Tag Archives: London

Ja Ja Ja

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On Thursday night (18th) I went down to the Lexington on Pentonville Road, to watch (and photograph) three nordic bands at the monthly Ja Ja Ja Nordic event showcasing new and unknown talent from Scandinavia. The first one I went to, in October, featured Icelanders Rökkurró (who provided the music for my Iceland video), The Deer Tracks, from Sweden, and Norway’s Low Frequency in Stereo. It was the first live event I’d been to for a long time and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A few weeks later, Hjaltalín, one of Iceland’s most popular bands, played at the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, and at both events I’d seen people wandering round unchallenged with their cameras, so I decided I’d give it a go myself.

The set opened with Lára Rúnars, an Icelandic singer with a striking haircut, and a taste for poppy bouncy tunes. I was stood at the back of the room by the bar, which was raised above the mosh pit, meaning I could use the 300mm lens to get some close-cropped images of Lára as she twirled and yelped with her hair flying in all directions.

Next up were the most popular band of the evening, Niki and the Dove, a three-piece from Sweden featuring vigorous vocals from singer Malin Dahlström over electronic bleeps and beats, reminiscent of The Knife. For this performance I moved closer to the stage and switched to my 105mm lens.

The set ended with Champagne Riot, a Danish two-piece featuring a vocalist and a laptop. Behind the performers two girls stood, one drumstick each, bashing some retro 1980s style electronic drum pads, but as all the sound was coming from the laptop I got the feeling they were just there for effect. The floor had emptied by this time as most people appeared to have turned up for the Swedes, meaning I had more freedom to move in front of the stage for more angles.

I will definitely be doing more photography of this kind in future, hopefully at venues where the lighting is a bit more varied. It’s certainly one of the best ways to mix up two of my favourite activities, and my only regret is I didn’t start doing this much, much sooner.

Lára Rúnars shakes her head
Lára Rúnars belting it out
Lára Rúnars twirling again
Backing vocalist for Lára Rúnars (sorry I don\'t know her name!)
Lára Rúnars in the spotlight
The stage between acts
Magnus Böqvist of Niki and the Dove
Niki and the Dove\'s Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf
Magnus Böqvist of Niki and the Dove
Malin Dahlström of Niki and the Dove gets into the music
This was pretty much all the light I had
\'Drummer\' for Champagne Riot
Caspar, or Anders, from Champagne Riot
Caspar, or Anders, from Champagne Riot
Anders, or Caspar, from Champagne Riot
Champagne Riot\'s other \'drummer\'

No ’Room for noise

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Adobe finally released Lightroom 3 today, after an extensive beta testing period during which we were shown tantalising glimpses of the new features. However, by far the most impressive of the added goodies is the improved noise reduction. I’ve included some examples below.

Borough Market, EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 3200

This photo was taken at ISO 3200 on my Canon EOS 5D Mark II, shortly after I bought it, as part of a series of photos of Borough Market in London. All the photos in the set were taken at the same ISO, which allowed me to capture much of the activity and goods on sale without having to use flash.

Borough Market, EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 3200 (no noise reduction - 100% crop)

Here is a 100% crop of the same shot with no noise reduction applied (all sliders set to zero); for ISO 3200 it’s pretty good, showing off the low-light capabilities the 5DII is famous for.

Borough Market, EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 3200 (after noise reduction - 100% crop)

After applying noise reduction, the chroma noise has all but vanished, and only a hint of luminance noise remains, with (in my opinion) suggestions of film grain.

Borough Market, EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 3200 (after noise reduction)

The full photo, after noise reduction has been applied. It’s hard to tell the difference at this size, so here’s an example of an ISO 6400 shot that has been adjusted with Lightroom 3:

Starry night, ISO 6400, no NR

The chroma noise, even at this smaller size, is obvious, especially in the cloud and on the right-hand illuminated tree at the bottom of the picture.

Starry night, ISO 6400, after NR

The difference here is plain. A huge improvement over the original.

I now feel I can more confidently use ISO 6400 more on my camera now; technically it does go up to ISO 25,600 but I would have to try that out in Lightroom before deciding whether it’s a realistic option.

Thames Barrier

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It’s been a while since I got my camera out, so I decided to take it in to work with me today. I was initially planning to visit Borough Market again, but I decided instead to head down to the Thames Barrier in East London after work. I got there just before sunset, so all these pictures were taken at ISO 1600 or 3200, as I was travelling light and didn’t have my tripod with me.

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Low light, low noise

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I’m thoroughly enjoying getting to know the new camera, and in conjunction with Sigma’s increasingly impressive 105mm EX-DG Macro I am getting some very pleasing results. Here is a set of pictures taken at lunch time today at London’s famous Borough Market, a food market selling fresh, high-quality and expensive food. Every single picture in this set was taken at ISO 3200, and the colours you see are just as the camera recorded them.

After returning from the shoot I had a message from Jacobs that my new battery grip had arrived. So, with today’s release of the Camera Raw update for OS X, I now have everything in place for a complete EOS 5D Mark II workflow. All I need is to take some more pictures…

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