After an opening set by Rob Lemon, Swedish superstar DJ and producer Avicii rocked a full house at the Pageant with his brand of soaring, banging house music.
Cameras Used:
Lenses Used:
This show with Avicii and support by Rob Lemon was a blast to photograph. For DJ/club shows like this, the people spinning the music might be the main attraction, but the real subject for events like this is the crowd, their energy and the overall atmosphere.
Most of the nightlife photography you see uses direct flash, but I prefer to use ambient lighting only for these sorts of shoots, even if makes me at the whim of chance and the stage lighting of the moment. If anything, shooting for atmosphere like this can take more patience, but I feel as though it much more accurately captures the vibe of the event, so I greatly prefer going no-flash whenever possible like this.
I used all three of my f/2.8 zooms for this show, and all had their particular uses. Due to Avicii’s relatively high DJ booth on stage and its position in the middle of the stage, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR was essentially for the requisite close-up DJ shots. For general atmosphere and wider shots, the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 ruled.
For the ultra-wide look to capture the whole stage and audience, the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 was the natural choice. I also pulled out this lens for some of the crowd shots, especially nice to catch all the upraised hands for those crescendos.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 12:00 am and is filed under Music Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Hi Todd! How did you manage to tame those red lights?
Hey Ian,
No real secrets, just the proper exposure. Besides, these LED lights were mostly lighting up the haze, rather than people, so I only had to worry about their intensity, not the effect on skintones.
Hey Todd,
I would love to have an insight view on that first picture (ISO, shutter speed, aperture and so forth). I also shoot concert photos and I never seem to get hold of those damn LED lights.
And if it’s not asked too much: White balance and your Nikon Picture Control setup would be awesome and a great help for me :)
Have a look at my website: http://www.fabien-blackwater.de
Thanks in advance, cheers from Germany,
Fab
I love this photo-set & rockshow, Todd. Especially for the euphoria of this concert.
I rarely have a photos collection of euphoria like that. Photograph the concert in your country is very nice, the lights are totally out. Oh, it’s my dream.
Hi Achmad, thanks for the comment. You should definitely try to photograph some electronic dance music gigs. I’m finding they’re some of the very best crowd shooting.
Hey Fabien,
The most important thing to take away is that the image required no special settings or picture controls.
The image was shot at ISO 3200, 1/100 at f/2.8.
The exposure is set so that it picks up the red LED lights and the haze. It’s also worth noting that there was lots and lots of haze, so that’s affecting the way the lights look in a big way.
Hope this helps you.