Tamron Blog: Angle of View

Lenses aren’t just about STILL imaging anymore

By John VanSteenberg

Lenses aren’t just about STILL imaging anymore… ‘Convergence’ has changed everything.

Today’s dSLRs are not just for still images. Video is fast becoming a very important part of the many reasons to own a dSLR camera. For both professional users and amateurs, video is crossing over and converging with still imaging more and more.

Aside from traditional photographers, many video specialists are adopting the dSLR as their new platform for video. Commercially, for video blogs, training films, documentary films and websites, video is becoming a MUST. In the non-professional arena, for family events, vacations and school reports, not to mention backyard filmmakers, never has the opportunity to produce high quality “movies’ been easier or cheaper. Couple that with all of the musicians producing songs in basement studios and trying to compete by making home made videos, and then posting them on sites like YouTube, the competition for both music and videos is heating up every day.

Tamron’s own Andre Costantini’s dSLR based documentary film on Brazilian artist Bel Bora has received great reviews in several top film festivals this year. His video blogs and “Two Minute Tips” for Tamron have been popular with Tamron-usa.com visitors for the last several years.

And so, I get my baptism into dSLR video.

About this video shoot…

Last year, I was called on to create a CD cover and publicity shots for the musical artist Emmanuel. This year he wanted to produce a video for his upcoming song release (4Wallz), so he came to me again. Of course, money for production was very tight and the competition for attracting an audience is fierce, but he still wanted high technical quality and strong artistic content.

He called the song: “4 Wallz”. It is a tale of loneliness and isolation.

So, we did the shoot in a basement storage room that was 6’ wide and 20’ long, and a spare empty bedroom. We shot it all in one afternoon, based on Emmanuel’s own shot plan. The props were a pad of white sheets of drawing paper and a couple of marker pens, and E’s keyboards.

(Note: I am including in this post a few stills from some of the scenes.)

Lens selection was very important in this shoot because we were working in VERY tight spaces. Light placement and movement were severely restricted. So, with an APS-C sensor camera, and the kind of scene-filling body area we wanted included in the frame, very short focal lengths were required.

The equipment we used was very simplistic: I went to the shoot with my Tamron SP 17-50 and my SP 10-24mm ultra-wide-angle zoom. As it turned out, I used the 10-24mm on a Canon 7D body for about 80% of the shots. I also took along a good tripod. A second 1080i video camera for incidental (“B” roll) shots with individual effects used in camera. A set of $35.00 work lights (3200 degrees kelvin color temperature) from Lowe’s for lighting the main scenes shot in the basement. The apartment room scenes were lit mostly by available light, with a little fill from the work lights, so we needed fast aperture glass.

The way I shot it:

Scene #1:

1) I set up the main scene, the song narrative, in the basement planning the visual to lip sync to the song track in postproduction later.
2) I mounted the camera on my Feisol tripod,
3) I used the work lights to light the main scene. From about 10’ away and with a 24” wide spacing, they produced a wide even pattern with some dimensionality. I focused manually, turning off the AF function on the camera body.
4) I did no zooming on this shoot, relying on scene “cuts” and short segments to keep interest.

The second scene set up, in the apartment room, was also shot with the SP 10-24mm. I worked mostly across or against the light to get dimensionality in the scene. This scene is the metaphoric view of the frustration of loneliness and isolation many young people feel (so no lip sync was needed).

We edited interspersing the two concepts back and forth to tell the story directly and in metaphor.

We further forced the isolation through the use of stark black and white.

In addition to Emmanuel, we drafted a very talented portrait and music photographer from NE Ohio (Kirsten Baker who appears as “the girl”) and Emmanuel’s younger brother Martin (to represent “the young man”). Tremendous support was provided by Chad Scott who ran the second camera. Emmanuel learned Apple’s Final Cut software to do the edit. You will be able to catch the final version on YouTube or on www.icreateEnt.com, Emmanuel’s site.

Adventures with Tamron: Great Music in a Dark Venue

By Jillian Bell

This adventure highlights the lowlight capabilities of Tamron's SP 17-50mm F2.8 VC. Its F2.8 minimum aperture is ideal when faced with a dark venue. Talking about low light photography, a cameras high ISO quality is equally important in making a great, clear photograph.

I was out in Minneapolis one night; the Melvilles were playing in a local venue where I frequent. They are a local band with an Americana rock sound. Providing upbeat, toe tapping music and a stage presence showing how well the members play together. With their permission, I was able to photograph the set. Whenever faced with a difficult photographic situation, it is important to simplify your setting, keeping many variables in your exposure the same shot per shot. I start with the first song, shooting in shutter speed priority, setting the shutter to 1/90 sec. This is slightly slower than recommended (min 1/125 for movement), but with proper timing it was not an issue. Having a minimum F2.8, ended with a slightly underexposed photograph at ISO800. I underexposed the image on purpose wanting the true black values of the background to be as dark as possible. Underexposing slightly also helps maintain a manageable shutter speed and results in better contrast. Now knowing my desired exposure to be 1/90, F2.8, ISO800; I turn the camera to manual exposure, plug in my values and leave it alone for the rest of the night. All variables have been managed; all I worry about now is timing, and composition. Simple :)

They had two different lighting schemes, blue/magenta and green/red. On stages, skin tones will not look natural. The colored lights add character and setting to each photograph. Exaggerate this with over saturated, high contrast images. Here are my favorite three photographs. You can find the rest on Tamron's my photo exhibits app.

Copy Link - http://tamron.myphotoexhibits.com/exhibits/6924-melvilles-of-minneapolis-mn

For more information on the Melvilles, please check out their website at http://www.melvillesmusic.com

Anatomy of a CD cover design and shoot: step by step.

By John VanSteenberg

 

I’ve been photographing musicians forever. Recently, I was asked to design and produce artwork and the cover for a CD for a very talented emerging artist and soundscape designer. I always spend time listening to the music before I meet an artist, to make the cover fit the artistic style of the music and to discuss how to approach it visually.

In this case, musically, the work turned out to be an extraordinary spiritual album from a powerful artist named Emmanuel. The music was so unique and different that I had to ask him what genre HE thought it belonged in. “The closest I can come is that it is Christian ‘soul’ music. It’s so different with flavors of soul, gospel, rock and rap that I can only let people tell me what to call it.” When asked where he thought he wanted to go with his music, he said that his goal is to become a pastor and minister to kids and others in need on the streets where he grew up. So, the cover had to be attractive to young people.

Planning the design:

We spent time discussing the visual concept for the cover. Emmanuel is very artistic, and not just musically. We decided on something that identified him as contemplative and spiritual and even a bit mysterious, moody and beyond worldly.

CD covers are barely 4.75” in size. That means that the image elements are VERY small. So to provide impact, something about the image has to stand out and call out to a shopper or radio DJ looking for what they want to play in a crowded often chaotic store and radio studio.

Since the songs on the CD are about the real life situations that he and his friends survived growing up, we chose NOT to go with a typical “face shot” approach, but show a more serious moment and person. We also chose to deal with the theme of ‘Pain & Release’ on an additional more symbolic level, evolving from ‘pain’ to ‘release’ by bridging the physical and spiritual world by warping the worldscape.

To do that, we first posed Emmanuel by a large window in a contemplative, serious pose. The pose alone is very important in this case because it uses much of the available space on the cover to set a mood. Here, the dark almost obscure pose is naturally designed to be ambiguous: Is he in pain? Is he praying? Is he thinking? Is he just exhausted?

I used my SP 17-50 f/2.8 for the portrait. The lighting is 100% window light.

We also had to consciously plan for space for the typography, leaving some very dark areas in the upper right and lower left to contrast with the type.

Now that we had the image basis for the cover, we had to meet the additional goals of the project and produce the typography and create the extra-worldly visual impact. That took several steps. As a product, CD covers also have to have a certain visual uniqueness to be easily seen on store shelves.

First, I solarized the raw file in Bibble Labs Bibble Pro software. Doing this in the raw file state added far more color tones and exciting transitions to the final solarized image. It could not have been achieved in jpeg file format where a lot of data is discarded.

Solarization changed the window light from a conventional sensation to a fiery yellow/green light, and created the step gray shadows, the blue shadow flares on his shirt and the color swatches on the window sill and his fingers. While it also altered his skin tones to appear somewhat more green looking, I was able to minimize that shift and considering the apparent light source, it was an appropriate shift.

Then, I embedded the title and some additional typography (the “Create” logo on his shirt, and the window decal) the ‘create’ as a personal statement for Emmanuel and the window decal for commercial reasons. Finally, I did some localized retouching and dynamic range adjustments to raise the whites, give more tones and ‘pop’ to the image and the result is as shown.

Emmanuel’s CD should arrive in stores about July 20TH and I thank him for permission to use these images for the blog. Look for it online at iTunes, CD Baby, etc.. You can also look him up at www.icreateent.com and on youutube.com. Also, special thanks to Jeff and Jamie Brown of the superb “Incognito Portrait Design” studio for the use of their spectacular studio facilities

CREATING A LOGO Photo: for a creative company.

By John VanSteenberg

 

Recently, in addition to a CD cover, I was asked to create a company logo for Emmanuel’s music and custom sound production business. Let’s look at designing an image for his company logo.

Planning the design:

The design goal we agreed on is: a radical, fun and interesting image of Emmanuel and his tools, an array of keyboards.

Elements to consider:

1. Unique fun portrait of him.
2. Lots of energy and intrigue.
3. Keyboards.
4. Visually exciting.

Decisions:

To include an array of keyboards and to avoid triteness, we decided to go for something rather unique and fun rather than E just playing the keyboard. We decide to have Emmanuel ‘surfing’ the musical landscape on one of his keyboards. But, we also wanted more than one keyboard and we wanted a fun mysterious and rather exotic memorable portrait.

Implementation:

In order to accomplish this I knew we would need both careful optical selections and digital post production technologies. So, here is the step by step of how the plan unfolded:

1-Chose a very high angle, very wide angle for the portrait. (Shot from a low ladder with my SP 10-24). This accentuates the keyboard and distorts Emmanuel's head and body proportions adding intrigue and energy.

2-Chose a very unique pose with E holding the keyboard in a very unconventional manner and riding a second keyboard, like a skate or surf board. (Since standing on the instrument was not possible, we would have to do that in post).

3-Make the separate image of another of E’s keyboards for insertion later as the skate board. (This was made with the SP 17-50).

4-Then we would go into post production.

Here are the images as they were created and modified:

• Overhead portrait. First, I shot Emmanuel on a green screen so that I could control and easily drop out the background and add elements to the scene. I wanted the image to be visually unique and somewhat distorted in perspective for interest and to emphasize the keyboards and make E’s head quite large (implying a big brain) with very direct eye contact. Therefore, the SP 10-24mm was used with it’s extreme wide angle and huge depth of field. The scene was lit with a 6’ round soft box with checkerboard louvers and a hair (rim) light. I was about 2 feet from E’s head when I made the image.

• Shot of the keyboard. A simple straight green screen easily manipulated into the final image. (Shot with my trusty SP 17-50).

• Combined the two images:

1. In Photoshop I dropped out the green screen, cleaned up the rest of the background and retouched the selection of E and the keyboard he is holding.
2. Then I put the second keyboard under E’s feet. To do that, I:

rotated the image and

transformed the shape for perspective, remembering to distort it.

• I added drop shadows and streaking and an offset blur to add energy and imply movement.

1. Drop shadows on both the portrait and the keyboard shots.
2. Blur on E’s portrait.
3. Streaking in the drop shadows and blur to imply movement and direction.

• Wrapped everything in plastic to distort and add mystery and kind of a cocoon around E and his keys. Since I couldn’t really do this without suffocating him, I knew that I would do this in post production work to make the image unique and tie the design elements together. (The key to this step is selecting the best effect and adjusting the opacity and blending between the image and the effect.) Create a duplicate layer of E and dodge out the plastic directly over half of E’s face (somewhat randomly) so that his face is at least partially exposed and direct eye contact is enhanced.

• Retouch and clean up elements and flatten the image into one final grouped set of elements.

And this is the final result and LOGO image Emmanuel will use.

I converted my RAW files in Bibble Labs Bibble 5.0 PRO software to adjust exposure, density, contrast and color to precisely what I wanted and matched to each other. Then I used Photoshop to composite the image and add effects and typography. The lighting was a 6’ round soft box with checkerboard louvers and a hair light.

Thanks to Emmanuel for his creative ideas and the most interesting new album I have heard in years and for allowing me to use these images for the blog. Special thanks to Jeff and Jamie Brown of the superb “Incognito Portrait Design” studio for the use of their spectacular studio facilities (www.incognitoportraitdesign.com).

John

It’s Okay, I’m With The Band

 By Jeff Allen

I’ve heard “Hey, you’re a photographer, ya wanna come shoot pictures of the band…” many times over the years. I think I have the hearing damage to prove that I have said “yes”,(usually gratis) more than a few times. So when friends who are members of “The Country Music Project” Band asked me, ”Hey…” would I shoot their first club gig, I said “yes” again.

Photographing in clubs presents a number of unique challenges, including low light, high sound volume, small stages, crowds on the dance floor, and did I mention low light…

Technology improvements have made it easier than ever to get good images in extreme situations. Modern digital SLR cameras have great low light capability. Digital low light performance, in my opinion, way exceeds the quality of images I was able to capture on fast film.

Add the latest in Tamron lens technology, and I had a winning combination for shooting the band…

I chose the Tamron SP AF 17-50 f2.8 VC for its speed, sharpness wide open, and Tamron’s VC stabilizer for reducing camera shake. Always prepared, I also brought the Tamron AF 18-270 f3.5-6.3, mostly for fun, not expecting to need or use it because I didn’t expect to have adequate light on the stage. Fortunately, stage lighting has also come a long way in recent years, so I was able to put both lenses to good use.

The stage lighting still wasn’t spectacular and I needed to use ISO 3200 for the shots made with stage light. I also brought along an attachable flash which I used during a late set at ISO 400 set on the camera, to get some more realistic looking color. Color fidelity is another challenge with stage lights. I was able to shoot at reasonable shutter speeds, due to the light and VC stabilizer in both lenses, and a variety of apertures to try to carry depth of field through the scene in many shots. I was also lucky that the club was large so I was able to move around to get good shooting angles. That was a luxury.

So, when your friends say “hey” to you, use the right tools, you too can say, “It’s OK, I’m with the band. FYI, find the band at: http://countrymusicproject.com

Good shooting.

Well their name isn't up in lights, but an establishing shot is good for story telling. ISO 200, Tamron 17-50 at 50mm, f2.8, 1/25sec. 

Amazing VC! 18-270 at 110mm, 1/30 sec at f5.6

Bass player tends to be off on the side in the dark. 17-50 at 50mm, 1/80sec at f2.8

Look for facial expressiveness. 18-270 at 60mm, 1/100sec at f4.5

Show musicianship. Use motion blur to advantage. 18-270 at 270mm, 1/30sec at f6.3

Try flash, but get permission. 17-50 at 20mm, 1/60 sec at f3.5 with diffuser box on flash. Use an attachable flash. A built in flash won't cut it.

Taking Image Making to a New Level ... A Very Low Level of Light, That is.

By John VanSteenberg

  

Midlife Chryslers at the Northside

 

The Northside Tavern in Akron, Ohio is definitely a hangout, but a great one, famous for "Loud Food and Spicy Music". When I'm in town, I go there for two things: GREAT music and the toughest shooting challenge I can find for almost any new piece of gear. You see, basically, they have no lights on stage. (Well, just a couple of 150W floods dimmed by color filters to nothing.)

 

I wanted to test and demonstrate Tamron's groundbreaking image stabilization 18-270 under REAL world, extremely tough conditions. I like practical demonstrations that show the worst case that real consumers are likely to encounter, and that fits the Northside to a "T" for low light photography. 

 

Fortunately, a great modern blues-based band (The Midlife Chryslers, see them at: www.linelevelmusic.com) was scheduled in and I could feed both appetites. 

 

So, the photographer's situation is this: 500 people are crowded into a bar fit for about 100. Every square foot not covered by a table or chair is now being used as the dance floor. The band is killin' 'em and the crowd is on their feet dancing, moving and jostling everyone, including me. It's so tight the servers are taking half hour just to navigate through the crowd I’m in.

 

The light is so bad, my ISO is at 1250, even at that the readings are a pathetic 1/10th to 1/13 second shutter speed at about f/4.5, the focal length range is from 100-200mm approximately. (And I’m contending with the pushing and shifting crowd.)

 

What I came out of there with was a great night of music and images like these:

 

This shows the Chrysler's lead guitar and vocalist Marc Lee Shannon, who is always moving on stage. Note that the stationary detail is exceptional (chain and earring) and blur elsewhere is minimized. Some of the visible blur (see the brown wall to left of  Marc) is from the very narrow depth of field at f/4.5. Some is from subject movement (see Marc’s hands and the mic stand, as examples of motion blur). Hand/camera shake is almost eliminated even at these ridiculously slow shutter speeds.

Shows sax master Paul Christensen. I like the energy of his motion. But that would just look like a blurred image without the tack sharp mic right in front of him produced by the stabilization of Tamron's 18-270 VC lens.

 

This image shows the difference between subject movement and camera shake. It also shows the benefits of the tri-axial VC system Tamron developed. Note that many of these images are actually shot with the camera horizon on a diagonal for composition, something where other stabilization technologies will usually fail to function.

 

Again, the sax player is soft because of depth of field. Eric Sosinsky, is sharp. The bass guitar key head is subject movement.

These images are sharp all the way to 11"x14” enlargements, thanks to VC.

This Chrysler (Michael Stanley Chrysler) looks great. He also holds the record for selling out Blossom Music Center (beating out the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and a lot of others at 60,000+ seats in one 3 night stand). Since this is shot at about 100mm focal length, the benefits of VC are less pronounced than at say 200mm. Even so,  considering the light conditions, there is a huge gain in productivity evident.

 

 
BTW- THIS is what they all would have looked like without Tamron’s VC technology (VC=OFF).

So, in summary, I doubt that most of you will need a lens that not only focuses and functions beautifully in extremely poor focusing conditions, but also produces amazing stabilization of camera-based shake challenges that are THIS severe. But, the 18-270 VC certainly expands the range of images available to almost any photographer with an APS-C sensor.

 

Special thanks to The Midlife Chryslers for permission to use their images in this blog. For more information on these great musicians and their work refer to:

http://web.mac.com/marcleeshannon

www.linelevelmusic.com