[Bachs]

Went to the 2005 Arbroath Pageant on Saturday evening.
The event takes place every 5 years to commerate the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath.
The event is a production that takes place in the grounds of the ruined abbey and I had everything working against me...3 rows back on very bouncy seats, no flash allowed due to the event being videoed, bright spotlights against a pitch black background and a good distance away meaning 200-300m focal lengths.
All the same, an enjoyable event so please excuse some of the crummy 800ISO noisy shots! 68 keepers out of 250 shots.

Full gallery here

Click on the thumbnails for full size versions.

[Steve]

As usual lots of atmosphere and intresting captures Steve.

I feel your pain with the conditions but its at times like this that your skill is tested and when you get the good shots, it makes it even more rewarding.

To reduce the noise give Nosieware a go, its free and works extreamly well.

[Bachs]

Thanks Steve, some of them were already run through NeatImage on the highest setting I could get away with, but I'll check out Noiseware as I have never tried it.

[Adrian]

Cracking shots there - I really like the one with the hooded monks (gave me the shivers ), and the last one - the lighting works very well.

[KenCo1964]

I think they are all very good, I would be happy to have taken any of them under normal curcumstances, let alone what you had to endure. Personally I would not have known these were taken at iso 800 and don't look noisy to me....but maybe I'm getting old and my eyes are going.

[Bachs]

Well that'll do for me :icon_cool
To be honest, I expected a bit of a slating as they are far from perfect technically, but I just loved the atmosphere of them.

I couldn't get anywhere near the correct exposure on a lot of them unless the spotlight was directly on them so using photochops' shadow/highlight tool introduced a lot of noise.
Even Neatimage couldn't pull it all back without degrading detail and my selective sharpening bag of tricks was put to the full test.

They were a nightmare to process, with either burned highlights from the spotlight or harsh shadows from the same.

I've had a favourable response from the Pageant Society so I think my prime spot is firmly booked for the next one (in 5 years DOH!)

[IanC_UK]

Great shots mate, liked the monks one as well, but for a different reason ! made me think of a scene from a Monty Pythin film

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Bachs

Well that'll do for me :icon_cool
To be honest, I expected a bit of a slating as they are far from perfect technically, but I just loved the atmosphere of them.

You will not get slated for producing the best work possible from a less than ideal situation. These are great shots which have captured the event, they are well processed (on the whole) nicely saturated and above all tell a story.

Sometimes a picture can easily be excellent even if its technically not perfect, the above are a great example of that.

[Bachs]

This is what made all the effort worthwhile..


An email from the pageant organizer Dr Richard J Irvine...

'Thank you for the kind words about our Pageant.
It was a great week for all of us who were involved.
I have taken a look at your photos and I am most impressed.
It is nice to see the show from the audience's view point!
I would like to request a copy of the photos on CD. I thank you for the kind offer of being able to use any of the photos for Pageant Society activities - you will of course get full acknowledgement if we do use any of your works.
I am sure that many of the Society members will be keen to see your work'.

Some Dinero from prints would be nice though :naughty:

[Garnock]

Excellent PJ.
The shots look great and all the more impressive given the conditions.

As for Dinero.......recognition first then comes the Dinero.

Well done. I love shots like this with a story and some history.

Cameron

[Bachs]

Originally Posted by Garnock

As for Dinero.......recognition first then comes the Dinero.

Well here is the recognition!!!!
I had this email waiting for me from one of the society bigwigs when I got home tonight:

Steve,

I thought that you might like to know that I have used a number of your photos on the new look Pageant Society website (which should now work!!) and also that everybody who has seen your set of photos has been really impressed and thinks they are great. I am sure that we could use your services in the future too.

Kind regards,

Richard

and here is what they have used (they must have had a competition for how many times they could mention my name )

Official Pageant Site

[KenCo1964]

Well done Bachs....nice one!

[dod]

Hmph, site bandwidth exceeded.

Nice one Bachs

[Gary Bagshawe]

Congrats, some nice shots there, well done.

[Dave]

& congrats back