With a heavily backlit set and dramatic underlighting, Brand New ripped into their sold-out show at the Pageant in support of their 2009 release, Daisy.
Photographer’s Notes:
I have to say, this was one of those shows that just had me shaking my head in the photo pit. The first three songs seemed to consist entirely of extremely dim incandescent/gelled lights on the band from underneath and the sides, in contrast to accents from the back of the stage. To give you an idea of how dark it was, this is probably the only performance that I’ve actually relied on catchflash as an extended technique for image-forming light on a band.
One huge factor to consider for this show is Jesse Lacey’s microphone and his positioning. When he’s singing, Lacey basically looks like he’s resting his nose on the mic, so for photography this is a big factor for getting clear shots of the singer.
Exposure:
The exposure for this set was all over the place, from 1.6-seconds at ISO 1600 and f/2.8 up to 1/125 at ISO 3200 for some of the drummer shots. The intensity of the lighting tended to flare up for this show, so I was constantly spinning dials throughout to keep up with the changing conditions. I’d say most of these shots were made between 1/10 and 1/50.
Lenses & Cameras:
I shot this with show with a combination of the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 on the D3 and D700, respectively. I also used the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 for the darkest parts of the set.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, brand new, images, live, Music Photography, photographer, photography, photos, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Hey Sean,
Yeah, this show was what I’m going to call a three-song struggle. My comments here are only as a photographer in the pit; from the crowd, I think that the show may well have looked great, and the lighting certainly seemed to compliment the music. Anyway, a challenge now and then is always nice.
I discovered your blog here a few weeks ago and i love your work. What is this “Catchflash” technique you talk about?
Click on my link, love to know what you think about my work, i only shoot country music, mostly red dirt bands from Texas which i prefer over mainstream Nashville.
Hi Jeff,
“Catchflash” is a term for the phenomenon of making an image and “catching” someone’s flash in the image, either by accident or by design. Using a slow shutter speed increases the likelihood of the shutter being open while a flash is going off from a P&S in the crowd, hence the 1-second exposures I used for some shots during this performance. Thanks for the comment.
Hi Todd,considering the poor lighting conditions you still managed some quality shots.
Hey Ian, thanks for the comment, I appreciate it.
Thanks for the preview. I am shooting them in 2 days. We’ll see how it goes…
Hi Joe,
Good luck with this show. Maybe it was just the songs that I got as the first few that made this shoot so dark – I’d heard from other people that they shot this and had “all white light.” Hope you have more light than I did!
I know what you mean!! It sucks even more when that happens and you are not authorized to use Flash… it really blows my mind ahahah
Well at least it didn’t came that bad for you :)
Hey Cátia, thanks for the comment. Using my own flashes could have been an interesting option, so I had to rely on the kindness of strangers for some of these shots.
yeah, sometimes the fans in the front row with their P&S flashes going off make our jobs much easier!
Gotta love catchflash – my favorite kind of flash.
It’s impressive that you were able to create shots entirely off of catchflash. It’s equally impressive that the shots are properly exposed, and the catchflash didn’t white-out the photos.
Out of curiosity, how are you shooting at 1/10 of a second (or even 1.6 seconds!) and NOT getting incredible blur, especially considering how much musicians move around?
Hey Ally,
Thanks for the comment. Not all these images were made with flash from the audience, though I did go into the first and second songs thinking that I was going to need to attack this show with P&S flashes.
With regard to motion blur and catchflash, there are a few factors at play. One is the amount of ambient light affecting the exposure/subject. With little or no ambient light to worry about, the duration of the flash itself (which is very short) is the only element affecting the exposure of the subject, so the shutter speed is irrelevant.
Aside from that, it’s all just steady hands, planning, and luck.
Wow Todd, sounds like a crazy time behind the viewfinder…I have to say, it’s a little comforting to know it happens to everyone…and great to know you can still get good images out of the madness…something I struggle with myself…
I am glad you explained “catch” flash…I suppose I have done that some myself…more by happenstance than by any clear planning…sometimes it can create a really unique image/s
See, you did just fine. And I thought you said you liked a challenge anyway? My picks are that stellar portrait style drummer shot of Brian, and then #13, with Jesse screaming. The intensity in that one is undeniable. Oh, and I like that you included the shot of Jesse messing with his foot pedals right before the first song. A non performance shot is always interesting. Sure it wasn’t hard to snag a little catchflash then. Kids were snapping away like crazy!
i wondered do you set the iso on auto on the D700 and if so what settings?
i used to but now usually go straight to iso 3200 preffering to alter the shutter speed dependent on movement.
good job again by the way!
the trouble is i guess you dont know what the lights will be untill you get there.
i cant carry a lot of gear so tend to stick with my 85mm and 50mm f1.4s and the 35mm f2 [cant find or afford the 28mm 1.4 i dream of that lens]
ive tried to improve my lens changing speed
Hey,
I was curious if you were going to do a blog post from the Building Rome show. Being a lighting guy I am always interested to see your comments on the lighting from a photographer’s perspective so I am curious what you would have to say about my lighting
Amazing shots especially of Jesse Lacey :]
Awesome angles to go along with an awesome show, great job!
Hey Janessa,
Thanks for the kind words.
Is there anyway to add to your photog notes who you were shooting for and where they can be seen? Ive often wondered where they end up besides your blog.
great shots of one of my favorite bands Todd. Gonna catch these guys in a few weeks at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach…Can’t wait!
So I am assuming on some of the photos you were dragging the shutter on, you WERE getting some motion blur correct? Do you prop on the stage or something? There is no way I could hand hold at 1 second. It would look like I was shooting in an earthquake.
EV: I can see the appeal of adding the assignment, but I am hesitant. In the past, I’ve had people in my area find my work, learn from my articles, and then go on to compete with me for assignments from the local publications I shoot for. Hope you understand.
Hey Kevin,
Thanks for the comment, hope you enjoy the show – Brand New puts a lot of energy into their live performances, as I’m sure you know.
There’s little motion blur in the long exposures because the subjects are mostly being exposed by the flash, which has a very, very short duration. This fact makes the shutter speed irrelevant.
For the images with more ambient light, it’s always a trade off – the flash is pretty much pristine, but there’s going to be some blur in the parts of the image exposed by the dim stage lighting.
Hey,
I just shot Brand New last night in CT and I agree with the lighting. I actually had a hard time with you on Jesse’s microphone positioning.. We actually had it worse as he had a dual-microphoe setup which made it nearly impossible to get anything good unless he stepped away from the mics.
Hey Diana,
Yeah, Brand New just seems to like spazzy lighting, and I recall from the band’s tour a few years ago how much a challenge the double mic was. I recall how I mostly shot from stage right with the double mics.