advice for music photography

paulc

paulc

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I am looking for any advice regarding photographing musical artists on a stage... I am not sure if I have bitten off more than I can chew, you see, I photographed a badminton tournament for my mate that he sponsored and the shots were ok, so he has asked me if I would photograph a musical event for him that he is organising for a local charity.

they are not heavy rockers or anything, and infact I have visited the artists websites and they are pretty much sitting in one place with a guitar all the time, this is great I thought, however, I dont want the pictures to be just boring.

from what I can gather, they were part of the punk scene years ago and have probably been photographed to death but I thought that if I am going to do it I would like to have some Idea of what I am after, instead of just getting loads of shots aimlessy.

There are two venues, one for the afternoon and one for the evening, one is a local music pub called the hotel california, that looks pretty dim inside, so I will probably use my flash (but I dont want to send everyone into epileptic fits) and the other venue is a local club that looks to be better lit.

My main worries are not having enough memory, I have 2x2gb cards and a 1gb card..this will give me about 800 shots will this be enough?

I have a Nikon d70 and a fuji s2 pro, but I dont know if I should just use one body and change lenses or use both with separate lenses or keep my sigma ef dg500 flash on one all the time

I have the nikon 18-70 kit lens which is I really like, I also have a 50mm f1.4 and a 80-200 f2.8, these lenses are compatible with both bodies.

So this for me, is like someone doing thier first wedding, I have never stood in front of an audience before and will feel conspicuous moving around and using flash during a performance...or should I sit at the back and use a long lens if the light allows.

The musical photography sites that I have been looking at seem to go for no flash and colorful and a bit blurry to capture atmosphere, but I think that these guys are just going to sit on a seat in dim light and play guitar.

I would be glad of any tips or advice, you see I dont want to take 800 pictures that are all the same otherwise I might as well take my point and shoot.

I have until 23 of May to prepare or should I feign illness.
 
Personally I'd stick with the 50 1.4 and the 80-200 2.8. I'd stick one on each body to save messing about and to reduce the possibility of dust ingress or camera errors. Both lenses will do a great job and I'd say both cameras to. As I have them myself, albeit the d70s not d70.

I've shot gigs with the 50mm 1.8, no flash, no problems.. Just make sure you focus accurately because as you know it leaves you little room for error at 1.8 (or 1.4 in your case).. I'd be tempted to use the auto iso function on the d70 tho i haven't tried that in a gig yet, can't see a problem tho as long as you set the shutter speed limits, 60 very lowest but ideally 125 or 250. The 80-200 you'll probably want to keep around 2.8 too.

I don't use flash generally at gigs, but if you do get a chance then try dragging the shutter. You could set the camera to slow sync to eliminate the slow shutter speed sync limit (something like that) then meter manually for ambient light, wack the flash on and shoot. The flash will freeze the action and the slower speed of course will catch more ambient light which you could mess with by moving the camera, experiment with that.

Post some results too so we can see what you did! Gig photography can be fun, a lot less stressful than weddings. I'm getting into it a bit more now. Used to do a lot in the past too.
 
I agree about the 50mm and the 80-200mm on two different bodies. Don't use flash unless you are going for the fancy effects db247 mentioned...it kills colours and atmosphere dead. DoF will be an issue with the 50mm, so take care......use centre focus point and spot meter if you can. Try different angles......from the back of the stage is one possibility for an unusual view.....and closeups of hands on strings etc. Shoot RAW if you can, that way you don't have to worry about WB and if a bit underexposed, rescuable. Keep ISO as low as possible......any chance of using a monopod to help avoid camera shake at low values? If there are likely to be bright spotlights, use a lens hood to stop glare.

Have fun!!
 
Professional Photography Mag this month is carrying an article about Music Photography. It's a good read :)
 
Puz said:
Professional Photography Mag this month is carrying an article about Music Photography. It's a good read :)
Click to expand...

I need to get that. I'm assuming it has something by Karen McBride in it. Basically for music photography, highest ISO and manual settings unless you have spot metering. I usually shoot in M, ISO1600 or 800 if they have good lighting. If you don't have spot metering the camera will try and meter for the entire scene and tell you everything is under-exposed. I usually shoot on the focal length. So 50mm f/1.8 is 1/50th at f/1.8. 10mm is 1/10th. I would only use the flash on energetic bands on second curtain. If they're going to be sitting down, not doing anything for the set, just get some portraits, maybe a wider angle of them in the location and thats it. You can't get 800 shots of them doing nothing. I take maybe 100 or so if I do a band.
 
Yes it has Pete, think my subs were £29 for the year. HTH
 
Thanks for the tips, there is no substitute for experience, so I really appreciate the advice given, I think I will just set my D70 to auto Iso and put my faith in neat image...I will use separate bodies and lens hoods and give the flash a miss.

I will get the proffessional photography mag tommorrow and I may even visit the venues to see what thier lighting is like as the musicians are just being flown in with their guitars and thats it so they will have to use the venues lights.

Pete, have you ever shot a gig at the hotel california or 2A price street as this is where they are playing?

thanks again everyone for the advice.
 
Not that I'm aware of. But generally gigs in Liverpool have rubbish lighting unless its Barfly or Carling.
 
i only work for the first 3 (maybe 4 if i can stretch it) of a band (so ill generally take less than 100 pics of a band), then you gotta just let them get on with the gig, i also stay nice and low because otherwise you risk getting in the crowds way at a small venue. i shoot with either a 50mm f1.8, 85mm f1.8 or a 18-50mm f2.8 all wide open, high up the iso range, tend to play with manual like pete said. if i use flash i bounce it and use it sparingly.

ill have to check out profesional photo mag for the article, then again if its writen by you know who then i doubt ill read it :lol:


its something that takes alot of practice to get right but can be very rewarding
 
thanks for all the advice, however, due to the football championships, the whole thing has been cancelled, as merseyside has much better things to do on that date, also thier flights from scotland had been altered again due to the extra air traffic that is expected in and out of liverpool.

they are still coming but only to visit john Peels pub and hometown, since helen mccookerybook was in one of his promoted bands when she was in the punk band the chefs then scat (anyone ever heard of them?..nope me neither).

I am a little relieved but also a little disapointed, but thankyou to everyone who offered advice, I may need it a little later in the year...but I couldn't get my hands on the issue of proffesional photography..I tried woolies, wh smith and tescos and all sorts of newsagents to no avail.

here are a few links to the atrists
helen is an avid blogger too!
http://www.punkbrighton.co.uk/chefs.html
http://www.mccookerybook.com/
http://www.myspace.com/helenmccookerybook

and martin stevenson
http://www.daintees.com/

and one of the venues that they were playing and staying at, I took the pictures just as a part of their photo journal..the hotel california...Gritty and birkenheads place for live music.

hc.jpg


night.jpg
 
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