13 bands, 10 bottles of water, 8 speedlights, one brother, and zero live shows later: Backstage portraits from Warped Tour 2009, featuring TAT, Escape the Fate, Forever The Sickest Kids, We the Kings, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, and more.
Despite soaring temperatures into the afternoon and an unrelenting schedule of portrait shoots throughout the day, Warped Tour 2009 was an absolute blast.
I attacked Warped Tour with Chris to knock out a ton of new portrait work for you guys. All in a day’s work!
Sample Setup Shot:
You may ask, “Todd, can you please show me how the BrOwyoungs roll?” And to that I would answer, friend, this is how we roll:
In this shot are three Nikon SB-900s and three SB-600s. You can see the SB-900s in the two accents lights camera-right and camera-left, while the third SB-900 is fired into the softbox Chris is self-booming here. Three Nikon SB-600s are ganged up on the backlight stand just to the right of Chris.
End Notes:
I’ll be posting a few more shots from the Warped Tour extravaganza, but in the meantime, a gigantic and thunderous thank you goes out to Bethany Watson, one of my favorite people in the entire world, for helping coordinate everything with Warped Tour. A huge thanks goes out to all the bands who took time out of their day to pose for a few minutes in front of the lens.
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Portrait Photography and tagged with all access, backstage, band portraits, band promos, concert photography, festival, lighting, music photographer, nikon, Portrait Photography, speedlights, strobist, tour, vans, warped tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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You rule. These are all fantastic. And of course bonus points for more shots of TAT’s Tatiana. Haha. But seriously, good job doing a lot with a little. If someone didn’t know better, they’d probably think these shoots were done at several different locales, when in actuality, you just had the limited space provided backstage. So kudos. Especially with There For Tomorrow. Where even are you there?
Hey Chris,
Thanks for the kind words. I pulled out those shots of Tatiana just for you.
Yeah, we tried to mix up the locations as much as possible, though for the majority of these images, one could walk a circuit through all the locations in about 2 minutes.
For the There For Tomorrow shot, the band was shot inside a big shipping container that was filled with bags of bottles for recycling. Forever The Sickest Kids were shot in front of a similar sort of container.
This post friggin rocks… I hate you and your brother for being totally awesome…
Love the setup pic…
The shoots I love – TAT – and Alana Grace – pic #2 is awesome.. Can you share some info on the lighting on that – as I LOVE the wash across the lens, and she has an awesome expression in that pic.
Hey Nathan,
Thanks for the comment. On that second shot of Alana Grace, I setup an umbrella behind her for the blowout effect you see, which affected contrast and gives that feathered look. So, even on location with just the basics, it’s possible to create a little more of a “studio” look when needed. Thanks again!
And a partridge in a pear tree? RT @toddowyoung 13 bands, 10 bottles of water, 8 speedlights, & 1 day of work: http://bit.ly/yUUnx
Man nice promo shots Todd ……. and a very cool light setup can’t wait to see the diagrams you even been talking about ….. you know I never would have thought of the 3 speedlights to back light subjects :)
Hey Corey,
Thanks for the comment. With the three speedlights on one stand, it’s one speedlight on a normal umbrella mount on a short backlighting stand. Two other speedlights are attached via Manfrotto Justin Spring Clamps. It looks like a little Christmas tree of speedlights; it’s glorious.
Great setup pic Todd…Oh yeah…and the portraits aren’t bad either ;)
Great work once again my friend.
Hey Kevin,
Thanks for the kind words. I really should get in the habit of taking wide setup shots for each and every shoot. It’s the clearest way of showing how all the lights and modifiers come together.
I’m with Nathan, love the TAT and Alana Grace ones! All around great stuff and thanks for the lighting photo!
Hey Russell,
Thanks, TAT and Alana were both great to work with. They all brought a ton of personality and attitude.
Those portraits are all so good, it’s impossible to choose a favorite. Great work, and thanks for the setup shot at the end. Very cool.
Hey Craig,
Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it! Glad to hear everyone likes the inclusion of the setup shot, I’ll have to do that more often now.
Hey Todd!
congratulations for your AMAZING work at Warped Tour.
You know, i’m the #1 fan of your shoots
regards from Argentina!!
Hey, thanks for the kind words, glad to hear you enjoyed this one!
Backstage Warped Tour Portraits 2009 | ishootshows.com http://bit.ly/2ErN5
Wow, great collection – and all in a day’s work! I love the TAT shot opening this blog piece! The lighting, the setting, the composition, and the cool look of the band members. It all comes together.
Hey Thomas – if one ever needs a new portrait portfolio, all that is required is a full day of backstage shooting at a festival!
Thanks for the kind words, it was a lot of fun to shoot and light all of these portraits. Amazing what can be crammed into one day, right? I’m tired just thinking about this Warped Date.
Good thing I have a vacation coming up!
13 bands, 10 bottles of water, 8 speedlights, and one day of work: Backstage portraits from Warped Tour 2009 http://bit.ly/yUUnx
RT @toddowyoung: … Backstage portraits from Warped Tour 2009 http://bit.ly/yUUnx
RT @toddowyoung: 13 bands, 10 bottles of water, 8 speedlights, and one day of work: Backstage portraits Warped Tour 2009 http://bit.ly/yUUnx
Check out Backstage Warped Tour Portraits by @toddowyoung | ishootshows.com http://bit.ly/3Mg8oA
Woah! Who is Alana Grace?! She is a total babe.
Excellent work, Broyoungs. I always admire your crystal clear and razor sharp portraits. I like that you brought back the between the tour bus shots a la Academy Is from last year. It’s a good look with the flash coming from behind.
Hey Brian,
Haha… Alana was great to work with, you can check out her Myspace here:
http://www.myspace.com/alanagrace
I had to do a re-do of the The Academy Is… shot. Last time it was done with an SB-600 on the ground and an SB-800 on-camera. But now that I’ve done it again, I think that now it has to be a Warped Tour tradition for me to recreate that setup from now on.
thank you for the setup,it’s really help to understand lighting
I like the first photo – wide variant, really touch me
Hey Victor, thanks for the comment, glad the setup shot was helpful for you. The first photo of TAT was my favorite, too.
Whoa! Thank you so much for sharing these photos and some behind the scenes info in the comments, Todd. I’m trying to study as much as I can this week – my first promo/CD cover shoot is coming up this Saturday and I’m incredibly nervous. Available light shooting has been my specialization and forte for a long, long time and now the bands I shoot are starting to come to me for promo style shots and, frankly, it’s all a bit intimidating. Seeing how the Brothers Owyoung roll is great education and incredibly inspiring.
All I have to do now is figure out the business side of it! Something tells me that’ll be tougher for me than painting with light…
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Hi Todd, fantastic photos! I was curious if you remembered what city you shot Escape the Fate on Warped Tour?