Photos: The Ettes

Opening for The Dead Weather, The Ettes filled the Pageant with beautiful, buzzy garage rock on a haze-covered stage. Challenging lighting? Certainly, but only a taste of what was to come.

I thought the Ettes provided a nice compliment to The Dead Weather’s sound. I could also see them hooking up with Band of Skulls or Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The Ettes – “Crown of Age”

Photographer’s Notes:

Little did I know, The Ettes lighting was going to be the easiest stage treatment to work with of the evening. Going into their performance, I had a good idea of what sort of lighting The Ettes would receive, and I was right. House lights were the modus operandi for the openers, with dim magenta casts throughout.

For me, the most engaging subject of The Ettes was drummer Maria “Poni” Silver, who brought a really energetic performance at the kit. Poni’s swaying hair was a nice touch and added as much of a challenge as her swinging arms as it bounced around the frame.

I photographed The Ettes exclusively with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lenses. The fast f/1.4 aperture of these lenses really saved the day, allowing me to open up the dim stage lighting for this set.

About the author: Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits. He also grills a mean steak.

Contact Todd for image licensing and assignments wherever the rock show lives. You can also get in touch with Todd via Twitter.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with dead weather, live, music, music photography, pageant, performance, photos, rock, the ettes, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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8 Responses to “Photos: The Ettes”

1. Tony says:

   April 27, 2010 at 4:29 am

   pictures came out great with only prime lenses, I remember when i shot my first show at the viper room in hollywood and it felt weird for me because i was only using a 35mm prime lens only (since thats all I had) while two other photogs where using longer lens. In the end it was worth using only my 35mm since the light was really bad and I also ended up shooting better pictures then the other two people :D

   Reply
   • Todd says:

     April 27, 2010 at 9:26 am

     Hey Tony,

     Thanks for the comment. Primes were an absolute necessity for the Ettes, I think. The exposure looks relatively bright, but that’s only thanks to shooting wide open here. Shooting with these AF-D lenses makes me really interested in the new AF-S primes Nikon has been pumping out lately.

     Reply
2. Todd Owyoung says:

   April 27, 2010 at 7:59 am

   Photos: @TheEttes opening for The Dead Weather – http://bit.ly/dobGu4 Snaps of Jack White & Friends coming up soon.

   Reply
3. Leroy Mikell III says:

   April 27, 2010 at 3:02 pm

   RT @toddowyoung: Photos: @TheEttes opening for The Dead Weather – http://bit.ly/dobGu4 Snaps of Jack White & Friends coming up soon.

   Reply
4. Lisa says:

   April 28, 2010 at 8:35 am

   Very cool! Do you find 1.8 wide open enough? I have a hard time getting a sharp picture throughout when I open all the way with regular portraits, so shows would seem to me to be even tougher. I want to practice with a couple of local bands that will have BAD lighting in small clubs, so was curious if my 50 1.8 might be better than my 17-55 2.8….But worried about softness with the shallow depth of field. IT doesn’t seem to be a problem here for you though.

   Reply
   • Todd says:

     April 28, 2010 at 1:19 pm

     Hi Lisa,

     If you’re shooting wide open with a f/1.8 prime, it’s going to be very difficult to get the image sharp throughout the frame unless you’re quite a bit away from the subject. When shooting up at an angle from the photo pit, the depth of field is going to be even more shallow than if you where shooting straight on, as the in-focus plane is just slicing through the subject at a diagonal.

     Careful and accurate focus is really the most important thing with shooting wide open. Hope this helps.

     Reply
     • Lisa says:

       April 28, 2010 at 5:45 pm

       Thank you, that does help. Do you tend to usually focus on the face if you are shooting wide open like that? For portraiture I usually focus on the eyes, or the eye closest to me when wide open. I would imagine concert photos have a method. I am excited to try though.

       Reply
       • Todd says:

         May 3, 2010 at 3:03 pm

         Hey Lisa,

         Yes, I generally always focus on the face – f/1.4 glass or otherwise. Cheers.

         Reply