Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

[Nathaniel]

This choir is all Welsh with 90% of their songs/hymns sung in Welsh. The choir was formed in 1976 in a village called Llansannan and has continued till this day.The musical director is Mair Selway & accompaniests Ann Evans & Annwen Mair. The conductor is Anghared Ellis. This programme was to usher in the North Wales International Music Festival which starts on Sat 22nd Sept and goes on till 29th Sept- @ St.Asaph Cathedral.

All photos taken with the 600d + 17-35mm f2.8L lens with flash.

(i) The group.


(ii) The Soloist- Martyn


(iii)Bro Aled in the middle with the "notes"/ Piece of paper


(iv)

(v) Duet by Gareth & Anghared Ellis- singing my favourite "Pani Angelicus" in Welsh.


(vi) Anghared Ellis as lead singer leading the choir in singing "Any Dream would do" (in English)

[Stan]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Hi Nathaniel

Sorry to say they are all looking a bit soft to me and rather too red and quite a bit of noise evident. Not too sure why without an idea of your settings.

I have done a quick edit to no (v) - altered the colour balence, applied neat image noise reduction and then a round of usm

Stan

[Nathaniel]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Stan, thanks for the edit. It looks much better. My setting are all shown in my Exiff. I used auto ISO and it appears that it was automatically set at ISO 400. The room itself is a bit of pinkish room, as you can see from the chairs etc. I don't know much about the "softness" as they look OK to me. I used a small aperture when set on AV. Once again the exiff gives all the info. ( I try to keep the exiff intact) so that any member can see the settings I have used. Anyway, a bit worrying though. Perhaps you might like to take a peek at the Exiff and let me know what you think. Anyway thank you very much for taking all the trouble to comment bearing in mind that I have a few Odds and sods assignments coming my way in the near future.

[Hereford_EOS]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Nat, I have checked the exif on #(ii) (The Soloist- Martyn) as the image is blurry (showing movement) and it was taken at 1/8 which is far too slow. Exif reads 1/8, f/5.6, ISO400.

[tesarver]

Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Also the off color could be caused by the white balance used.

Tom

[MX5]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Yes in Av I always found the flash dropped the shutter speed to something too slow, so I've now set the custom function that ensures a 1/60 min. If I'm tired and can't think I just set to P. Many more keepers.

[Stan]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Hi Nathaniel

I dont have an exif viewer so its not easy for me to get the exif unless you put it with each shot. If your settings as given by Stephen are typical of all the images, as said much too slow a shutter speed and not surprising they are not sharp. You say you used a small aperture - f5.6 is not small, limited depth of field therefor another reason that on the group shots those in the background are not sharp. You perhaps should be thinking f 8 to f 11 as a minimum for those sort of shots and focus on someone in the middle distance of the group.
When you shoot Av with flash the camera is going to be deciding the exposure for the shots and the flash will only act as fill. If I were shooting these scenes i would shoot manual and start off around f8, 1/160 and ISO 800 and set the flash to manual and adjust its power to take care of the main exposure. With the group shots 1 flash may not be enough to cover the whole group though anyway.

Just my thoughts - probably a load of rubbish

Stan

[Hereford_EOS]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Exif details:
(i) = 1/15 f/5 ISO400
(ii) = 1/8 f/5.6 ISO 400
(iii) = 1/6 f/4.5 ISO 400
(iv) = 1/80 f/2.8 ISO 400
(v) = 1/80 f/2.8 ISO 400
(vi) = 1/80 f/2.8 ISO 800

[Nathaniel]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Thanks Stephen, Tom,MX5. Yes, I know what I have done wrong. (i) to (iii) are too slow in respect of my shutter speed. I should also have adjusted the WB for the lighting, although I thought by using flash,I would over come this.

Is this one any better?

This was taken at 1/100 sec ?

[Stan]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

To be honest Nat it really is no different, still soft although not as quite as and still very pink - look at the paintwork of the window, it should be white and the wall behind and the guys face. Partly a white balence problem but it could also be that with so much [pink in the room anyway using the flash could have reflected it onto the lighter surfaces

Stan

[Muscat]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Nat, good attemp and you have fallen foul of the dreaded AV / Flash problem that has burnt me many times in the past which is a real shame. When I get an image that is showing a colour cast such as yours but has a nice white object such as the window I simply click the white dropper from the levels layer on the white and let that give me a correction which is most cases is pretty close to what it should be in real life. The other thing that I did notice is that you have the verticals leaning to the left in a number of the images.

[MX5]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

My gut feeling is camera shake (as 1/100 should have been okay). I say that because I can't see anything in focus/sharp. Lets say you had your lens at the 35mm end and wide open and the chap is say 12' away. Then DoF would be nearly 4' ... more than enough 'latitude' for small focusing errors. WB you can correct by sampling on the window surround (looks like white gloss) or the chaps M&S shirt.

So I'm perplexed as with your many years of photography under your belt I wouldn't have suspected camera shake ... was it cold in the room?

On the plus side ... the flash is well used as there is no jet black shadow of your man.

[Nathaniel]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Thank you Stan ,Ian & MX5 for your very frank views and advice. I am still learning to use "flash" properly- do not use it often and hence a load of mistakes. I have another chance on Tues (26th Sept) to take some pics of Hannah Stone (HRH Prince Charles's favourite Harpist) giving a private recital in the same "pinkish" room. I will try not to make the same errors. I also intend going to the "room" before the event and take a few shots experimenting with different settings so that I can overcome the "pinkish" cast.

Camera shake could be due to the low TV used on images (i)-(iii). (My Canon 17-35mm L lens doesn't have IS). I should not have used such low speeds- I forgot! The others are DOF problems, I am sure. Since I have been taking the pics at 35mm, I can safely use my 24-105mm lens on Tues.

Finally, I must thank all the members for their very strong critique which I appreciate a lot. May it long continue.

Nat

Ian, re the verticals, I was taking photos from the right of the room so that I could get the face of the conductor without being in the centre & taking the pics. Also the use of the 17-35mm will also account for the verticals.

PS.MX5 I am glad you spotted the chap's M&S shirt !!!!!!!!!!

[Muscat]

Re: Cor Meibion Bro Aled Male Voice Choir concert 20th Sept 2012

Nay in the filters section of Elements you select camera corrections and adjust the verticals by moving one of the sliders. (I don't have Elements opeat the moment so the heading may not be 100% correct but it is obvious which one to select) have a play.