Seeing red? The red wash may just be the most dreaded treatment to ever grace the stage in the eyes of the concert photographer. Here are some suggestions for dealing with excessive red lighting for gig photography.
Todd
I just shot a show where the over abundance of intense red lights resulted in incredibly red cast on all shots. As I now know the red lights are the bane of all concert photographers, what do you do to offset this issue?
Thanks,
Lewis
You’re not alone, Lewis. The problem of red lighting is a persistent hurdle for many concert photographers, and for not only more intimate venues, but larger shows as well.
With conventional digital sensors, the image is data is comprised of three separate channels: red, green, and blue. The main problem with shooting under red lights is, naturally, an excess of red light and and a deficiency in the other two channels. As a result, it’s very difficult to achieve a natural look to the images, as the image quickly loses detail and acuity due to an oversaturation of the red channel.
Here are a few approaches for taming the big red:
Exposure
While it’s simply good technique for the the concert photographer, careful exposure under red lighting is key. I generally aim for slight underexposure in the most difficult mono-color washes to preserve the fullest range of values in the dominant color channel. While the other channels will suffer (blue and green, in this instance), this underexposure ensures as much separation as possible in the tonality of the image, which would be lost with more exposure.
In addition, I suggest manual exposure for most concert photography scenes due to the huge variances in lighting, and red washes are no exception. Manual exposure will provide the most control over establishing the priorities for the red channel and maximizing image quality.
White Balance
White balance is a great tool for helping subdue extremely red lighting, as it can be done at the time of shooting and doesn’t necessitate too much guesswork. In addition, white balance can be set in post, but the image may take a hit in image quality compared to a file that was preset at the time of shooting.
A manual setting between 2000-2700K will give a cooler bias to the images and help in differentiating tones. If your camera has a setting for Sodium Vapor Lamps, this preset also works well for helping achieve more separation in the image. In practice, these cooler WB settings will help create separation of the red tones by letting more yellow and orange elements come through.
Flash
One way to help cut an over-abundance of red light is simply to introduce your own light source: flash. While this approach isn’t always an option for all events, flash is an effective way to dramatically change the treatment of one’s subjects.
With proper exposure and technique, it’s possible to create separation and definition in the subject with flash while still maintaining the background ambience of the scene.
Filters
If you want to cut the problem before your sensor even registers the light, a blue filter such as an 80d or 80c will work to change the color balance of the scene. The downside is that you’ll lose 1/3 to 1-full stop of light for these options, respectively, or more with stronger filters. This solution is best for concerts with slowly or non-changing lighting treatments.
Alcohol
You can always start buying the lighting tech drinks. As a short-term solution, you can also try self-medicating for your lighting sorrows as well.
Other Tips
What do you do to combat the dreaded red-light wash? Share your solutions for dealing with red light with concert photography!
Do you have a question about concert photography? Please submit a letter via the Concert Photography Q&A form! A copy of this form may also be found at the bottom of the right sidebar.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Photography Tutorials and tagged with blown, channel, concert photography, exposure, flash, lighting, overexposure, red, red lights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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RT @toddowyoung: Tips on dealing with the dreaded red lights of concert photography: http://snurl.com/fg0bo
Great article as usual. One point of interest though. Something I’ve learned is that there is literally no difference, even in a purely technical sense, between setting white balance in camera, or setting it in post, as long as you’re shooting RAW.
JPEG/TIFF is a different story.
Hey Zach,
Thanks for the comment. While what you say may be true for relatively small shifts in color temperature, more extreme manipulations in WB can cause significant increases in noise and color fidelity. Ultimately, like so many technical aspects of photography, it’s best to get as close as possible at the time of capture for the highest quality.
This is only true in the case of baked images such as JPEG or TIF. If you shoot RAW, the white balance is just another piece of recorded metadata such as contrast, color saturation and noise reduction that either the camera or your desktop computer will apply to the image after the RAW demosaicing conversion process. The only thing you have to worry about when shooting RAW is how much light you expose the sensor to. Your idea of putting on an optical lens filter to help compensate for a heavy red cast is a great one.
Love the Alcohol suggestion ;)
I was about to say something about RAW, but someone beat me to it. I’ve changed colour temperature and saturation RAW processing and it’s worked a treat. Still, best to cut it out in the first place… I used to pretty much put my camera down until the red had gone before.
Great write up. I find just as dreaded as the red monolight is the blue wash. On a recent tour the blue light was dominant throughout the background of several songs giving the, (ahem) older entertainers not in the spotlight a ghostly pale that was not a good look to say the least. The only way I found to save the photos was a B&W conversion.
Thanks for the tips and reminders. I shoot for a place that does a “Red Star Bar” for smaller acts, which means nothing but a single, extremely bright red light. I either embrace the red, convert to b&w, or take advantage of the free drinks they provide me. I think I’ll try the manual white balance next time. Ok, and the free drinks. I can’t ever pass those up.
Todd
Wow, thank you for the incredibly in-depth answer. I did try a little under exposure and it did seem to help as you suggested. It’s just so bizarre why so many small clubs use red lights, why not white, I don’t think many music goers especially want to see a Mar’s like backdrop at the performance. Anyway at least I’m on the right track, I ultimately put the camera down and ordered a stiff drink, and again you are right it helped immensely. I really love your site and am always blown away by how much time you spend helping the rest of us out. Take care. Lewis
Great tips – another excellent, helpful article. Thanks! Also, love the headline photo for this post.
[...] Here are some suggestions for dealing with excessive red lighting for gig photography. Continue reading at ishootshows.com. Sam | April 7th, 2009 | Tags: concerts, event, Photography, shows, tips & tricks | Category: [...]
To be honest, I find that the best approach is to underexpose and then take your image black and white outside of the camera.
Push the green and blue channels and then filter in the red until you get a balance between brightness and detail.
As an aside, I would never use the camera’s own internal software to ‘monochrome’ a photo – though many may disagree with this, I simply find that it is better to have more definite control over the colouring process.
Take care. Fantastic website Todd, and as always you create very insightful discussions.
Regards…
Matt
Are you talking about White balancing as you shoot or just setting an auto white balance..it would seem it would be really tough to keep trying to set a white balance during a show..or maybe I’m just not understanding what you saying well enough.
many thanks
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH booze. xoxo
alcohol… good tip :))
if it’s for myself, I just expose for the red and turn it to black and white (perhaps leaving a tint of colour) afterwards; never tried the WB way, hope to remember about it next time
oh, and the worst of all reds is the kind that’s put out by LED cans (very narrow spectrum -> channel mixer useless)
As always great tips. I find since I set the EV (exposure compenssation)on my Nikon to -1, I find I really don’t have to worry about the reds so much. Such a simple thing which I shouldve figured out long ago!
Hey all, thanks very much for adding to the discussion and posting your own tips for dealing with red washes. Great stuff!
I usually try to fix things in post, fiddling with curves. Sometimes get surprising results.
Thanks for these tips, Todd.
omg, i hate when they only have red lights as well!
here are some pics of mine under those conditions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arielmartini/3406403337/ > underexposed, gain back on photoshop, radical color balance
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arielmartini/3195468982/ > had a bit of green on the side, so i decided to take saturation halfway down. the result ended quite nice
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arielmartini/3106055786/ > pure red light on stage.. only thing i could do was convert to b&w
i recently shot about 4 shows, back to back, that had red as the primary light and after fighting with the images finally just had to convert them all to black/white.
they still looked great, but i hated having to do it at the time
i’ll try these tips out. many thanks :)
(@joey – you get free drinks where you shoot?! dude, i need to start shooting there) ;)
Oh, man! If only this has come up 2 weeks ago~~~ T.T
This was my set
You could also let the red be red : http://www.flickr.com/photos/xavtek/2114114636/in/set-72157603469448315/
Here i corrected the WB in PP : http://www.flickr.com/photos/xavtek/3195596068/in/set-72157612489280265/
And here i could really do nothing better than desaturate the red channel a little and boost contrasts : http://www.flickr.com/photos/xavtek/2466051460/in/set-72157604886577845/
There is nothing wrong with red in particular, it’s getting the exposure right that’s the key. A scene with only red in will fool the camera’s exposure meter, and it will try to find something in the blue and green channels by upping the exposure, resulting in blown out reds. Manual exposure is definately the way to go here, and checking your RGB histograms.
A good lighting designer will balance the colours and rarely just have one saturated colour in a state for long. Larger gig’s tend to have follow spots, or at least some fixed white spots if the performers don’t move around too much. In these situations it is rarely a problem as you usually have a fairly neutural reference on the performer, so it doesn’t matter what goes on around them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverspark/2916353727/
It tends to be the smaller venues that you can have problems at. They may not even have a lighting operator! Often these places just have lights in “auto” mode that just do their own thing (usually not very well).
As others have sugested, in situations with just one colour, B&W conversion can be a good way to go, as single saturated colours rarely look good. They need to be balanced with at least one other colour.
Good stuff as always Todd! :) I’m wondering though, are you saying whitebalance matters when shooting RAW? To my knowledge the whitebalance setting on your D3 is just a simple field in the datastructure of the NEF, which is then interpreted by the RAW converter as the “Shot as” whitebalance. The RAW data is not affected by the preset you choose. How would skewing this value in the camera be any different from skewing it in post?
Hey Tor, great to hear from you. I believe you’re right in so far as the shifting/multiplication of the data and it not being affected by the preset chosen.
However, for very large shifts in WB, there can also be shifts in the apparent exposure as well. For example, shifting an image’s WB to 2700k from a much higher setting (to cut red) will produce more definition and separation in the red tones, but it’s also going to decrease the apparent brightness. Bringing up the image for better “exposure” is going to kick up noise.
So, this is an issue of proper exposure and WB together.
Wow, these are some great tips, i feel like an idiot now, i’ve been shooting in a small clubs, concerts and jazz sessions, and i’ve always had problems with this. Most images with red only lacked the sharp focus, where there’s less red or no red light at all, i’ll definetely try this out tommorrow :)
@moogyboobles Dreaded red light syndrome,unlucky, this I found helpful http://tinyurl.com/c6ql66 :)
When all else fails go B and W. I shoot only small venues which are notorious for the over use of red lighting and well I usually just turn them B and W.
EV
I find it easiest to use a flash to help this. and of course pp. but thats what you all just read. ha. red lights suckkkk. esp on a canon sensor like my 40D. >.<
corrected with flash:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanjohnstonphotography/3482853933/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanjohnstonphotography/3483670830/
Hey I’m new to the concert shooting,still learning. I also had trouble with red lights on this one shot The reds just washed him out and convert to BW. Good information here will take to stage next time…. Here’s my shot converted
http://www.flickr.com/photos/memo351/3489330834/
Great tips Todd.
I endorse the self medication solution if the reds are too much!
Concert Photography & Red Lights | ishootshows.com: A manual setting between 2000-2700K will give a cooler bias .. http://tinyurl.com/c6ql66
I shot 6 bands last night and 5 different venues and the last one used a white light in their venue and it was fantastic to shoot and took away from the ‘generic lighting setup’ that seems to be used everywhere.
Love the site Todd, I am trying to expand more into music from sports photography and luckily I am tenacious and good with people, so it is giving me the opportunity to start building a portfolio.
Chris
Hey Chris, thanks for the comment. Glad to hear you like the site! Good luck shooting and building your portfolio.
Hi Todd,
Another good article and a good read. I also enjoy reading the comments.I have to agree with most, I shoot in a club that LOVES the “Red Moonlight”. As a lighting tech I agree Red looks good from a stage lighting aspect BUT you MUST have some key lighting as well. You must have some front light to shape the performers. What we suffer from as photographers is poor lighting design IMHO.
Until we can all get to run the lighting console we’ll just have to use tips like these.
Thanks SO much.
Paul
http://twurl.nl/53be4k DIE RED LIGHTING DIE!
The only solution I’ve come up with “I really hope they like this shot anyway,” and hope that there are others that have not been ruined by the red light haha. I’ve generally tried the underexposure as an immediate solution, but I shoot with a lovely setting on my camera that saves the picture to the card as well as saving the same picture to the card in RAW format.
These are really great tips! Thank you for sharing them! :)
I tend to try and save red light shots with turning them to take the color out all together. Going greyscale or black/white..
yea i hate that to i shot the vauto loco tour last night and thats all there was.
You joke about the alcohol…LOL
I don’t find this is a problem at larger venues with professional lighting techs; it’s the small clubs or ‘non-professional’ events that I’ve run into this.
Solution? I ALWAYS talk to the guy running the lights. I show him my big expensive camera, give him one of my very sharp looking business cards, and say “can you turn down the red and turn up the whits spots please?”
This has been a very successful technique for me! Seriously though, if you talk to the person in charge of the those little sliders and buttons, they will help you out. I have done a few shows that were being lit by ‘volunteers’ who knew very little about stage lighting (just the other day I was told of how “Cool” the very strong backlighting floor spots were – they weren’t cool for my camera’s sensor, let me tell you…). In some cases I’ve talked them into balancing the light for me just for a few songs, which is generally all I need.
Great articles Todd; I have to say my foray into concert photography has been greatly eased by your online tutorials and posted images.
Mark
Ottawa, ON
[...] can check out my article with a few techniques for cleaner images with this sort of stage treatment here in the the Q&A section. var addthis_pub = "ishootshows"; About the author: Todd Owyoung is [...]
Red lights – whew I hate them! This weekend I have a shoot with Dierks Bentley and I think I will experiment with some custom White Balance profiles to help compensate for the concert lighting.
I found your page by searching the term “photographing red stage lights” because it has just been such a pain in the behind. Thank you and everyone who posted for the great tips. I look forward to trying them out in the future. I’m teaching myself the ins and outs of my DSLR and photography in general and this information is very useful to me and I appreciate it. I need to learn more about shooting in RAW so I’ll probably be hanging around here a bit. Thanks again!
Is manual mode too slow? In case of changing light too frequently and artists moving fast, there is no much time to check histogram and set the new manual setting.
http://tinyurl.com/c6ql66
Tips for Dealing with Red Lights in Live Music Photography | ishootshows.com
Most the concerts i go to nowadays have loads of red lights the 1st 3 songs so its pretty rough getting some good shots but i do have to admit the red lighting does make for some interesting b&w shots
I’ve set low saturation and decreased the contrast in Picture Control on my D300 which help reduce post processing time. Like some others here I’m a bit sceptical about setting manual WB and also prefer Auto ISO.
My thinking is that Auto will allow me to react quickly to sudden changes or at least keep me in the ballpark for later PP.
Example:
Between songs is often a good time for getting unusual shots/ audience exchanges etc. I have my D300 set for flashing lights: manual WB at 2700k and ISO at 1600 when the house lights come on: giving me a noisy and blue image that auto would have prevented – or I change WB and ISO and the moment has gone…
I shoot mostly in small joints where i guess general public would not even venture
seldomely having any decent lighting.. So must resort to B&W at F1.4
sadly sometimes even a high iso – slow shutter speed doesnt even cut it, not even in post.
i need me some CAT EYE lens or something, Ha!
Well, red saturation just pops out really lovelingly in… black & white!
What to do when the Lighting Designer at the concert you're photographing starts using red lights – http://bit.ly/bHwm4u (HT @toddowyoung)
What to do when the Lighting Designer at the concert you're photographing starts using red lights – http://bit.ly/bHwm4u via @AmyHeidenPhoto
RT @Sameli_: What to do when the Lighting Designer at the concert you're photographing starts using red lights – http://bit.ly/bHwm4u via @AmyHeidenPhoto
[...] anyone have any ideas about how this can be solved? See also a discussion about the issue at: http://ishootshows.com/2009/04/07/concert-photography-red-lights/ Home Teacher Tips [...]
Thanks for your articles.
just found your website yesterday and it’s really helped me.
uaually i convert to B&W when it’s really red.
here is 2 examples (one after B&W convertion)
What do you think?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5287531&id=145895801313
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5288804&id=145895801313
Todd-
This is a great article. You definitely have a way of keeping the readers interest through out the article, but at the same time helping us learn.
As always, thank you!
Vanessa M.
Q: Kenapa lightning merah ngebuat objek foto nggak jelas? Gimana solusinya? A: http://bit.ly/aIV914 @deckyoi
thanks gung! :) RT @irockumentary: Q: Kenapa lightning merah ngebuat objek foto nggak jelas? Gimana solusinya? A: http://bit.ly/aIV914
mantap! RT @deckyoi: @marnalaman cek link ini ros. Solusi untuk mengatasi lighting merah yang brengsek –> http://bit.ly/aIV914
Tips 4 dealing with red lights in concert photography.Thanks @toddowyoung: http://ishootshows.com/2009/04/07/concert-photography-red-lights/
Brilliant and funny. http://ishootshows.com/2009/04/07/concert-photography-red-lights/ How to deal with red light? Alcohol @toddowyoung
Okay, well since I found this interesting and extremely helpful article a day too late…
Is there a way to fix these images after having shot them? The show was in a pub and I swear I thought about confronting the tech guy to change it… Now, I’m left with pictures all incredibly red, and I’ve tried the ‘white balance’ tool in Lightroom but it seems like the damage is irreversible. Any suggestions on what could help?
Sadly, I have to use this images for an assignment in school and I don’t think I’ll have a chance to shoot another time.
Any response would be appreciated,
Emily
The only way for you is conversion to black and white. When photo in gray-scale has details – you can get very nice b/w creative pics. In case the red light just washed away all other data – you lost your photos. I believe, that some of your photos can be converted to b/w
@OnofreShoots Here's my article on dealing w/ red lights: http://ishootshows.com/2009/04/07/concert-photography-red-lights/
I usually go down the B&W route for overly red images.
HI all!
I’ve found that there are lots of ways to help with this but a nifty little trick I’ve tried and had pretty good results with (especially for extremely blown out reds) is this:
1. Copy your original/background layer
2. convert that layer to B&W
3. set the BW layer’s blending mode to screen
4. adjust the opacity to dial down the red
From there you can boost blues and greens or general contrast but I’ve found this often brings back some of the detail that I would have sworn was blownout.
Thanks for all the other tips!
Beth
I do similar ewxcept that I use ‘Soft Light’ instead of ‘Screen’.
It works very well too. Especially if you overblow the red adjustment a bit in the B&W adjustment and then use the slider after adding ‘Soft Light’ to adjust the strength up or down according to taste (or redness!)
To me red light is probably one of the worst things for a photographer or more specific a concert photographer, it makes the photo or the subject “pasty” either way it depends on the photograph.
Some times it goes well with the image
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XFU8jtZeto8/TORMUKEuwjI/AAAAAAAAZww/2Rc93v0fKtc/s1600/Metallica+GDL+13.jpg
But some of the times i found best to, as i shot in raw, move the light balance afterwards to get still the red but not that much so the photo looks natural, also i choose to do this afterwards cuz in the moment it may take a lot of time some times really precious because of the whole 3 song shit.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XSVH2pmY9lM/TWicmyx5HZI/AAAAAAAAaTI/oqri7XrxbKk/s1600/A+thousand+horses+18.jpg
Also the idea of doing the shots in B&W is a great thing for the moment although i don’t really use it often pretty much i always find a way around.
But as Peter Straub (Johnny Indovina and Sound of the Blue Heart drummer) and myself say:”Why red????”
BTW Todd, great webpage, I really like your work.
Tips motret waktu lighting-nya merah | http://ishootshows.com/2009/04/07/concert-photography-red-lights/
Tips motret waktu lighting-nya merah | http://ishootshows.com/2009/04/07/concert-photography-red-lights/
Thanks for the tips! I’ll give those a try next time. I was recently shooting a band in a small venue, and the red lights nearly ruined the shots. I’m new to concert photography and I didn’t realize they were going to pose such a big problem. Good to see I’m not the only one. Here’s what they look like in post-processing. I think I made the best of it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpivkova/5879905564/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpivkova/5879905318/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpivkova/5879352129/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Did my first gig shoot last night for a friends band. The harlikings, supporting the ordinary boys.
One thing that may be handy is talk to the band about getting in to the sound checks. The lighting is usually better, and although there might not be as many action shots, it may provide a bit of variety into the shots.
Might be worth a go.