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Was a grey overcast day so light wasn't good, but your CC very welcome. Not sure if this is the correct section.
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Critique Nantwich Civil War Re-enactment
- Thread starter ShropshireLad
- Start date
Mr Badger
Didymus
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You're right about the lighting conditions, I was going to go along but decided against it when I saw the weather, so full marks for giving it a go.
You seem to have captured the decisive moment of the muskets firing well enough, but events like this can be tricky to frame, often due to lack of space around the performers (little opportunity to give space for the gun to fire into without picking up distracting clutter in the frame), or a jostling audience around you restricting your movement to try a different angle. Having shots with the modern crowd in the background with cagouls and hi-vis clothing is also a bit of a distraction.
If I'd gone, I was planning to take a 100-400 zoom to get in tighter (as well as a 24-105 general purpose zoom), trying a portrait format at times to pick my framing if a landscape shot couldn't avoid unwanted clutter to the left or right. Perhaps also trying a reportage type approach, capturing the facial expression of the audience in response to the battle re-enactors? However, the approach you take will usually be dictated by the space you've got and layout of the performance.
You'll probably find quite a few of the battle re-enactors are up for posing for the camera singly or in small groups too, if you ask nicely and catch them when they've got a bit of spare time a little before or after their 'show'. Welsh Row and the Market Square might be a good hunting ground for this sort of thing? Choose a suitable background and you can get some nice looking period shots without modern clutter to date it.
You may have tried some of the above ideas, but if not, I hope the above is useful.
You seem to have captured the decisive moment of the muskets firing well enough, but events like this can be tricky to frame, often due to lack of space around the performers (little opportunity to give space for the gun to fire into without picking up distracting clutter in the frame), or a jostling audience around you restricting your movement to try a different angle. Having shots with the modern crowd in the background with cagouls and hi-vis clothing is also a bit of a distraction.
If I'd gone, I was planning to take a 100-400 zoom to get in tighter (as well as a 24-105 general purpose zoom), trying a portrait format at times to pick my framing if a landscape shot couldn't avoid unwanted clutter to the left or right. Perhaps also trying a reportage type approach, capturing the facial expression of the audience in response to the battle re-enactors? However, the approach you take will usually be dictated by the space you've got and layout of the performance.
You'll probably find quite a few of the battle re-enactors are up for posing for the camera singly or in small groups too, if you ask nicely and catch them when they've got a bit of spare time a little before or after their 'show'. Welsh Row and the Market Square might be a good hunting ground for this sort of thing? Choose a suitable background and you can get some nice looking period shots without modern clutter to date it.
You may have tried some of the above ideas, but if not, I hope the above is useful.
OP
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- Lew
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Mr Badger
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That's the sort of thing I was referring to. It's just a case of watching the background to avoid modern clutter (which often isn't easy at crowded events), unless you're going for the contrast between old and new (or performer and audience) as a theme or feature of your photos. A shallower depth of field can help, but then focus becomes much more critical as you'll have less leeway, and it's easy to miss the eyes. I love the lady's expression in the first shot and that third photo looks good but it's a shame the top of the lady's hat is missing.
The technical downside is that the whites are blown in a couple of the shots (particularly on the cavalier's hat plume and lace collar), it might be worth trying to pull the highlight brightness back in Photoshop or Lightroom and see if they're salvageable? What camera set up were you using?
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OP
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@Mr Badger ... have had a play and adjusted highlights on image 2 and 3 and found a bit more hat for image 3. unfortunately they were shot in jpeg not raw.
Edits below. think there are better now?
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Edits below. think there are better now?
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Mr Badger
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It's usually a case of getting enough detail in the whites before they start greying out and making the rest of the image look a bit muddy. I'm glad the detail was there, but I think it's gone a bit too much the other way now, I'd try a bit less and see if you can find the point where the detail is there and the whites still look bright, clean and fresh? White brightness wise, I don't think you were far off with the original shot of the lady and child, it's the original photos of the cavalier and the lady with the holly in her hat where the whites seemed to have noticeably blown. Hope this is helpful.
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OP
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@Mr Badger I find your crit very helpful thanks, the image below is about as far as I can lighten the whites without them blown.. my own fault for not shooting in Raw but I had selected jpg as I was photographing the battle later on and needed the burst rate.
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