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liesandstatistics asked: Shooting concerts is very difficult to do because of the constant motion and the low light. You, however, are quite good at it. What are your recommendations for getting good results from rock show photography?
If we’re talking club shows, basically you want to use equipment that can do the most with a small amount of light. You want your camera to be able to capture the available light—using a flash usually results in flat, unflattering images, so I don’t recommend using one. So, use lenses that can get really wide: f/2.8 or (preferably) lower; my most-often used aperture for rock shows is f/1.8. A good (and cheap!) lens for small to mid-size clubs is a 50mm f/1.8. For bigger clubs (if you’re not right up at the front), you might want something like an 85mm or longer. For small places or closeup, something wide might be better. I’ll often use a 30mm f/1.4 if I’m right against the stage.
You want a camera (or film) that can perform well at high sensitivities—ISO800 and above. I usually set my digital camera at 800, and if that’s not enough, I turn it up until I can get shutter speeds fast enough to stop motion (up over 1/60 of a second). I usually shoot aperture priority or manual mode. If AP, I’ll spot-meter on something bright-ish, like a face, and use exposure lock if I need to recompose. In manual mode, if the light is constant, I’ll find a shutter speed I like and just go with it.
If at all possible, go to places with decent light. It doesn’t even have to be bright light, but something a little more than one dark red lightbulb above the stage will go a long way. Unfortunately, a lot of clubs and bands seem to like dim, red light (the worst) or badly mixed colored light. Colored lights can be a real challenge, especially if there’s something like a bright orange light on someone’s face and a bright green light on their body. I shoot in RAW mode, mostly because I can do adjustments on the white balance during editing. Converting to B&W can be a way to deal with bad colored light, but to me, that’s a last resort and feels like cheating.
Timing shots is key—in the digital age, some people just take a ton of pictures and pick out the one that works, which is fine, but that just makes a lot of work for yourself in editing. You can learn to anticipate when someone’s going to do something interesting. One of the things I’ve noticed (and now can’t stop noticing) is how many people take pictures of singers that look like the mic is stuck to their mouths. That kind of shot is rarely interesting, so I try to avoid it as much as possible.
Get a good spot. I prefer the sides of the stage, otherwise you often have to deal with mic stands getting in the way of your shot, and it’s a lot less annoying to the other people at the show if I’m not standing in the middle holding up a camera.
onesmallfire asked: I've really enjoyed watching and reading about your experiments with photography on Flickr. A few of your projects are inspiring me to try some of my own. When did you first realize that this was going to be a passion for you?
When I started getting really into photography, I of course loaded up on fancy digital equipment, and gained enough skill on my own to make a passably “good” photograph. But I felt pretty lost in the sea of good photos from everyone else who figured out how to make them on their digital cameras too. (Quick example: I like shooting rock shows, but these days, rock shows are rotten with photographers. I don’t have the time or opportunity to get good enough at it to really distinguish myself, so I’ve lost a bit of my original enthusiasm for it.) It was around this time that I happened upon the bag of negatives in a thrift store, negatives from a Vietnam War protest in 1969. I took them home and held them in my hands, looked at them through the light, and made some positives with my digital camera. The images sprang to life, and I was incredibly moved by their warmth and clarity, and by the capacity of film to keep them safe across 40 years. I went out and bought a film SLR, a developing tank & accessories, chemicals, and film.
After that, I think it was the finding of the 16mm film from the ’70s, and getting the idea to wind it side-by-side into a 35mm canister was what made me realize that I really loved experimentation. Of course, tinkering like that is totally how I know that I’m my mother’s daughter, and my grandfather’s granddaughter—he of the basement workshop and perpetual motion project, she who taught me how to solder and how to make little circuits out of a couple of wires, a battery, a lightbulb, and a resistor.
That kind of background and the continual search for a unique voice are what I think has drawn me toward experimentation, antiquated techniques, and handmade equipment. Film is an ideal medium for it, because it’s been around long enough that all kinds of stuff is available—old film, obscure cameras, liquid emulsions, the ability to mix & match formats, etc. I’m certainly still in the process of finding that voice, in fact I’m still very much fumbling around and waiting for something to ‘stick’. What I lack is the patience to sit down and work on those projects sometimes. But every time I get inspired to try something new, I know I’m getting closer.
lalitree asked: Can you ask yourself questions?
Yes, you can.
Something doesn’t add up here, though I’m sure there are some facts missing:
I’ve run pitchfork.tumblr.com for almost a year now. I had several posts up and I followed 28 people with the account. All my posts are now gone and my address has been changed to pitchfork1.tumblr.com. Where my blog once stood now stands the official Tumblr for Pitchfork Media Inc. […]
As per our policy, we emailed this account’s address to inquire about the dormant account. After you failed to respond for 72 hours, we released the domain.
Pitchfork emailed Tumblr the other day to ask how we would go about securing those URLs to use them for our publication. […] Within 10 minutes, a tumblr representative responded: “Hi, Megan. Those URLs are now free. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with. Thanks for using Tumblr!”[…] (emphasis mine)
Edit: Curiouser and curiouser.
Edit2: Furthermore, the post at Pitchfork says of the former Tumblr blog “the last post that had been made was on November 18, 2009…There had been a total of five posts ever made to the account.” But the Tumblr response says “There were not ‘several posts,’ on that account, there were zero.” But if that were true, how would Pitchfork media know that there were five posts and when the last one was?
Blizzard of 2010
PENELOPE
…But you can look at the most menial everyday thing, and depending on how your pinhole camera eats the light, it’s warped and peculiar and imperfect. It’s not reproduction, it’s storytelling.
BLOOM
It’s a lie that tells the truth.
PENELOPE
I dunno about truth. A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.
If you didn’t see The Brothers Bloom last year, consider checking it out in this one. Beautifully shot, great performances from the awesome cast, wonderful story/script, and yay — pinhole cameras!
My 2009 in pictures, a sampler. I know that for a lot of people, 2009 can’t be over soon enough. But looking over my Flickr uploads for this year, I realized that for me, 2009 kind of ruled. Costa Rica, the rock and roll cruise, the HOH festival, Zoop!, our new house, XX Merge, the Durham Pride parade, Colbert, Troika festival, South of the Border, the new Durham skatepark, TMG & Final Fantasy. Thanks, 2009. Onward!