Stavros Flately - St Patrick's Ball - Shanghai

As some of you may remember I took part in my first Pro Shoot as backup shooter for the St Patrick's Day Ball for 800 people at the 5 Star Shangri La Hotel in Pudong, Shanghai a few days ago.

Although a large part of the shoot was party-goers portraits and corporate logo and 'street' shots we also got to shoot some of the acts. One of those acts was Stavros Flately - who I know many Brits will know of - he did very well in a talent show a couple of years ago and is a very popular performer / comedian ! He put on a great show that had everyone laughing, singing and dancing. Later I had the personal pleasure of finding out he's a really good bloke too !

These are my first attempt at shooting stage so I hope you like them ! Please forgive the prominent positioning of the copyright - I'm sure you understand why it's necessary. Thank you for any C&C !

These were shot with the 43 Ltd and Tamron 17-50/2.8 and mostly wide open / 1/125 and ISO varying from 1,600 to 3,200. No NR has been applied in PP.

The last one is yours truly with Stavros at the formal shoot after his performance !

These are all great shots, Kevin. I can't fault any of them.

And I loved Stavros and his son when they were on Britains Got Talent, very entertaining

All the best,
Kev

Stavros Flatley???

Never heard of him, but surely thats the famous Kevin Harding in the last shot

Thanks Kev !

Cheers Gareth - I used the on camera pop-up diffuser when doing posed shots around the dinner tables, it worked so much better than I could even have imagined. It is a huge ballroom so even had my Metz 50 arrived in time I couldn't have bounced it off the walls / ceiling anyway. For groups power was on +1 and stood a couple of more yards further back than for couples , power at -1 and stood 2-3 yds away, all taken with the diffuser.

Ha ha ha @ FS.

Brilliant! Great IQ an very amusing too!

What suprises me somewhat is that the 7D photo at the end seems sharper than the K-5 pics.

Probably just better lighting.

Did it take long for you to convince him to get that tattoo across his chest ?

Thank you Tim ! Tat only took a moment

Mike - for sure it is the lighting, the 7D shot was taken in a mobile studio off to one side with all the lights set-up to perfection and shot at ISO 100 (or 125 I forget) whereas the K5 shots were in dim uneven multi-coloured light and shot at 1,600 - 3,200. Even then there is not much difference when you pick out the sharpest areas.

Love the Stavros 3 & 6 are my favorite, knowing the act well, number 3 makes him look like a heavy metal singer lol...

Number 2 I would have cropped him out to lose all the extra mic stands 7 superfluous detail. i think just him from the waist up would have been a lot better shot.
Good work & great colours from the Tamron.

Great shots!! I've shot these stavros pair before, last year at an open air gig. Didn't come half as well as these though. Nice one.

I like the shot the way it is, even with the gtr neck sticking into the shot. The mic stands frame him well and the surrounding paraphernalia serves to show the context. I also like the way the height of the candlelights and mic stands almost match. Nice composition and my favourite along with the last posed one.

Actually Smeggy has scored a direct hit as to why I framed it like that - if I remember correctly I wanted context for that shot - the band were stood well back virtually out of the lights - and that shot has hardly been cropped at all, just a touch. I'll try a crop as Cabstar suggested to see what it looks like !

Cabstar - thank you for your comments and suggestion, much appreciated. BTW - of those above there is a virtual 50/50 split between the 17-50 and the 43 Ltd. #1 - Tam, #2 - 43, #3,4 & 5 - Tam, #6 & 7 - 43, #8 - 7D & 24 -105.

Thank you Smeggy - glad you liked them !