Brother Ali

May 21, 2009 – Supporting fellow Minneapolis-natives Atmosphere on the “When God Gives You Ugly Tour,” hip hop artist Brother Ali laid down a taut, devastating performance on the stage of the Pageant in St. Louis.

Brother Ali gained notoriety in 2007 with his track “Uncle Sam Goddamn,” which rails against the US government.

Photographer’s Notes:

This shoot was difficult due to the bright backlighting and Brother Ali’s mic position, but a fun and thrilling performance to photograph for the same reasons.

I always find rappers a nice challenge to photograph due to the common form of holding the mic close to the mouth. Brother Ali was no exception in his performance, and I focused primarily on photographing him from his left, where visibility to his face was greatest. As much as possible, I also tried to be fast on the trigger when Ali dropped the mic.

I wasn’t sure about the lighting for this performance going in, but I was pleasantly surprised by the use of some nice backlighting effects – and in the first three songs, no less. Lots of interesting light blasting from the back of the stage, from color washes to bright white lights.

I setup two speedlights on stage for this set positioned in gaps of the speaker monitors, which lined a good portion of the front of the stage. These remote flashes were triggered wireless using the Nikon SB-900, which I used on camera. The remote flashes were angled in at roughly 45º or so, and used primarily to provide accent lighting and definition to the largely atmospheric treatment.

One thing I love about using flash for concert photography is the ability to dial in a deep or bright exposure for the ambient light, regardless of actual intensity, while exposing separately for the subject with flash.

The Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 did the trick for this set. Due to the wedges at the front of the stage and their higher cutoff for clear views, the 14-24mm stayed in the bag.

About the author: Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits. He also grills a mean steak.

Contact Todd for image licensing and assignments wherever the rock show lives. You can also get in touch with Todd via Twitter.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, brorther ali, images, live, music, Music Photography, photographer, photography, pictures, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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11 Responses to “Brother Ali”

1. Kenya says:

   May 27, 2009 at 8:14 pm

   I appreciated your explanation of how you’re using wireless flash. Do you run into performers’/management objections or other photographers?

   Reply
   • Todd says:

     May 27, 2009 at 8:41 pm

     Hey Kenya,

     Thanks for the comment. Yes, I do encounter performers and their management who’d prefer I not use flash – and for those shows (and the majority of the performances I photograph) I don’t use flash. All things being equal, I’d prefer not to use flash at all, but I also think think that it can be a very useful tool.

     Reply
2. Bryan Sutter says:

   May 27, 2009 at 11:24 pm

   Hey Todd

   I was the other guy in the pit with you, the guy shooting Sony. I really dig your work and site. It was my first time in the pit at the Pageant and I found it to be a bit of a challenge, mostly with Ali. I don’t think I’ve ever been so frustrated with someone who was giving an amazing performance. Your pics definitely came out good, though!

   Reply
   • Todd says:

     May 28, 2009 at 8:55 am

     Hey Bryan,

     Thanks for the comment and the kind words.

     For me, rappers are always a great challenge, just like punk bands and hardcore bands. Lots of movement and awkward shots of mic-face. By contrast, the easiest shoots are probably soul singers.

     Reply
3. Todd Owyoung says:

   May 28, 2009 at 1:12 am

   Brother Ali – two turn tables and a microphone. And some wireless flashes: http://is.gd/HI68

   Reply
4. Kenya A. Hudson says:

   May 28, 2009 at 2:11 am

   Wireless flash info for concerts RT @toddowyoung Bro. Ali – two turn tables and a microphone. And some wireless flashes: http://is.gd/HI68

   Reply
5. Kenya says:

   May 28, 2009 at 12:24 pm

   I agree rappers are a huge challenge. Many cultivate a non-plussed persona. When they don’t jump up and down, scream, or convey a lot of emotion, it’s a much greater challenge (to me at least) to make a compelling image. I did shoot LL Cool J recently and that worked out really well. Easily I got my best shots of the festival shooting him.

   Reply
   • Todd says:

     May 28, 2009 at 3:14 pm

     Hey Kenya,

     Thanks for adding your thoughts, I agree with you.

     I think it’s true of performers of any genre – the very best will always make it work for the camera.

     Reply
6. Alexis B.C. says:

   May 29, 2009 at 9:01 am

   Nice shoot as usual !

   A little question: when you’re using two flashes like this, do you set them up in different channels then select to trigger one channel or the other with your master flash? Or you just let both fire all the time and the actual position of the musician will use the flash it can to get lit?

   I started using wireless flashes at concerts about a month and a half ago ( a 580EXII on camera commanding a 430 EX). I’m getting quite good results, but I feel that sometime maybe I’m more lucky than totally controlling the output. So I read a lot and ask what I can ;)

   Thank you for sharing all that information with us! You probably heard it a thousand times, but you are an inspiration for me. Keep up the good work !

   Reply
   • Todd says:

     May 29, 2009 at 9:26 am

     Hey Alexis,

     Generally I have the flashes on separate channels; I switch between firing all channels and also being more selective, it just depends on the placement of the flashes and the show. For this set, the flashes were mostly fired in unison.

     Reply
7. Alexis B.C. says:

   May 29, 2009 at 7:59 pm

   Thanks for the hint!

   Reply