My credentials (and a few souvenirs) from Mayhem Fest 2009.
I’m back from Mayhem Fest, but the work is just starting. I’ll be working on the deliverables into the wee hours of the morning, but here’s a snap of the passes from the event.
Mayhem Fest 2009 was a fantastic show to cover, with great performances by Marilyn Manson, Slayer, Killswitch Engage, and Bullet For My Valentine on the main stage. Highlights of the event include hanging out with the ever-wonderful Amanda Moore of 4Fini, a 4-minute photo shoot with Slayer, and getting to meet Marilyn Manson, who was really a polite fellow.
Coverage coming up, right after I crank through the 30 or so GB of images I shot.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, all access, band, bullet for my valentine, credentials, fest, festival, guitar, live, mayhem, pass, photo pass, picks, slayer, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Just a snap of the passes for Mayhem Fest 2009, photo and AA: http://bit.ly/16e3AM
30gb of images
Yeah you can keep your pass….bugger that hahaha
Seeing as it was shot for rolling stone, do we have to wait until publication before seeing any shots?
Hey Dan,
Well technically, I shot with a total capacity of about 40gb in CF cards, but not all the cards were filled. I probably shot somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30gb.
I’ll be posting the images as soon as I can.
How fat does Manson look in real life these days? The last few photos I saw of him he looked like he was pregnant.
It could always be worse.
I gave my souvenirs to the fans … I’m just nice like that.
I have away about 5 picks and kept these two for myself. Normally I just give all the picks to fans, but it’s not everyday one has a great assignment like this. That is, aside from staying up processing images for next-morning turn-around…
I hear ya. I uploaded mine to lightroom. I’m gonna get some sleep and process them this week. Until then, Mr. R. Stone.
I presume you were shooting RAW? Even so, that’s a load of images! How do you get through them all so fast?
Hey Giles,
Yeah, I always shoot RAW, so that’s a big factor in the size of the files. But you’re right, even in RAW, that’s still a few thousand images.
My basic workflow for editing is to do a negative and positive cull at the same time on the first pass. I’ll mark images for deletion and also those that are interesting. On the second pass, I’ll look at the positive selection and further refine that one or two more times.
For this set, I delivered about 60 images in the final upload. Editing and processing time was a little under four hours, including conversion from RAW to JPG.
Todd,
I have a similar process myself, in terms of multiple passes.
Do you then go on to do much in post production with them? I find my “interesting” shots get the most Lightroom time, to see if they have more potential, whilst my obvious keepers are quick contrast and curves jobs.
Giles,
No, I don’t do much post processing at all. For 95% of my images, if anything, I’ll adjust exposure and WB in Nikon Capture NX2. For most, it’s just exposure – I don’t have to tweak WB unless it’s fixing spotlight flicker. If I have time, I might burn in the corners as an old habit from B&W printing, but that’s about it. Anything more takes too much time to do as more than a one-off thing.
Todd,
Thanks for the quick replies and sharing these details. It’s great that you get back to your fans so quick. I look forward to seeing your shots from Mayhem!
So, aside from the main acts, and Behemoth, any one else that gets the Todd stamp of approval that I should shoot?
I can’t wait to see these!
Hey Tasha,
I didn’t catch Behemoth myself, but they do look like fun. Trivium was definitely fun to photograph. I was around for All That Remains and the Black Dahlia Murder, but I was mostly just shooting atmosphere during their sets. Cannibal Corpse might be a good shoot, but I’d moved on to the main stage before their set.
If pressed, I’d say that last year’s show had much better lighting overall. While this year had pyro for the last two headliners, the stage effects for almost all the main stage bands were more photogenic in 2008.
Cannibal Corpse is not really that fun to shoot, unless you enjoy having all of your photos of people with hair in their faces the entire time they perform!
What is on the back side of the Slayer pick? http://www.Guitar-Picks.com/slayer.htm
Hey Alan,
Hairwhips are pretty much a guarantee with this tour. The Slayer pick is from Kerry King and has his signature on the back. The Bullet For My Valentine is from Jason James.
hey todd,
your slayer portrait came out great!
Thanks, Chris.
So do you prefer Nikon Capture NX2 to Lightroom 2?
Would you mind saying why?
I have nikon gear and was wondering if maybe I should switch.
I prefer Capture because of the general quality of the images that converter produces, including the color, contrast, and high ISO rendering.
Great! I’m curious to see how metal fests look in the USA. Recently I’ve shoot a feature about a Polish metal fest (you can see it here http://bit.ly/D2XEK )and would liek to know the differences :D
cheers and good luck with your 30 GB!:)
Hey Joanna, thanks for the comment. The full sets will be coming up soon!
Todd,
Your always the king on getting the correct exposure. Was wondering if you could do me a HUGE favor, can you look back at your Marilyn Manson shots and tell me what a good starting baseline is?
I’ve already shot Mayhem once in Indiana. But, I was NOT happy with my Manson shots.
ONLY one song, and in them lights? So, being the idiot I am, I am driving 5 hours mainly just to redo Manson. Let me know Thanks man!
The exposure for Manson is really all over the place. Since you already shot Manson, the best thing to do would be to be to look at your own shots and see what worked and didn’t work from the images you made. If they’re underexposed or overexposed, try to gauge by how much.
The intensity of the lighting flares up, so I think reviewing your images and trying to internalize the different levels is going to be your best bet.
Thanks Todd!
See ya at Lollapalooza.