Nada Surf @ the Gargoyle — 2007.10.22

Playing a sold out show at the Gargoyle, indie rockers Nada Surf started off the night with their anthemic hit “Popular,” from their 1996 debut High/Low. What followed was a string of more recent material, with a heavy selection from the 2005 release The Weight Is A Gift, performed in relative darkness in the cavernous student-run venue.

Shooting notes:

The lighting for this show was basically non-existent, and what little image-forming light that was produced made its way to the sensor thanks to fast primes, slow shutter speeds, and photographic tenacity. The 17mm focal length of the Nikon 17-55 was employed for the group shots, while the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 picked up all of the rest.

For a technical reference to how dark the Gargoyle was for last night’s show, the following shot was made at f/1.4 with the Nikon 50mm, at ISO 3200 and 1/60 second, a combination that still resulted in underexposure of a stop and a half.

Surprisingly, the coarse “grain” in these shots has been added for effect. No, the D2x, underexposed and at two-stops outside its specified range, is still not quite noisy enough to stir up film-nostalgia and received a little augmentation in post processing.

About the author: Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits. He also grills a mean steak.

Contact Todd for image licensing and assignments wherever the rock show lives. You can also get in touch with Todd via Twitter.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with Daniel Lorca, gargoyle, high/low, indie, Ira Elliot, live, Matthew Caws, nada surf, popular, proximity effect, rock, show, the weight is a gift, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.