June 13, 2009 – Led by the ever vehement Tim McIlrath, Rise Against closed down the night with a fiery set after stellar sets by Rancid and the Riverboat Gamblers.
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Photographer’s Notes:
I’d photographed Rise Against last year, so I was excited to cover their live show again when I heard they were coming back.
This time, the show was an outdoor event, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with regard to the stage treatment and overall setup. As it turned out, the whole gig was great, from the lights to the lively atmosphere. I dare say that this tour had better lights than the last.
The stage was about 5-feet tall, with three ego-risers at the front of the stage setup for the band. Three spotlights at the back of the pit kept the three frontmost members fairly well lit. In addition, plenty of red and white light blasting in from the back to kept things interesting. Despite an open stage, there was even a nice mix of haze to help diffuse the light.
I shot primarily with the Nikon 24-70mm and Nikon 14-24mm, switching to the Nikon 70-200mm for the third song to pick up a few tighter shots of singer Tim McIlrath and drummer Brandon Barnes. The latter was difficult due to poor lighting and lines of sight – but one’s gotta try.
As usual, this was a three-songs-and-out situation.
End Notes:
If these guys are playing your area, definitely check them out. You won’t be disappointed with the show.
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, images, live, Music Photography, photographer, photography, photos, pops, punk, rancid, rise against, rock. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Nice set! The second one is pretty nice ; love the lighting and the colours. Can’t wait to shoot them wednesday!
Hey FG,
Thanks for the comment. You’re going to have a blast with Rise Against, they put on a great show. If they have the same stage lights, you’ll be golden.
Awesome pics as usual, Todd! I always love how you are able to get SO much light into your photos without a flash(unless of course for this you did use flashes).
Also, was being able to capture the guitarist in the air on the last picture due to the great lighting, so you were able to have your shutter speed fast enough to capture that?
Hi Norrel,
Thanks for the kind words. I shot between around ISO 2500 and 4000 for this set, but in general, there was plenty of light. There was no flash used for this set.
As for the jump shot (hop shot?), I was at 1/320 for that exposure — so not blisteringly high, but a reasonable enough shutter speed. Any slower and there would have been more motion blur, so the lights did help with achieving that.
Rise Against: http://bit.ly/SHyPY
RT @toddowyoung: Rise Against: http://bit.ly/SHyPY
Hey Todd,
So you can shoot that high ISO with almost no noise using the D3?
All I have is a Nikon D80, and if I push past ISO 1600, my shots just fill with noise.
That camera must be amazing with dealing with digital noise
Hey David,
The D3 is very good when it comes to high ISO performance — what I’d consider the best performance out there in terms of low noise right now. It’s not flawless, but up to ISO 1600 the files are quite pristine. The image degrades up to ISO 3200, but they still look very good. I prefer not to shoot at ISO 6400, but that’s simply because the lower ISOs have spoiled me.
It’s worth noting that I also don’t have noise reduction turned on in-camera. Overall, the camera’s luminance noise has quite a fine character.
I’ll try to post a few 100% crops from the D3 a little later.
Great set as usual!
I’m shooting them in two days, also in an outdoor situation. Can’t wait to see them ! :)
Hey Alexis,
Have fun shooting this show, it’s a nice one for photography. Tons of energy from all three bands on the bill.
Hey Todd,
Do you have any Rancid pics you could put up?
Hi Nick,
Yes, I’ll be posting shots from Rancid a little later.
Updated the shooting notes for the write-up for Rise Against. Gotta love spotlights for an outdoor show. http://bit.ly/SHyPY
RT @toddowyoung: Updated the shooting notes for the write-up for Rise Against. http://bit.ly/SHyPY
Are the 3200 iso shots noise reduced with noise ninja or look like that straight out of the camera? If so – damn i need a d3
Hey Natasha,
These shots have chrominance noise reduction, but no luminance noise reduction, as filtered through Noise Ninja. Also, I shoot with noise reduction turned off in-camera and don’t apply additional NR at RAW conversion. I run the images to cut color noise in Photoshop.
I’ll try and post some 100% crops if you like.
Also, the D700 has the same great high ISO performance as the D3. I shoot both side by side and the image quality is essentially identical.
I love the wider shots. That 14-24 really works its magic … fantastic.
There was just one photo I wasn’t particularly fond of: the 8th one (with the guitarist) ’cause I think it was a little too bright in the right part of the photo. But that’s just me :P
That last shot however … I *really* like it! ;)
Cheers,
Daniel
Hey Daniel,
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, the 14-24mm certainly does some work – It’s funny, because I’ve had people who aren’t photographers regularly comment on images made by that lens. They’ll reference the wide-angle by commenting on the “special look” of the images without ever mentioning things like the field of view or anything like that. They just know that there’s something unique about the lens — and they like it.
As for the image with the bright spot – yeah, it’s a bit hot in the upper right, but those are the breaks!
Hey Todd,
Yeah, I’m not too fond of that one (the shot) but …
About the 14-24 … it’s a hell of a lens and it really adds something “special” to the shots. It’s a lot harder to explain then it is to see it ;)
Cheers,
Daniel
I do dare agree with you – much better lighting than last year. That red was just ugggly. I couldn’t stand it.
That Tim is a character – gotta love him. Nice job.
Most of my shots from last year were made with the cool fill they had going on. Really, when lighting is just pure red, I don’t really shoot much.
I shot this show in June. Those black amps & step ‘ladders’ are a nightmare when your 5’3″ haha!
Great shots! Much better than mine. Looks like you use a flash… but your not allowed. Anyways! Good job, as always!!
Hey Ashley,
Nope, no flash on this set. The lighting here is spotlights, so there’s still that nice separation in some of the shots. Thanks for the comment!