TheGoodLife at City Streets

On a friend’s request, happy to spend some times with friends, and eager to take a photography assignment, I attended a concert featuring Bryan Douglas. Bryan has played for New Jersey shore mainstays like the Craig Daniels Band and Brian Kirk and the Jirks, and now he’s performing with his own band, TheGoodLife.

I used my fastest lens, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM. I expected to struggle with low light, but the struggle turned out to be the various colored lights on stage throughout the night. I had trouble getting the photographs to look right in post-processing. At the beginning of the show, I did have some problems with focus as well, and I eventually resorted for autofocus for most of the night. The lighting necessitated spot metering in order to get face colors as close to normal as possible, even if it sacrificed the tones on clothing or the background.

Even with careful concentration, many of the photographs are blurry. it would have been better to use a tripod, but I was also trying to stay out of the way of the spectators and performers.

One of the XTIs weakness when compared to later models is noise with high ISO settings. While this is hardly noticeable when the photographs reduced in size for Facebook or even Flickr, it is much more apparent in full 100% view. I have yet to print any of these for another look.

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