November 26, 2008 – Reunited with Jimmy Chamberlin’s explosive drumming, Billy Corgan led the Smashing Pumpkins through a roaring, esoteric set sprinkled with a few fan-favorites along the way, all the while bathed in mottled light.
Photographer’s Notes:
For this performance, we were allotted three songs from the front of the stage. At the venue where this performance took place, there is no dedicated photo pit, but simply the gap between the seated front row of the orchestra seating and the stage. I shot from a position just house right of center, crouched down as not to obstruct the view of the audience.
Overall, this was a uniquely challenging performance to shoot, with the primary reason being the lighting treatment that played out over the band.
The roving spotlights were not only cycling through a myriad array of colors, but they were gobo’ed as well, casting mottled, unpredictable patterns over the stage. Contrasting colors like green and magenta swirled together to create some pretty wild color combinations that wrecked havoc on the sensor as pixels saturated from the mono-chromatic treatments. While the lights were a little more calm (and still shining – sometimes they simply weren’t!), reds and yellows splashed over Billy and the gang.
For me, the quality of the lighting was so strange that it became essentially a non-issue for photography. More than anything, I found that I was waiting for any light at all to fall over Billy Corgan, and then within that interval, waiting more still for unique expressions or motions. Whether the lighting was red, yellow, or purple (individually or all at once) was very much at the back of my mind.
I shot this show with the Nikon D3 and D700. Lenses used were the Nikon 14-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm, though the latter saw the most use overall. The ultra-wide 14-24mm was only used for one or two full-stage shots, but easily could have been left at home. The 70-200mm was especially useful for tight shots of Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin.
Since Corgan and Chamberin were the two remaining original members, I dedicated my limited shooting time to those performers, though I made sure to pick up bassist Ginger Reyes and guitarist Jeff Schroeder as well.
End Notes:
In truth, I don’t think there’s much one can do to prepare for a shoot like this, other than to fall back on experience and to try and knock out interesting compositions. In that regard, relatively stripped of aesthetic “distractions,” the Smashing Pumpkins’ performance wasn’t really different than any other. If anything, the non-lighting only served to heighten the importance of gesture and timing.
As a side note, I feel compelled to add that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was the first CD I ever bought for myself.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with billy corgan, jimmy chamberlain, live, Music Photography, photographer, reunion, smashing pumpkins, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Amazing SET!!! I am truly speechless about these pictures! the color and everything about them is breathtaking! =) GREAT JOB!
Hey Anthony, thanks very much. I had no idea the color of these shots would go over so well, but I guess the lighting design really was something unique that perhaps most haven’t seen.
Congratulations, Todd, you managed to avoid this damned “monochromatic saturation” perfectly.
Hey Guillaume, nice to hear from you, thanks for the feedback. Over-saturation was an issue and couldn’t be avoided with some shots, but I did try to keep it tamed as much as possible. One tricky thing with lighting like this is that the differently colored lights had different intensities and saturation points. I think this is seen most readily in the one shot of Jimmy Chamerlin where he’s all green except for two stripes of magenta across his face.
Between this set and your ISO push processing post, I’m thinking I really need to rethink my exposure approach. Nice job.
Jason, what about this set makes you want to rethink your approach to exposure? Thanks for the feedback.
I find it strange that there’s a seated section in front of the stage at a Pumpkins show. Must have been frustrating. But pics turned out great anyway.
Hey Michel, thanks. The venue for this show is an old theatre, so there’s no standing room, only seats. The main seating areas are permanent, while the orchestra pit at the front of the stage features folding chairs for concerts.
The chairs in this front section bow out from the stage, so the most free shooting areas are right at the center. There isn’t too much opportunity to move over more than a few seats in either direction, but for this show it was fine. The band didn’t move around too much, so there wasn’t much need to chase, nor was there the opportunity.
Wow, absolutely beautiful! I particularly like the fourth-from-last shot.
Hey Jacinta, great to hear from you here, thanks for stopping by! And thanks for the kind feedback. That fourth-from-last shot was a runner up for the lead image, as they are similar, but I figured I needed Billy going all out for impact. That shot also shows some of the funky patterns used for the lighting, too.
Just posted the set for Smashing Pumpkins, which answers the question of what neon magenta-green camouflage looks like. http://is.gd/irKc
You did really well with this lightning, Todd. That set is stunning. Congratulations !
Thanks a lot, DPC. The lighting was almost so bad it was good, in a way. Just like with spotlights, it was just sort of “there” – nothing to be done about it. ;)
I’ve been waiting for you to shoot the Pumpkins this tour. Well done indeed.
This is a very messy shoot. I got effectively two songs from a distance of 30-40 feet when they were here in NYC.
Hey bro, thanks very much. You’re right, “messy” is a great way to describe the lighting for this tour, shooting restrictions aside. But 30-40 feet back? Ouch. That’s much worse than any lighting issue.
Yeah, my pumpkins shoot was pretty rotten all around. I was slapped with a Rights Grab contract that I refused to sign but was let in anyways.
I guess it could have been worse though. The photographer from the New York Post only had a 24-70mm and the photographer from the New York Times arrived a few minutes late and didn’t get in!
There is a point where the logistics are so firmly against photographers that it’s a wonder why they even invite us in.
Todd,
I should say I need to update my metering technique a bit. I have the multi-selector center button on my D700 set to display a histogram. I set it up that way so my default preview display was highlights, and I could just press the center button to get the histogram. This also keeps me from having to switch between different preview screens, as sometimes I mistakenly switch to the next/previous photo while doing this.
I think part of my problem is that I’m not looking at an RGB histogram.
I think what I need to do is spend more time on the default RGB histogram instead. That will ensure that I don’t blow out specific channels when I have to take shots like these, which I do all the time.
It wasn’t anything specific about these photos that set me off. I’ve just seen enough of your photos that had tons of deep color yet still retained detail to know that I had to change something up.
Worth a try at least.
Great job with this shoot. I shot the Pumpkins at Voodoo Fest in 2007, and the lighting was ridiculous. We were allowed the first two songs, and throughout most of the first song the lights were essentially turned off, except for an occassional multi-colored spot that scrolled Billy Corgan from head to toe. The second song’s lighting was quite similar to what it seems to be in your photos — neon magenta-green camouflage, as you put it.
You handled it very well though. Your photos make it seem like the Pumpkins were an easy shoot.
Hey Ally, thanks for your feedback on this SP set. It seems as though the band has been lugging around these crazy lights with them for the past year and a half. There were large portions when the stage was dark during this set, too. Thanks again!
Great photo!!! Thanks!!!
Thanks!
Well done Todd,
The photos came out great in relativity to the lighting.
It looks like it was incredibly difficult.
I photographed TV On The Radio the other day, no pit so I crammed in with the crowd.
The lighting was all backlighting and very often changed colour so it was very difficult to gain a decent shot at all.
Oh well I guess if Pumpkins decide to visit Australia soon I’ll have to get ready for this lightshow.
Thanks for the comment, Matthew. This was a difficult shoot for a variety of reasons, but, as is often the case, it’s rewarding to come away with images that the fans enjoy after facing a few obstacles.
I hope you get to shoot the Pumpkins in Australia if they make it down there soon, but maybe not on this 20th anniversary tour if it means the same lights! ;)
Wow The Smashing Pumpkins 20 years later, They still look great! There are alot of crazy shots of Billy but, thats my Billy!
hahaha
Hey Laura, thanks. Yup, Billy is still rocking! And so is Jimmy, whose sound on drums I’ve always loved.
The color in these shots is fantastic! They’re so vivid! The shot of Billy with the green/purple lights is wonderful.
Hey Lisa, thanks for the feedback. It’s interesting to hear that there has been such a response to the lighting in this post!
great pics. great band.
Thanks, Fred.
really love the pics and love the band, any change I could get hold of a higher res versions
Great shots for such tricky lighting.
Well Todd, I don’t want to repeat myself but this set has blown me away. The shots are amazing (as usual), but I love the composition and they turned out fantastic despite the lightning problems. Love Billy’s shots, specially that last one. Great pose!
The Pumpkins are one of my favourite bands too. Despite the fact that, nowadays, they are not what they used to be.
Cheers,
Daniel
Hey Daniel, thanks very much. Glad to hear you enjoy the images, especially since you’re a fan.
Challenging lighting conditions or not, stunning images. Great job.
Hi Felix,
Thanks very much for stopping by here, nice to hear from you. Thanks for the kind words.
Oh Well! You did really well with this lightning, Todd. Congratulations !