Beginner Pub Gig Photography

tonybassplayer

tonybassplayer

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Tony
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My wifes away this weekend and one of my old bands are playing locally so I am going to watch them as I am depping for them in a few weeks so be nice to meet up and hear the new songs so decided to take my camera and make a full night of it.

They are very much up for the photography aspect and I will have access anywhere including on the "stage" if required ( it's a pub so stage is a grand name for a small postage stamp sized area usually between the toilets and the smokers exit door )

I am totally new to this but read quite a bit on here so these are my thoughts and just checking I am on the right tracks.

Manual setting
Highest ISO ( Fuji bridge which only goes to 1600 )
125 minimum shutter but 250 better
Widest apperture possible
No direct flash ( but ok to bounce some of the roof perhaps occasionally ?? )

They haven't loads of lighting but guess I will have the advantage if I get there early of actually being able to position it where I want :)

Sound like I am on the right track ??

Wish me luck
 
Expect s***ty light and poor sight lines, with any luck the beer will be decent. Try and avoid flash as it will highlight the pub decor more than it will the band.. you want the pub decor dark and the band lit if at all possible.

Take the camera, go for the craic and treat any photo opportunity as a bonus (y)
 
Pretty much. At the wide end you can get away with a slower shutter speed. I suspct on your camera at 1600 iso you'll be needing 1/60th to 1/30th though.

Main thing is get it in focus and use a bit of thought to frame it - for guitar bands i'd suggest starting on the left side as that way the shots won't be full of guitar headstocks. Frame it so the mic isn't covering their face and try and get a view where there's light on the faces/no shadows of mics etc.
I usually find I throw away the wider shots and it's the closeups that really work best.

You can get away with underexposure for the sake of it being sharp. A correctly exposed but blurred image is no use to anyone and can't be fixed in post...!

There's a few of mine up here, all taken with a crop sensor 650D. My 6D arrives next week...can't wait!
http://landwomble.tumblr.com/
 
Have a word with your mates first and see if there are any angles they'd like taken. Mu hubby's a bass player and I get into trouble for chopping the headstock off the bass. Not sure if other musicians are so fussy ;-). You might struggle with the shutter speed, but as has already been said, under expose. Depending on the lighting you can probably go down at least a couple of stops, possibly go for the silhouette against the lighting. You might want to have a look at the set list and see if there are any slower numbers where they're not bouncing about too much. I have to tell myself not to bob about when trying to take snaps.

If the band have control of the lights, see if they can favour blue or green and leave off the red - it's a bitch for getting detail. The blue and green light makes better mono conversion - in my opinion anyway.

There's a few from pub gigs on my fb page but nowhere near the standard of landwomble's above, but they do give you an idea of the range of crappy lighting.

Most of all, enjoy yourself and the band. Apologise to folks for getting in their way and they're usually ok to have you block their view for a bit.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynd...9033359384?sk=photos_stream&tab=photos_stream
 
Many thanks for the replies. I'm pretty familiar with the set list as I was playing it every week till this time last YEAR and fortunately they don't jump about too much as I was the baby of the band at 55 :)

I will put the lights on a slow fade to change the colours rather than the more normal sound to light quick changes.

Slightly amended :)
 
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If you can, shoot in manual mode. If you let the camera meter try and chase the exposure of the changing lights you'll miss more shots than just shooting for the average.
 
If you have control of the lights then you've got an advantage! I find a single, fairly hard and tight spot from stage left or right angled at 45 degrees in does wonders for contrasty faces with light and shade, especially when processed for B&W...
 
Yes, red can be a real pain, but I just love gigs for the sheer 'on the hoof' nature of the job.

Of course if you ever get to any biggish gigs with a photo pass don't forget it is usually 2 or 3 numbers then out of the front photographers mosh pit. The big gigs are great not necessarily for the performers but for great lighting, whereas the smaller ones where you know the band, the lighting is a pain most of the time.

I tend to try a couple spots in the room to mix it up and a lot depends on how the stage is set out.

Sometime shooting right from the back of the room gets great atmosphere shots. Balconies are even better.

And don't forget to turn the lens on the crowd occasionally.

http://principlespix.co.uk
 
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It will be quite nice to have some control of the lights from "off stage" as one of the bands I was in I had foot controllers strategically placed around me to trigger colour, brightness and pace changes. We also had a laser for certain songs and a haze machine so I was stuck in that spot all night and felt to be tap dancing whilst bass playing.
 
Just remembered that we also have a dance music festival at work on Saturday night ( I work at a farm that is also a visitor centre etc and we hold music events in the large barn from time to time ) and to be honest not my type of music but could be a great source for some interesting pictures and once again I would have access all areas so I may call in there for an hour first and maybe go back later as it will go on very late.

Getting pretty excited about Saturday night now.
 
Well that was an enjoyable night but hard work on the photography front.

Don't think my camera was up to it

Had the ISO at the highest (1600) and the apperture as wide as possible but the shutter speeds were far too slow for moving subjects.

Will try again when I get my new camera and hope for better results.
 
Process some of them with high contrast. You might be surprised at thevresults :)
 
Schoolboy error number 1

Just realised that my polarising filter was on so that can't have helped the light situation at all.

What a numpty !!
 
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