last weekend. We had gone into a tent which was playing extremely loud music and had very creative light patterns being beamed onto the roof of the tent. The music wasn’t completely to my taste but the light patterns were very interesting to watch.

As we were inside there was very little light so I had to use a high ISO, also as the light levels were changing so quickly and randomly the light metre in the camera was getting very confused. To resolve this I put the camera into manual mode and set the aperture at F5.6 and adjusted the shutter speed until it got as close to the correct exposure as possible, then I would release the shutter. This gave really interesting effects, with the light patterns being blurred and crossing each other, but with the people being in relatively sharp focuses.

When it came to editing the photo I decided to increase the contrast and the brightness, but I also decreased the saturation to make the white look more pure. I didn’t crop the photo because I really liked how the photo was framed, because you can see the people in the foreground raving to the music and staring at the changing lights.

I really hope Bex and I get a chance to do some more event photography, it was so much fun and we had a great time.

Mat

Round- up

Unfortunately, the weekend didn’t last forever and all too soon I was forced back to reality! This is the first festival that Mat and I have done, and it was amazing!

On Saturday, I spent most of my time walking around the stands and the smaller stages to see what I could find. The atmosphere was incredibly lively, with the animal themed fancy dress well adopted by most! On Sunday, I spent a lot of time on the main stage photographing dance acts. Later in the afternoon, one of my favourite unsigned bands were playing. The lead singer is quite feminine and always has flowers wrapped around her microphone stand. Before the singer came on, smoke filled the stage and the lights shone in anticipation of her arrival, making a mysterious atmosphere.

I used a starburst filter whilst taking this photo, as it cut out some unnecessary light and made some interesting effects. I was really pleased with how well this picture turned out so didn’t do any editing. It was such a good feeling to be on stage for the first time (even if the crowd weren’t cheering for me!)  Please do let me know if anyone invents a time machine...

Bex

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Officials

We both took so many photos over the weekend, there are far too many to upload so we shall choose just the best to upload for you. This is one of the better ones that I took from behind the scenes at one of the many stages.

While Bex and I were waiting for the next act to get onto the stage; I decided to take a wander around the backstage area. While I was backstage I found two of the stewards planning how the next acts would be set up. They were deep in discussion so didn’t see me walking around taking photos, so I took one of them while they were deep in discussion. I was trying to get a snapshot of how busy and hectic, but at the same time organised and well run, the festival was.

To take the photo I used the flash gun, and with the camera in point metering and with an aperture of F9. I focused on the man’s face to ensure I got both of the stewards in focus, the flash gun helped to keep the skin tones warm and to lighten the shadows under the woman’s hat.

When I took the photo off the camera I decided that it didn’t need much editing. I only decided to crop the photo down and straighten it a bit. I cropped the photo to concentrate the attention onto the stewards and putting less focus onto the background. And I straightened the photo for obvious reasons, to ensure the vertical lines were truly vertical.

Because of all the rain we have had, we have had some local flooding. Bex and I thought it might make some interesting photos so if we have a chance we’re going to have a look tomorrow to see what we can find.

Mat

Final Dance

Today was, unfortunately, the last day of the festival. Bex and I once again where going around taking photos of all the events and of people generally enjoying themselves. This photo was taken at one of the indoor stages, a dance group had just started one of their routines and they invited the public to join them.

To capture the atmosphere of the dance I took the photo while they were mid-dance; I also used the flash gun to ensure that eyes were not in shadow and so I could freeze the dancer in the pose I wanted. The dancers were really enjoying themselves and I was trying to portray this in the photo that I was taking, I think I did this and captured the atmosphere of all the other people having a great time.

I didn’t edit the photo because the exposure was correct; and the photo portrayed the atmosphere of the dance, so I decided against cropping the photo down. Also because I used the flash gun I could set the white balance to daylight and not worry about needing to change the colour balance afterwards.

This weekend was a huge amount of fun, I’m so glad I went with Bex. We both had a great time and took lots of photos; so we should have plenty of photos to upload for you to see.

Mat 

Graffiti

Bex and I went to the festival today again. As part of the official photography team we had access all areas and had a lot of work to do. But don’t think that we had forgotten you, while we where on our way to one of the main stages we spotted this graffiti artist working on one of the designated walls. We both enjoyed watching him work, he would spray for a bit then stop and take a step back to look at what he had just done.

He had just started to spray again when I managed to take this photo of him. The photo froze him in time while he was starting the next section of the wall. I used the flash to pick out the details on his face and in the shadows, I left the flash gun in TTL Auto (Through The Lens Auto). This meant that I just had to concentrate on composing the photo within the frame. I really like the atmosphere of this photo; it shows how much the graffiti artist was concentrating on his artwork. All his concentration worked out because his artwork looked amazing when he had finished.

I didn’t edit the photo on the computer because it looked exactly how I wanted to when I took the photo. The camera precisely captured the atmosphere of the graffiti artist working away at his artwork.

We shall be returning to the festival again tomorrow for the final day. So we shall upload another photo. We have taken a great number of photos so far, and I’m sure we shall take even more tomorrow, so we will have lots of photos to upload in the next few weeks.

Mat