The October, Go Van Gogh @ Cicero’s — 2007.11.30

As much as it’s fun to shoot in beautifully lit venues like the Pageant, that’s not always where the best bands play. Such was the case last week with the October and Go Van Gogh, who opened for Semi Precious Weapons in two solid sets on Cicero’s intimate stage.

Go Van Gogh

The October

Shooting Notes:

Cicero’s is a small basement affair with black walls, black ceilings, and small strip of low stage on one end of the shotgun venue. Like most places its size, there’s no pit, so I showed up early to grab some stage for this show.

One great thing about the venue is that its low stage is very photo-friendly in that one isn’t shooting up a musicians nose for their set, which is a real possibility at venues with higher stages.

Clubs like Cicero’s are also great places for beginning photographers to get a feel for shooting gigs, since they often have no camera restrictions and no shooting limits. In addition, while the lighting isn’t great, they provide a low-pressure environment for concert photography that can still produce some great opportunities for making images.

Lighting:

In the dimly lit basement venue, light sources were limited to a colored array at the back of the stage and a string of cans at the front shining down a little white light. For openers Go Van Gogh, the lighting was kept to a dim minimum, while things brightened up a bit in the backlighting for the October. Overall, changes in the sets were restricted to different combinations from the backlighting and varying the intensity of the front light lights.

Lenses:

For openers Go Van Gogh, the lighting was particularly dim, so I relied exclusively on the Sigma 30mm f/1.4. The focal length was very nice for the intimate venue, especially given the low stage and short distance between the lens and the performers.

After using the Nikon 50mm for almost two years as my exclusive go-to low light lens, I though the Sigma 30mm performed very well for this type of gig. While I pulled the 50mm out for a few shots, the wider field of view of the 30mm was much more suited for the venue, and I was happy to have it in the bag.

For the October, the fast speed of the Sigma 30mm was entirely necessary, as was that of the Nikon 50mm f/1.4. Lighting wasn’t much brighter from the front, but the wide angle of the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 was useful for a few more atmospheric shots of the stage.

After using the Nikon 50mm for almost two years as my exclusive go-to low light lens, I though the Sigma 30mm performed very well for this type of gig. While I pulled the 50mm out for a few shots, the wider field of view of the 30mm was much more suited for the venue, and I was happy to have it in the bag.

Exposure:

I lived at ISO 1600 for these two acts, though ISO 3200 and 6400 would have been more appropriate at times.

For Go Van Gogh, I shot at f/1.8, 1/160, and ISO 1600. I could have used the f/2.8 zoom, but that would have meant compromising on either shutter speed or my self-imposed cap of ISO 1600 with the D2x, beyond which image quality declines too steeply.

During the October’s set, exposure with the two primes didn’t change, as the front lighting remained fairly constant. When using the 17-55, I let shutter speeds drop as low as 1/40 wide open.

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 Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2007, blog, ciceros, concert photography, dim venue, go van gogh, low light concert photography, semi precious weapons, setlist, the october. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.