Your favourite techniques to "save the day" (in ca

Actually, what I need to learn is to get good "direct" shots in cases where nothing else is possible ;). ultra/extreme wide angle, for instance, is not a trick for me, it's a sort of starting point. With a UWA lens, it is easier to get photos that "haven't been taken before", so to speak.

There's a lot of things that can be used when making concert photos, I guess a book could be written about that subject :)

BTW that first shot is one of the best I remember seeing from you.

Yep.
Like the first one (would crop a bit of the bottom however).

I mostly try to change my position so that the light looks more interesting. Smoke helps. If all else fails, the Lensbaby helps as well ;)

By the way, this whole question will be on a whole different level when shooting for magazines [as a pro]. You'll have to make the best of the situation and work with what you got, since you aren't always able to choose what to shoot and still you have to get something publishable even if the conditions are horrible. You'll also have to have passion for the photography even when you photograph something that you don't particularly care about, such as male strippers (been there, done that).

I was requested to shoot a few bar gigs. One of them was practically indirect daylight, no smoke - not a very interesting setting. I'll post a few images soon just to show what I got.

To expand a bit. Any tricks to save the day with...

1.) a lot of multicolored lighting in the face
(I get either closeups with 15 plus magenta, red, green and blue colors in a face, or a full body shot with a nicely multicolored lit background with a guy whose face is completely washed out and also colored).

2.) Red dim light with low contrast.

3.) A band guy shoving the mic up his nose while standing to close to the mic stand and cuping the mic, at the same time covering off the face up to the eyes

4.) The guitarists standing at the edges of the stage lit mostly just by ambient light... or whatever gets through from the vocalist's spotlight.

shoot some stock. alwas a good way to get some extra chash in when all else fails. I have shot some stuff where it was impossible to shoot the band due to light (or lack thereof). I tend to turn away from the band and get some emotions from the crowd. There are a couple of ways to show what a show is about whithout showing the band. It does require some more effort and thought though.

That wouldn't work for me. My portal wants a minimum of 8 plausible shots of the band from every gig, PLUS whatever else I come up with at the venue. So I have to shoot at the band in the most 'crocodlic' conditions and get... something, anything at all. And the above things I've listed are a huge problem in smaller clubs.

JanaBlomqvist wrote:
That wouldn't work for me. My portal wants a minimum of 8 plausible shots of the band from every gig, PLUS whatever else I come up with at the venue. So I have to shoot at the band in the most 'crocodlic' conditions and get... something, anything at all. And the above things I've listed are a huge problem in smaller clubs.

If you are doing it for free for the portal, switch to a web site that doesn't have demands :/

I have tried to. There are too many photographers in Helsinki. The website editors have never even cared to reply. Not a single time. Or maybe I don't have good enough material - I don't know.

So Kalle, do you basically mean that nothing can be done in those situations to get plausible shots? Especially low-contarst dim red light - they do a lot of that in Nosturi and a bunch of smaller venues.

JanaBlomqvist wrote:
To expand a bit. Any tricks to save the day with...

1.) a lot of multicolored lighting in the face
(I get either closeups with 15 plus magenta, red, green and blue colors in a face, or a full body shot with a nicely multicolored lit background with a guy whose face is completely washed out and also colored).

2.) Red dim light with low contrast.

3.) A band guy shoving the mic up his nose while standing to close to the mic stand and cuping the mic, at the same time covering off the face up to the eyes

4.) The guitarists standing at the edges of the stage lit mostly just by ambient light... or whatever gets through from the vocalist's spotlight.

1) Shoot Raw and go for a 'pleasing' rather the 'accurate' look in PP.
2)Shoot Raw, High ISO (duh). If all else fails: B&W conversion. Don't blow the red channel!
3) Try to catch an eye / a look, or photograph from the side if possible. Photograph another band member ;D
4) ISO 3200? Shutter drag / flash? Don't shoot him?

Aside: If "My portal wants a minimum of 8 plausible shots of the band from every gig, PLUS whatever else I come up with at the venue.", they can pay, or take what's freely given. You can do no more then try if conditions are bad...

Thanks for the tips, Rene!

1. I do shoot RAW in all occasions.
2. And ISO 1600 99% of my gigs anyway. Can you elaborate on "don't blow the red channel'?
3. I ususally try from the front or 2/3, I really should try side shots more.
4. I have never really tried ISO 3200. I am always a bit cautious of that much grain. But maybe I should give it a go at some minor gig. Might pretty well be that I am exaggerrating how bad it would look.

It's not only about the portal. One of my beliefs is the difference between a good and a plausible photographer is exactly how they perform under really bad conditions.

To everybody : Any compositional tricks for the case when a performer covers the face with his hands while holding the mic almost the whole time? Or has so much hair in the face that there's only a tip of the nose visible?

I don't prefer to shoot in RAW unless absolutely necessary. Slows the work flow up, and the editing takes much longer. Using an off-camera flash with a white index card bent for bounce and hard-light diffusion works nicely with a long lens and helps that you still have mobility to tinker with the different ways the flash hits while shooting from certain angles. If the flash is too distractinc, and there is poor stage light, I prefer to shoot in B/W at high ISO: 1250, 1600 and use the grain to my advantage. Obviously, get your safe shots in the bag first, then start trying things.. I usually get a pleasant surprise, and that's how I've learned: through experimentation. That's my 2 cents.

The above shot was High ISO (1600), and this shot is off-camera flash.