Performing at Pageant in a benefit concert for Haiti earthquake victims, the Upright Animals delivered an intense 40-minute set that was a lot of fun to photograph. The Upright Animals are a band I’ve worked with a good deal in the past and it was a pleasure to photograph them again.
Knowing that lighting treatments would likely be pretty sparse, I came packing a few speedlights to spice things up.
Photographer’s Notes:
The last time the Upright Animals performed at the Pageant, we rocked speedlights and the band loved the effect, so we used a similar setup for this show as well. One big difference between this show and the last was the abundant use of haze at the previous performance, so the look of the flash did vary quite a bit between the two gigs.
For the most part, I shot this set with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 on the D700 and the 24-70mmm f/2.8 on the D3. I switched out to the beastly 14-24mm f/2.8 for just a few up-close-and-personal drummer shots. Due to monitors pushed up to the edge of the stage and the band’s own dynamic, I found that 24mm was plenty wide on the midrange for stagefront photography.
With flash, exposure for this performance hovered around ISO 3200 at 1/80 and f/2.8. Overall the stage lighting was quite low, so even getting a bit of the incandescent light into the exposure required the benefits of ISO 3200 and a relatively slow shutter speed.
End Notes:
Big thanks to the Upright Animals for hooking everything up. We’ll be shooting promos of these guys soon, so look out for that.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 10:49 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with flash, live music, music photography, photos, speedlights, upright animals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Great Job Todd it is always great when you get full access. Excellent drummer photographs!
Hey Derek,
Thanks for the comment. Full access is always nice, that’s for sure, and it makes fun drummer shots so much easier.
Hey!! Great Picts!!! nice balance between flash and ambient…. just listened to the adorama’s podcast, it was great
Thanks!
Hey Alfredo,
Thanks for the feedback on this post and the podcast, glad to hear you liked it.
Great stuff, Todd! When you’re using speedlights at a gig like this, are you using CLS/AWL or manual flash settings and Pocket Wizards? And am I seeing it right, you’re mostly using flash for rim lighting and a little fill?
Hey Joey,
I’m using the built in IR triggering of CLS – no pocket wizards here. For indoor gigs like this, triggering is reliable and I prefer being able to change the manual exposure of the flashes on the fly.
The flash is mostly all fill or rim in these shots, yup.
This is great stuff Todd. Question about the speedlights. Where did you position them? I have to assume you used some off camera lighting if you were using multiples. I love that these are made with an ISO of 3200. I’m lusting after that D700, but my D80 will have to do for now.
Hi Jay,
The flashes are on either side of the stage. I used two SB-900s as the remote, triggered by one SB-900 on-camera. At ISO 3200, the D3 and D700 produce a very fine “grain” – especially when processed in Lightroom 3 beta, as these images were.
Thanks for the comment.
Todd,
Great shots, great post. Thanks so much.
Question: Did you gel the speedlights at all (to warm them toward incandescent)? And ditto the other questions re: triggering the flashes.
Hey Jon,
I used the TN-A2 gels for the Nikon SB-900s. Thanks for the comment.
Wooohooohooo… great moment u got there…
Likes the front light shot there…
Can I ask? any advice to shot a front light situation like you got there, because I always got flare while shot front lighting…
Thx…
Hi Anggara,
Do you mean backlighting? Backlighting can easily produce flare, though a lot of this depends on the lens and the intensity of the light relative to the exposure. You should be able to see the flare in the viewfinder most of the time, so one thing you can do is to change the composition in such a way that the impact of the flare is minimized. Also, if you’re including lights in the frame, avoid shooting lights that are pointing directly into the lens.
Based on the shadows on performers faces from the flashes, they seem to be placed low like on the stage floor. Is that a correct assumption? Did you ever use flashes on stands and point the flashes more down on to the performers to avoid the harsh shadows that are casted from their hands, shoulders, etc. And how did they turn out?
I enjoy looking at your work.
Hi Arnold,
The flashes here were positioned about about seven feet above the stage. One thing to keep in mind is that even at this height, you have to consider that the state is quite wide, so height is all relative. Thanks for the comment.
Best thing about working with local bands? Super-enthusiasm & a love for the rock show. Also: carte blanche @ gigs. http://bit.ly/aJa5Il
RT @toddowyoung: Best thing about working with local bands? Super-enthusiasm & a love for the rock show. http://bit.ly/aJa5Il
I love the whole series Todd, very nice. I’d like to read more about your use of flash. Did you need external battery packs to with recycle time?
Hey Tom,
I did use external battery packs – the Nikon SD-9 – with both remote flashes. However, for the most part I was using such low power settings on the remotes that recycle time wasn’t much of an issue. I wouldn’t think twice about shooting without battery packs for a gig like this.
RT @toddowyoung: Best thing about working with local bands? Super-enthusiasm & a love for the rock show. Also: carte blanche @ gigs. http://bit.ly/aJa5Il
RT @toddowyoung: Best thing about working with local bands? Super-enthusiasm & a love for the rock show. Also: carte blanche @ gigs. http://bit.ly/aJa5Il
Photos: The Upright Animals @ the Pageant | ishootshows.com http://bit.ly/d3l45I
My friends the Upright Animals (http://bit.ly/aoG8xq) are going into the studio today – looking forward to shooing some pj stuff w/ them
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