Austin Brown is one of the stage lighting designers at Zach and he's been given the unenviable task of designing a lighting scheme for the outdoor concert series this winter. The budget is tiny and one consideration is that the lighting instruments and cabling have to be brought in if rain hits and also during the days no shows are scheduled. It's either that or round-the-clock security on the plaza. Cheaper, I think to reduce the complexity of the light inventory.
I've been using Austin as an assistant on shoots lately. He's incredibly good at it since running cables and working with lights is his real, 40 hours+ a week job, when the theater is not closed down for a public health emergency.
When I ran into him yesterday he was making sure the lighting was set but he was also playing around with an iPhone 12 Pro Max on a cool, little gimbal, shooting a bunch of video and giving the stabilizer a good workout. He noticed I had a camera with me (when do I not?) and asked me to make a quick portrait of him up on stage.
I went totally counter-intuitive with this one. I got so much feedback from readers and fellow, local photographers chagrined about my disdain for the 35mm focal length that I thought I'd give the messy little focal length another try. This shot was done with the Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art lens for the L-mount cameras. I had it attached to an S1R and I was shooting at some zany f-stop, like f2.2.
I could see the flare when I took the photograph and I really liked the effect. Pretty amazed though at how well the lens does delivering contrast into the main subject, even with a couple of 2K spots shining directly into the front element.
I also shot a little bit of video on my new gimbal --- since I was there and we had actors on the stage. More about the video in a bit...
6 comments:
For a portrait of a lighting designer, flare works.
Hey Kirk,
What about Halide vs Firstlight... ?
Hi Ron, Working on it. Still recovering from my procedure so the full super power of my insightful investigations and paradigm changing writing are not yet back at maximum power. It takes a while to recover from Kryptonite.
Plus, my CEO pulled me off the phone project to do some quick research on affordable sports cars. The holidays are coming...
The answer to EVERY car question is Miata. I never thought I was a car guy, except for appreciating the appearance of the all-too-few beautiful ones, until a friend willed me an old Miata. Oh My God. Bliss. In our Boston climate, I store it for the winter. My son was with me last year to unwrap it in April and he said, "I don't think I've ever seen that smile." You can get a model B in good shape for less money than some of the lenses you've been talking about. You're lucky in not being too tall for it. 6 feet is about max.
Hi Greg, I'll have to try one. But I'll keep the Forester for hauling stuff around and lazy times. Thanks.
When you open the Miata trunk for the first time, you will burst into laughter. Your Subie glove box has more room.
Post a Comment
We Moderate Comments, Yours might not appear right after you hit return. Be patient; I'm usually pretty quick on getting comments up there. Try not to hit return again and again.... If you disagree with something I've written please do so civilly. Be nice or see your comments fly into the void. Anonymous posters are not given special privileges or dispensation. If technology alone requires you to be anonymous your comments will likely pass through moderation if you "sign" them. A new note: Don't tell me how to write or how to blog! I can't make you comment but I don't want to wade through spam!
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.