Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Electric Love Song

A few months ago I went to Lyve on Whyte (now closed!) as I was invited to come and check out a band. It was a local group called "Electric Love Song" and I thought I would take the opportuntiy to practice some of my concert and musical photography.





I was pretty happy with what I came up with. The lighting, as always for a musical event, was horrid but I think I managed to adjust fairly well in post-processing.

I found that a lot of it was about location, as in the above image where I get to frame the guitarists head with some background lighting...

...and timing, as in this case where I catch a moving strobe just as it passes by to give me some hair highlights and a lens flare. Often enough those lens flares are undesirable and kitschy, but I think it works out pretty well in this instance.

One thing I have to work on is figuring out how to photograph a drummer. I can't seem to figure it out. I do take photos of them, but none of them come out looking at all interesting. I think there are several problems working here... specifically that they are always at the back, far away from where I will typically be standing and they have to move their hands quite quickly, making for a lot of blur given the longish shutter speeds that I have to work with.

I really need to learn to get up closer and use my prime (non-zoom) lenses. I feel like I shouldn't be on the stage, though, and I get annoyed when I see other photographers getting that close.Intellectually I understand that this is acceptable (with permission, of course) but on a visceral level I really don't want to get in the way of the audience.