Band poster

[BW]

Tonight I had the dubious pleasure of taking a picture for a band poster. I had ten minutes to get it done and took the total amount of 9 pictures. Three of them where the flash didnt go off, two where one of them blinked. Out of four pictures two were ok and I gave them a quick tour thru the "grinder". This gave me two different looks and I would like your opinion on which one of the two has the most  potensial. Its just a local band with decent musicians

[Jakov Minić]

The first one is probably better, but I don't like the reflection on the glasses.
So post process the 2nd one similarly to the first
And brighten it up a bit

[Andrea B.]

I like the 2nd one. The logs in the background are weird and wonderful. And the light on the musicians' faces is interesting. In the 2nd photo all the guys seem to be "engaged" with the viewer. That would be a nice thing for a poster.

[Erik Lund]

I would remove the fingers at the bottom they look a little too creepy

The reflections in the glasses and eyes are a bit distracting.

Love the overall look and feel

[BW]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll post a new version tomorrow. Now, off to bed

[Akira]

I like the idea of combining the suggestions of Jakov and Erik.

I do like the pattern of the stacked firewood as the background per se, but frankly it doesn't seem to work the way it appears in the image.

[BW]

Luckily I asked him to take off the glasses and I made a new version. The picture was taken in a dark barn after sunset, hence the black backdrop. It's nice to get some invaluable feedback from you guys

[Bent Hjarbo]

Now it is very good, facial expressions on this image are good, and the black background, gives a great "Band" like picture.

[tommiejeep]

Børge, I agree with Bent.  I actually prefer the 2nd image but this image is better for the purpose.  The stacked wood actually detracts from the Band members.  So the question arises of which the band prefers  .
I just hate it when I get a good image spoiled by someone closes their eyes  (and I rarely use flash).   My wife is the biggest offender 
Tom

[Erik Lund]

That is it - This one works! But I still think I would copy paste and blend in some of the firewood in the back ground, just to give the image a slight feeling of depth, not bright but subtle,,,

[Jakov Minić]

That's what I am talking about

[Erik Lund]

......
I just hate it when I get a good image spoiled by someone closes their eyes  (and I rarely use flash). .....Tom

That is the much hated pre flashes that these modern DSLR and Speedlight's emit before making the exposure. The DSLR measure the light off the shutterblades the guesing how much light should the main flash contain,,, The sensor is too shiny to make a reading off,,,

In the good old film days we used to have proper TTL on the cameras,,,

Fast reacting people react to these pre flashes and manage to close their eyes quickly enough to avoid the main flash, impressive actually, especially young people are quick

Only way to make sure this is not an issue is to use full 'M' Manual or use the good old 'A' Automatic where the flash itself, a small sensor on the front of the flash, turns off the flash output when enough light has been received back from the scene, the larger Nikon speedlight's have this feature.

I use it also on my Leica M9 with a Nikon SB800 in A works impressively well!

[elsa hoffmann]

I understand your constrains with using flash - however - I would bring out detail in the hair - its too dark for me.

[BW]

I have used a manual flash (no pre-flash) with a fairly large (80 cm) soft box in front of the band. I was positioned in a ladder behind and over the flash. The original idea was just to light their faces, but the stacked wood made me try it as backdrop. It´s very norwegian So I have tried to incorporate all your well thought thru ideas into a different version. I probably should have added some rim light to accentuate their hair and soften the shadows, but guys at this age really dont want to highlight their receding hairline Elsa And as I said I had to pull it thru very quickly. The version with the black backdrop and foreground tries to make room for some text on the poster, but maybe I should make it a tad lighter. I will store all your comments on my "internal hard drive" until next time.

[Jakov Minić]

I like the chopped wood in the background even more.