Website Tune-Up: Portraits

As I've been gradually working on things around here, I'm actually working in 2 different realities. I'm working virtually with regards to trying to blog more frequently, grow my social media presence, and revamp my website, and I'm working physically with the actual renovation of my basement into a functional photo studio.

Swashbuckle: High Fives on the High Seas

I've mentioned my friends in the band Swashbuckle on this blog in the past. They are a fun bunch of guys that dress up like pirates and play pirate-themed Thrash Metal. They just left to go overseas to play a bunch of European Metal festivals and before they left they did a hometown warm-up show.

I wanted to go check them out but I knew there wouldn't be a photo pit set up at a bar show and I'd probably risk being knocked around a bit by kids moshing. Considering the circumstances, I knew if I wanted to take any photos I'd have to pack super light gear, so I used the situation to my advantage. I've got a 50mm f/1.8 lens that I rarely use. It was something that I thought would come in handy but I can count the number of times I've had it mounted to my camera on one hand. A wide open aperture like that would be really nice in dimly lit close quarters. I decided to put the lens on and hit the road. No camera bag, no flash, no back-up lenses, nothing, just my camera body and a single lens. It's a prime lens, so there's no zoom, I'd have to zoom with my feet instead.

I got up nice and close, right within a decent range for three quarter portraits of the guitarist and bass player, opened it wide to 1.8, and started shooting. The depth of field at 1.8 is kind of a dangerous thing to play with, so it was definitely a night of experimenting, and I treated it as such. I wasn't expecting to come up with much, but I did have 30-something decent photos when all was said and done.

Enough technical talk, let's get down to the actual shots:



Notice the way the focus falls off rapidly from the headstock of the guitar. That's what happens with a wide aperture. Pretty epic looking, if I do say so myself.




Same here, notice how Eric's head is in sharp focus and little of anything else. Makes for great separation from the background.




Another great thing about a wide aperture is how much light it lets in. I can guarantee you this room was not as well lit as it appears here.




I shot this glass that says "Victory" because one of my favorite Swashbuckle songs is "Where Victory Is Penned." I just included it here because I thought it was kinda quirky. Then again, I'm probably wrong.

So there ya have it. You can click on the photos, or on this link to see the full gallery. They aren't really the same as most of my concert shots, but like like I mentioned, I was just testing this lens to see how useful it is for concerts. I think in a setting with more space and more powerful stage lighting, it could make some great exposures, but I do worry about how much depth of field I lose opening it wide. Plus, in most true concert venues you don't have the leisure of being as close to the band as I was, so having no zoom really limits your composition options. I think it would make a great lens to have on a second body, but I rarely ever shoot a show with 2 cameras.


More soon,
-Rob

Swashbuckle: Pirates of the Mason Dixon

I've been friends with the guys in Swashbuckle for years now and this April they asked me to shoot their promo photos for the upcoming album Crime Always Pays. Always up for a good time with some friends I headed down to central NJ with a bag full of lights.

I got to Commodore Redrum's house to find a game of Battleship set up on the table in the basement. We knocked out a few photos of the guys playing the game and looking angry with each other before we busted out what I like to consider my "Pulp Fiction" pose, as seen below.



Would you mess with these guys? I wouldn't!

We headed over to a bar that we had reserved for shooting in and snapped off a few more shots by the beer taps and in front of a nice big wine rack wall. I really liked lighting in the smaller space because it allows for more creativity since it's more challenging. It's easy to flood a room with an even wash of light and call attention to details in a broad sense. It's a very different story to purposely play with shadows and direct the light where you want it. This is where I have the most fun. I light the wine rack from behind each pirate while giving a soft but directional blast from the side. The result is a glowing wine rack, great separation from the background, and enough light and shadow to make these guys look like they were lurking in the galley waiting for an unsuspecting victim. We wrapped up after about 4 hours of shooting and I sent off the files to the guys once they were sorted and edited.



A few weeks ago I met up with them again in New York City on the Panic Across North America Tour. The Commodore showed me the mock up artwork for the new album and it's full of the photos we shot, including a 2-page center spread of one of the photos from the basement. It's very exciting for me as it's the first time my work will be published as part of a major label release.

I hung around and shot their set, including some video at the end. These guys are different from most bands in costume, mainly because they don't take themselves overly serious. Sure, they're serious about their music, but they know they're a bunch of guys from New Jersey wearing pirate costumes in the 21st Century. Which means they have fun with their performance, and that translates into the audience and everyone has a blast. Below are some more photos, as well as live video of "It Came From The Deep" and "X Marks The Spot."



It's also not too late to catch them live if you haven't seen them yet. You can get info on the rest of their tour dates here

Click here to view the full gallery of promo photos
Click here to view the photos from the NYC show



More soon,
-Rob

Ahoy!

Back in May a friend's band was on the Paganfest America 2009 tour. His pirate themed band Swashbuckle was opening the show in every city. From what I've heard, they did really well and got a lot of new fans and really got the crowds warmed up each night.

I was able to grab some portraits with the 3 guys in the band right after their set. It was done in the lounge downstairs at the Blender Gramercy Theatre in NYC. The lounge has this great stone/brick wall and round wooden tables. Makes the perfect backdrop for a pirate shoot. We did some cool colored strobe face shots and then I backed out and flooded the wall with blue and green to look like the ocean and turned the stone wall into the interior of an underwater cave. Not bad for 2 little Canon speedlights, some gels, and using what your handed in a situation. I'm no strobist, but I'm happy with the results I'm getting as I experiment more and more with speedlights on location.

Here are some pictures that I've been talking about, and you can always see the full gallery, which includes the live photos HERE

Admiral Nobeard

Commodore Redrum

Captain Crashride

Here is a portrait of Admiral Nobeard done with the green/blue lighting scenario:

If you're into Thrash Metal and want something new to listen to, I suggest picking up their new album coming out on Nuclear Blast Records entitled Back To The Noose.

How It Was Done

If anyone is wondering, the speedlight setup is a combo of a 580 EXII and a 430 EX. for the face shots I used the 580 pointing to the ceiling to trigger the gelled 430 sitting on the table directly in front of their faces. For the table shot of Nobeard the 430 was off on camera right with the green gel hitting the wall and rimming out his face, triggered by the 580 mounted on the camera shoe with a blue gel on half of the flash head, to allow both blue and white light out so it woulnd't look oversaturated with gelled light. That's all, 2 strobes, some gels, 3 pirates, and one hell of a way to kill a night.


More soon, as always.