March 11, 2009 – Headlining the 2009 Taste of Chaos Tour, post-hardcore rockers Thursday threw down a raw, vein-popping set amid white-hot strobes and LED explosions.
Shooting Notes:
Thursday’s set might not have been the loudest, or the most rowdily received, but I do think they came out with the most seasoned and brutal of all-out-assaults of the bands that came out on stage.
A large part of this effect was the lighting for the set, which came almost entirely from the back of the stage in the form of quick and intense flare-ups, thanks to a series of high-intensity arrays that spit out fiery whites, purples, and reds. At the front of the stage, smaller sets of LED uplights cast ghoulish tints on singer Geoff Rickly as he raged on the mic, doubling over and threatening aneurysm at every lunge forward.
For supplemental lighting, I used the Nikon SB-900 as to the commander on-camera to two Nikon SB-600s on stage.
The biggest concern of this shoot was trying to time Rickly’s movements with the flare-ups from the back of the stage. Luckily, the singer came to the monitors at the front of the stage quite a bit, and little observation and timing helped bring home the shots I wanted.
Due to the short shooting time and the sheer intensity of the performance, I choose to concentrate primarily on Rickly. While I normally prefer to pick up all members of the band if possible, I made the decision to focus almost exclusively on the principle for this show. Not only was the singer the best lit, but he was also the most visually engaging in terms of posture and movement.
I shot this set with the Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8. For the most part, the midrange zoom was just wide enough to deliver the impact I wanted, though I did turn to the ultra-wide for a few shots.
End Notes:
Stay tuned for the full sets from Bring Me The Horizon and Pierce the Veil, coming up shortly.
This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, bring me the horizon, d3, flash, images, iso 1600, live, metal, Music Photography, nikon, photography, pierce the veil, post-hardcore, punk, screamo, taste of chaos, thursday, toc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Oh man, these turned out nice… I wish I could have used flash when I shot them. The backlighting made me lose his face whenever he was at the front of the stage (which was almost always)
Thanks for the comment. Yes, the backlighting was really quite strong for this set, especially since it was the only source of light when the front LEDs weren’t up.
Where exactly did you position the external flashes? In front or actually on the stage? Great set of pics Todd!
Hey Dennis, nice to hear from you, thanks for the comment. The flashes themselves were placed on the stage itself, at the very front.
hey todd…looking great!
when you say at the very front, do you mean on the front corners pointing in towards the front of the stage? man, you have the flash thing down perfectly!
Hey Kenny,
No, the flashes are much closer together than the opposite ends of the stage, they were probably about 2 meters apart. Thanks for the comment.
Heh, off camera flash, that would get me kicked out of some clubs. I need a band to invite me too shoot them, then use it. But I love the effect.
Hey Rene, you should try and hook up with local bands playing the clubs you want to shoot in, even if they’re just opening. I think you’ll find that a lot of bands would be receptive to letting you shoot. Thanks for the comment.
The first shot is the juice. Definitely love it cause of the light in the background! Nice one!
Thanks, Keith. The lead image is one of my favorites from this set, too. The background light definitely makes it.
[...] photographed Thursday on the 2009 Taste of Chaos tour, my main goal for this show was to capture Rickly’s intensity during his vocal [...]