Music Photography – Baby Habit, iji, and James Rabbit
Baby Habit, iji, and James Rabbit at Espresso News!
Another some sort of low down music show at the News
More music photography at ENews. It’s hard, see, this whole music photography thing. In a small venue, lets just say a coffee shop for example, there’s not a whole lot of lumens. Or as we in the trade say, “its dark as fuck and my ISO is through the roof.” What does that mean? Well, you, it means that while your band might be making sultry, indierotic tunes so new and obscure that hipstress panties are melting off for miles, the photographer can’t see shit. Oh sure, I can see and all that, but the little light box with a glass canon stuck to the front of it is going to make your photo look like that t-shirt from the 70’s you like to wear so much. You know the one, threadbare and still stained from your dad’s manly musk.
Back to the points, small venue music shows are my favorite and are also the hardest to shoot. There’s people everywhere, prime photo sniping spots are hard to find, the lighting is usually really low, and those awesome 3′ speakers are probably in front of half the band. Take that photo back to mom.
What to do in a situation like this? Here are a few tips:
- Get there early!
- Meet the band if you can, or nod at them if they’re too cool for your camera.
- Get a beer, you’ll need to relax.
- Take a flash, but try not to use it.
- Set your ISO at 1000+
- Go wide and slow, Aperture & Shutter
- Figure out where you need to be and camp out
As you can see by these photos, the grain is abound and in full force. This is the venue, band’s, producer’s idea of awesome show lighting. Get used to it.
Small venue music photography is intimate, there’s few people but that doesn’t mean its not packed. There’s loud music, beer, little space, and you’re close to the band (and so is everybody else). Get there early and check your gear. DO NOT SET UP A TRIPOD (what’r you, stupid?).
Take some test shots and get a beer, support local venues. Meet the band and watch how they’re setting up, try not to shoot from the band’s left, generally speaking that’s their closed side, shoot at their open side. Pray you didn’t forget your wide lens, but take a long lens too. Find a good spot and camp out, as soon as the crowd gets there good luck pushing through, you don’t want PBR on your fancy camera.
Pop your ISO over 1000, it may be grainy depending on what camera you have, but depending on the light when the band gets going you may need it. Remember that the lighting is going to change once the band gets started, don’t bank on that great lighting you have as they’re setting up, its going all sorts of gone.
Grab another beer and test your flash. Look, flashes are great if you know how to use them, but they’re almost always a bummer at a small show. Bright, obnoxious, and distracting. Try not to use a flash if you can at all help it. I’ve used them for sure, but I feel like an asshole when I do. Avoid if possible.
-CP
