March 27, 2009 – Led by the charismatic John Dauer on vox, LA rockers The Ruse brought out a high energy set at the Blender Theater for a big show of the Friday-night lights.
Shooting Notes:
I’ll be honest – I didn’t really have any strong expectations for the Ruse, being unfamiliar with their music, but they put on such a strong and energetic show, it was impossible not to have fun shooting. Lots of big rockstar moves under big lights, all without pretense, translated into a flat out good time behind the lens.
That this gig was at the lovely Blender Theater certainly didn’t hurt, either. While shooting from the crowd is a seeming rarity for me these days, I have no hesitation about claiming my spot at the front of the stage from the time doors open at this venue for a chance to work with the superlative lighting.
All this isn’t to say that the lighting of the Blender is impeccable. On the contrary, the frontlighting of the venue is as lacking as the backlighting is phenomenal. For this shoot, I went in with the intent of shooting with wireless flash as a compliment to the lush background treatment. Due to the much weaker and less interesting array of lights at the front of the stage, the flashes served to create a little drama and pop to match the big lights behind the band.
Three SB-600s came into play as the remotes for this set, triggered via IR by a Nikon SB-900 on-camera. A two-remote setup could have worked quite well for the band as well. A single off-camera flash could have worked, albeit without the same flexibility.
I shoot this set exclusively with the Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm. The midrange zoom provided a nice and neat range of focal lengths for the medium-sized stage.
Since the spot I choose was exactly center-stage, I had some concerns about the positioning, but the band’s dynamic setup made the spot a good choice all in all, and I felt that I had good opportunity to pick up shots of all the members of the band.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with images, Jason Young, Jim Bilus, John Dauer, live, Mark Stolze, music, Music Photography, nyc, photographer, the ruse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Hey Todd…I really like 5 and 11 out of the batch. The very last expandable thumbnail is solid too! Looks like an amazing venue!
Hey Keith, thanks for the picks. The Blender Theater is a nice venue – the stage isn’t too big, so it’s actually kind of an nice space for a band like this, and of course the lighting from the back of the stage is pretty spectacular.
Big beautiful lights of the Blender Theater + rockstar moves from The Ruse = photo candy. http://snurl.com/f07no (@theruse)
These rock. And Todd rocks. Im spreading the word….
Hey Jim! Thanks, great to see you last Friday, it was a really fun set. Glad to hear you dig the images.
Really amazing set Todd, as usual !
I’d really like to see a Q&A on how you set up your wireless flash setup. Do you simply put them on the ground a few feets from you then take the shot? I began to work with a flash attached to an off camera cord. While it does give good results (example http://www.metaluniverse.net/compterendu/details.php?image_id=22208 ), I do think that white balance is often an issue as most lower light venue often have yellow toned light as main light. I thought of using gels attached to the flash to turn it into 3200 – 4000 K lights or so to recreate the look of these venues. Is that something you do ?
Also, using them from the ground often creates uninteresting results when shooting a singer with a mic on a stand. Do you set them up on stands before the gig ?
Hey Alexis,
Thanks for the comment. I do plan to do an article/tutorial on using flash for live music, as it’s a much-debated subject and one technique that has the potential to dramatically improve the end product from a shoot.
Regarding general use, I use both lightstands and on the stage using the small flash feet – the exact setup depends on what’s more appropriate to the show. When using stands, the flashes must be set up either before the show or in between sets.
White balance is a big issue as well, depending on the exposure. Cutting ambient light means that the flash WB will dominate, but one usually loses on picking up background effects as a result. I do not gel my flashes.
Big beautiful lights of the Blender Theater + rockstar moves from The Ruse = photo candy. http://snurl.com/f07no (@theruse)
I would be interested in hearing how you light as well. My biggest problem is finding a good spot on stage to put the 2 lightstands I use that is not in the bands way. Any ideas on where exactly you position the lights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Hey Sean,
For the most part, the positioning of the lights really depends on the stage space and setup. As you suggest, not having any lights in the way of the band is really key, so that’s the main thing I have to consider.
Aside from that, I look to position the lights in such a way that I can get them well off-axis to the lens to create a more dimensional look, to contrast the flat, full-on look people normally associate with flash. Often, just a little short lighting can be enough to pop an image out of the realm of the ordinary for bad house lighting.
Todd- As always, Awesome!
I am just getting familiat with the wireless flash settings on my 5D MKII’s and 580 EX II’s, and have yet to use them during a show. Some friends bands with will be the guinea pigs for my test shots. Do you happen to have a picture of your strobe positioning on stage? Also are you bouncing, or shooting straight on with the direct light coming out of the SB800′s? Also, do you have to clear it with the house and the band or just the band’s mgmt?
Thanks!
Hey Chad,
Thanks for the comment. I do not have a setup shot of the flashes for this gig, but you can see them in some of the shots – the setup is super simple. Flashes were fired with no diffusion/bounce.
Use of flash like this definitely requires permission unless the venue is very relaxed about who goes on stage.