Photos: Janelle Monae @ The Pageant

Going into this show, I had a feeling that Janelle Monáe would have a pretty dim treatment. After all, Of Montreal has been touring with a minimal/non-existent lighting setup and generally relies on the house lights for the past few years, so I didn’t dare hope that Monáe would receive any special treatment (even though she deserves spotlights).

So, I came packing a trio of Nikon’s bright, f/1.4 primes. My only question – would they be up for the task of focusing for a firecracker of a stage performer like Monáe?

Photographer’s Notes:

I’d heard nothing but good things about Janelle Monáe, and after this fantastic performance and witnessing her live, I believe them all. This woman has got serious talent.

Even with what started out as a dim lighting treatment, Monáe was magnetic on stage. Thankfully, the treatment did have its brighter moments, but never really achieved more than a fraction of the Pageant’s lighting potential.

One of the best parts about this show? Thanks to Of Montreal’s photographer-friendly shooting policy, there were no song restrictions at this concert. So while shooting Of Montreal’s full set is pretty much a given, it was a pure treat to photograph Janelle Monáe’s entire performance. Considering that she’s opening for Prince next month, this opportunity felt like an honor.

Cameras Used:

• Nikon D3
• Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

• Nikon 24mm f/1.4
• Nikon 50mm f/1.4
• Nikon 85mm f/1.4

I shot most of this show at a solid 1/160 at f/1.4 and ISO 3200. And, after tracking around Janelle Monáe for her full set with Nikon’s new f/1.4 primes, I am happy to say that they were more than up to the task.

My main lenses for this shoot were the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and the Nikon 85mm f/1.4. While they don’t have hugely different ranges on paper, in practice they’re different enough on full-frame to fulfill different roles for a shoot like this, and I was glad to have them both.

The main question was whether these lenses could keep up with Monáe’s explosive movements with regard to AF. Nailing focus with fast lenses like these are critical in my opinion, especially when low house lights necessitate shooting wide open at high ISO.

Here’s a 100% crop from the above photo, which was shot at ISO 2000, f/1.6, and 1/250 with the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 and the Nikon D700.

100% crop from the D700, shot with the Nikon 85mm f/1.4. Processed with the default sharpening settings in Adobe Lightroom 3.

Needless to say, I’m loving the performance of these new Nikon primes.

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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, November 1st, 2010 at 9:13 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2010, concert photography, funk, Janelle Monáe, live, music, music photographer, music photography, of montreal, performance, singer, soul, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.