This is an image of an Australian band, The Mabels, taken during their (still ongoing) Race For Floor Space 2000 (first-ever) tour of the U.S.

Technical: Kodak TMAX 400 CN Nikon FM2n Nikkor 200mm f4 at f8; 1/125 sec Sunpak 383 (My first flash, and this was the first time I've used it) Nikon Coolscan III

I'm mainly interested in hearing what I could have done differently (lighting, crop, perspective, etc.).

More images are available here: http://vermontindie.homestead.com/mabels.html (around a 300 kb d/l)

-- Steve Daniels (stevedaniels@yahoo.com), November 02, 2000

Answers

OK, here's tech info in a more readable format. I hope.

Kodak TMAX 400 CN

Nikon FM2n Nikkor 200mm f4 at f8; 1/125 sec

Sunpak 383 (My first flash, and this was the first time I've used it)

Nikon Coolscan III

-- Steve Daniels (stevedaniels@yahoo.com), November 02, 2000.

Probably a small nit-pick, but I think the subjects are too far apart, too close to the right and left borders of the photograph with not very interesting material in between them. I think the solution would have been to take individual photographs of each subject. Alternatively, perhaps changing your viewpoint to one side or another, or to wait for the two people to get closer together. There isn't really enough space around the "hands playing the guitars" to provide an effective balance, namely his, but also hers a bit. As it is, then, the composition is slightly awkward. It's not a bad photograph, though. Isn't that film nice? I think the tonality, sharpness, (and all that) are all pretty good.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), November 02, 2000.

The light is great. I'm impressed. Having tried to photograph bands in what is usually under-lit and very un-evenly lit conditions, I'm impressed with what you have achieved.

But I agree with Tony that the composition leaves something to be desired.... Try to focus on lust one of the players. The guy has a fine expression which would have made a suitable image. Get the artists closer (ask them?) or get further away (yeah, I know the light is going to be a problem...)

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), November 03, 2000.

Thanks for the encouragement and the positive feedback on the lighting.

I did have a chance to get a few shots of them separately.

Let me know what you think.

-- Steve Daniels (stevedaniels@yahoo.com), November 03, 2000.

I do a lot of this- heres what I've observed- you end up discovering that more often than not what you want to do you can't because:

Flash sucks. Maybe "the exposure is right on" but it just flattens everything out in an unflattering way. Maybe these are interesting people, and artistic people, but they aren't terribly attractive people and they need all the help they can get... You might be able to bounce the flash off the cieling, and get a more natural look, but you really need to work with the lights (and shadows) that are there- a fast lens- at least 2.8- is required for this stuff. (You can get a 135 2.8 for your Nikon pretty cheaply)

Of course, that prohibits you from getting both subjects in focus. But like I said if you want nice pictures you have to make comprimises....

These places are usually lit by track light cans- sometimes you can just walk over and twist them where you want them- wait till a player steps into the light, then shoot- (learn to do it with your fingers crossed) With CN, you just might be ok at 125th/F2.8. you'll be fine if you can pull off 1/60th.

Then theres the people themselves-- you have to wait till they open their eyes. Some players never open their eyes- in that case wait till the songs over, and they're acknowledging the applause (if any) that smile can save a roll. I usually wait a song or two to see if they make some "signature movement", or expression, then I wait for that... if they just stand there with their eyes closed and sing- you've got a problem...

Overall remember- you cant take a picture of the music- there has to be something visually interesting or significant going on to represent the music.....

This guy has the ultimate page on band photography-

http://photo.net/photo/canon/mirarchi/concert/concer_3.htm

You're off to a good start- but it ain't easy-

-- Chris Yeager (cyeager@ix.netcom.com), November 03, 2000.

I'm also firmly in the "flash sucks" camp and completely agree with Chris Y.'s post. Try looking for past threads on low-light shooting and high-speed film use; getting rid of the flash can improve your photos dramatically (in addition to making your photography much less obtrusive for the band and audience).

It's been nearly a decade since I've done much concert photography, and none of it is scanned. Maybe it's time to take a trip down memory lane. . .

-- Mike Dixon (burmashave@compuserve.com), November 03, 2000.

On this genre of photography I agree with the "flash sucks" group. Use a grainier film, no flash, look for back lighting, low angles, very close portraits, etc. Your photographs are dead on with exposure and focus but are "dead"...they lack "feeling" which may be created by less than perfect techincal technique.

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), November 03, 2000.

PS...this really shows my generation, but rent the Beatles movie "HELP!" It has many segments where "mood photography" was used when the group was playing and recording.

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), November 03, 2000.

Here are two pictures from the same show, taken within few seconds. Both are exposed for flash, but for the second shot I covered the flash with my hand.

...I rest my case :)

-- Christel Green (look.no@film.dk), November 04, 2000.

I guess I'll have to go against the trend. I don't think flash sucks. I think deep shadows from the flash sucks. I think loosing the atmosphere of the session sucks.

Christel's images are a good illustration. In the first there is lots of detail, in the second there is lots of atmosphere.

But don't you think there is too little detail in the second image?

I like flash, but you need to do two things:

1. Get it as far away from the centre of the camera as possible. You can get nice brackets that hold your flash to one side. They work. Stroboframe does a good series.
2. Get the power down! This is really important. Try to set your flash for two stops underexposure. This is enough to give catchlights and to bring a little detail and colour back into the image. Experiment a lot.

No, I don't have any scanned images to show you. Unlike Christel, I need more effort to get digital copies :-(

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), November 04, 2000.

I forgt:

There is a great tutorial to concert photography at http://www.photo.net/photo/canon/mirarchi/concert/concer_1.htm.

Flash is covered in the appendix but he only discusses slow-sync flash.

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), November 04, 2000.