Anonymous asked: "Is there like a trick in concert photography, I mean do you have standard settings before shooting a concert?"
There are no standard settings that work in every venue. No two concerts are ever the same. The lighting changes from band to band and sometimes even song to song. Here is a link to something I posted on my blog in 2009 with a little more detail about what goes through my head as I am shooting a concert. May 1st - Answer to a technical question.
Here are the New Found Glory photos that are mentioned in that article. I took these at The Phoenix here in Toronto which is notorious for only using dark all red lighting for an entire show.
Anonymous Asked: “Do you already set black and white when shooting something or do you change the picture to a black and white after capturing it in colour?”
I shoot all my photos in RAW format and convert them to black and white after the fact.
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Anonymous asked: "any chance we could see an instructional DVD or a seminar on music photography/business from you anytime in the near future? i would love to learn from you!"
It is a possibility but you are probably better off asking me questions through this blog and I will try to answer them directly. I will tell you that concert photography is something you can’t really learn without actually going and doing it. You can read all the tutorials you want but what it really comes down to is learning how to react in a certain situation without having to think about it. Most of the time when shooting a concert you have everything working against you and your main goal is to be better than all of those obstacles.
This photo of Glassjaw is an example of everything working against me and overcoming the challanges. Right before the band started playing I heard the guitar player ask if they could turn the lights up enough so they could actually see their guitars which in other words means that it was so dark you could barely see anything. Combine that with a band who moves around like crazy on stage and you end up with a whole lot of blurry photographs. I was also standing at side stage and the whole band played in a circle facing away from me. Luckily when Daryl happened to finally stop flailing around and was actually facing me I was totally ready and waiting.
I took this photograph at ISO4000, f2, 160th/sec. Normally I avoid shooting at 85mm, ISO4000 but I felt it was more important to have a photograph with no motion blur rather than worrying about how much grain it will have. I also try to not shoot at f2 when using my 85mm lens because at that focal length the depth of field is very small and if you aren’t fast enough, even the slightest movement can put the subject out of your zone of focus.
If you have any other concert related questions please feel free to ask and I will answer them here on the blog.
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Thursday, June 14th - Azari & III in NME Magazine
Check out the latest issue of NME Magazine to see my Azari & III feature I shot last month.
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Friday, June 8th - Town Moto Grand Opening
Last night my good friends Andrew and Marika had a grand opening party for their new motorcycle accessories shop here in Toronto called Town Moto.
If you missed the party then dont fret, the store will be around for a long time so go check it out at 132 Ossington Ave.
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Monday, June 4th - Tim Chaisson
Last week a did a photoshoot in my studio with Tim Chaisson. Tim is a great musican from PEI and one of Bumstead Productions‘ artists.
I will post some more photos from the shoot in the future. For now here is one I enjoy.
