November 3, 2008 – Opening of for Kings of Leon, California’s We Are Scientists ripped through a tight set amid lowered lights, splashing out their buzzy, post-punk riffs and dance-inducing energy.
Shooting Notes:
The lighting for this set was minimal. House lights were dialed way down, while uplights were positioned in front of Chris Cain and Keith Murray at the front of the stage. Max Hart and Adam Aaronson fared less well, mostly playing under much dimmer washes. During the first three songs, red and green lights dominated much of the backlighting.
While the set was very dark overall, there was an interesting dynamic between the moody lighting and the band’s often brooding basslines that certainly fit in parts. Of course, I wouldn’t have minded some big, bright white light thrown down from time to time – but that holds true for just about any show.
I shot the entire set with the Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8. The range was particularly well-suited to Keith Murray, who was kind enough to stay relatively close to the front of the stage – and, more importantly, close to his uplight – during the set. The beam for these lights at the front of the stage were relatively broad, but the singer easily moved in and out of its beam as he rocked back and forth, so timing was important in capturing the frontman while he was lit.
Large speaker monitors were a present concern for this show and had to be shot around, but nothing out of the ordinary. As a result of the extra height added to the stage from the wedges, shooting angles were a consideration for getting the cleanest compositions.
Exposures were pushed a little more to the extreme than usual during this set, given the very low intensity lighting used at the front of the stage. I shoot primarily at ISO 6400, pushing to ISO 12800 in post as necessary. 1/160 and f/2.8 did the trick to round out the exposure.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 6:02 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with Adam Aaronson, california, Chris Cain, images, Keith Murray, live, Max Hart, music, Music Photography, photography, photos, post punk, revival, rock, we are scientists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Blog post: You gotta love uplights at least a little bit. We Are Scientists, opening for Kings of Leon: http://is.gd/mNAx
I saw you mention We Are Scientists on your twitter and was really excited to see your images. They’ve been in my top bands for a while now, and your shots are really amazing, and seem to capture them really well.
Sweet job. :D
Hey Allie,
Thanks for the comment. Glad to hear these shots capture the band for you. The guys had some technical difficulties, but it was still a really fun, rockin’ set.
The ability to shoot at ISO6400 is great, isn’t it? I particularly like the second shot, of the guitarist with the SG. Great work.
Hey Craig,
Yes, I’m really loving the high ISO capabilities of the D3. With my previous camera, it topped out around ISO 800 for decent image quality, so the D3 and D700 have been very liberating.
That second shot is one of the ISO 12800 images – It’s got a little more “character,” as I have noise reduction switched off in-camera and didn’t make any adjustments to the luminance noise. With the D3, I find that I prefer to only do chrominance NR in post, even in the upper range of its sensitivity.
Blog post: You gotta love uplights at least a little bit. We Are Scientists, opening for Kings of Leon: http://is.gd/mNAx
Hey Todd,
As used from you marvellous work again!
My favourite one is the first picture.
But regarding the low light conditions I really must say that number 2 is great too!
Wow ISO 12800!!!
You say that you have noise reduction switched off. Do you mind me asking why? Because with my new 5DMKII I wasn’t sure if I should switch it on or off…
Thanks!
Hey Dan, thanks for the feedback.
Regarding noise reduction, I simply prefer to have the extra detail – as well as the noise – in my shots. I can always perform noise reduction at a later step. After looking at files at ISO 3200 and 6400, with and without NR, I preferred working with the images without NR. It’s all up to preference, though – I’d do some comparisons with your new camera and see what looks best to your eye.
Congratulations,These pictures are GREAT!
They really capture the essence of the band in live concert.
Hi Mick, thanks for the kind words.
Great shots, Todd! Aren’t WAS from Brooklyn though?
Hmm, are they? I thought they formed in California, but maybe they’re in Brooklyn now. Thanks for the comment!