Concert photography marks one of my more frustrating endeavors. Sometimes I get it right on and other times (more often) I fail miserably with some shots. I changed tactics with a show I did a couple of weeks ago and set my camera to burst mode.
Before I used to always take my shot in one-shot mode and then wait for my next opportunity. Needless to say with AI Servo mode that it was really easy to lose a shot if the lens was focused on something other than the performer such as the microphone stand or the neck of the guitar. I found in the Since The Flood show that using burst mode would yield me at least one good picture in a given series of shutter actuations since the AI servo focus is constantly adjusting.
That leads me to the frustration of last night. The show was at Warehouse Live in the old warehouse district of downtown Houston, TX. It’s a nice venue and it’s the first time I’ve had a chance to shoot there. I did get some good shots, but here my big issue was lighting. Some of my shots that would have really kicked butt were the worst in terms of lighting. I took a little over 800 pictures last night, but the proportion of good to bad was really low in relation to the Since The Flood show.
I’m still in the process of going through the images. Hopefully soon I’ll have some of them up on my Flickr page. Here is an example of one where my skill with the use of existing lighting resulted in a bad picture:
This is Nothing, vocalist for the band Mushroomhead. This dead-on shot resulted in a level of noise that was completely unacceptable. The problem for me was that he posed for me to take this shot and the moment was gone as he had a show to perform. I tried to lower the noise level in AKVIS Noise Buster and got this result:
The noise level dropped significantly, but this was the best I could do with the noise and still keep the detail of the shot. The blown highlights and color aberrations also would need extensive Photoshop work to make this a serviceable photograph. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed. But the best part is I got a great shot of Nothing earlier in the evening:
At any rate, I do need to get some more of these shots processed. As always, comments are welcome and encouraged so I can grow as a photographer.
I really liked the third picture. About the first shot, the noise isn’t really obvious on the thumbnail. In fact, it looks quite good. But when you blow the picture up, you can really see it. I’ve taken some concert photos as well (well, sort of). I could use some constructive criticism. 😉
son of a bitch, though he may have been born first, I had that idea first. haha nice shots though. Which mushroomhead singer is that? I’m lovin’ that apron texture.
hey hot shot, i changed my blog name…it’s
markalans.blogspot.com
hey dude I have a different blog name now…
it’s
markalans.blogspot.com