Band Photography

megameaty

I've been taking a few photographs for my boyfriends band and am finding it hard to get good stage photos. The main reason is the light. Everywhere they tend to play has really bright lighting at the centre of the stage (on the singer and drummer) and then really dull lighting on the edges (where the bassist and guitarist are). Last time they played I had to use a flash the lighting was so bad. When I developed them, although the exposure was fine it made it look like the band were playing in daylight. So basically I looking for any advice on how to get good stage photos with good lighting.

Another thing I'm curious about is what's better to use for band photography a digital camera or an SLR? Or does it really matter. Ive been using SLR but am considering investing in a good digital camera.

Oriel

The main thing is to use a high grain film (higher number) or a high ISO.
DotOrg, you wanna take over this one?

S.

Zombrex

megameaty wrote:

Another thing I'm curious about is what's better to use for band photography a digital camera or an SLR? Or does it really matter. Ive been using SLR but am considering investing in a good digital camera.

A Digital SLR (such as the Canon 350D) will let you mess around with film speed settings (ISO settings) while you are actually there. By taking a picture and straight away seeing what it looks like you can see what speed you should set the "film" (in the case of a digital camera that really means the CCD micro chip as it doesn't contain any photography film, but the terminology is the same) to get the best shot in the available light. With film in an analog SLR you really only have experience to tell you what would be best for the qiven light.

The only thing is, and I might be wrong about this, but the quality from a very high speed film (ISO 3200 for example) will be better quality than from a Digital SLR set to a very high speed, unless you have a professional quality digital SLR

DotOrg

an SLR or a DSLR with lots of fast (meaning a wide aperture) lenses is what you'll need

if his band are playing in rubbish venues with rubbish lighting you'll find it very hard to get good photos nbo matter how good a camera you have

have a read of this FAQ i wrote
www.AAAphotos.org/faq.htm

DotOrg

Wicknight wrote:

The only thing is, and I might be wrong about this, but the quality from a very high speed film (ISO 3200 for example) will be better quality than from a Digital SLR set to a very high speed, unless you have a professional quality digital SLR

all new dSLR's have better grain at high iso's than film, the older cameras such as the Canon 30D isn't really that good above iso800

but film grain at high iso's (such as Ilford B&W 3200) has a quality which is very hard to get with digital

FinoBlad

have a look at this guys photos on http://www.u2photos.com

he gives some tips on this page;
http://www.u2photos.com/about/index.html#42

megameaty

Hey,

Thanks for the advice everyone. Especially for that link to James Gouldens stuff DotOrg, its great. That guy has my dream job! I think if I wanna take this stuff seriously I'll have to get me a good dSLR.

DotOrg

i don't have the dream job really, it pays ****e

i've a normal day job too, but it is a good (but pretty expensive) hobby to get into

if you want me to drop down to your boyfriends next gig and do a few photos and give you a few pointers on shooting with your SLR, just send me a message or email

rymus

ach the case against splurging on a 70-200 2.8 just got a little less coherant.

megameaty

Holy moly, i just realised you are James. Am i right about that? I thought that link was to questions you had asked him. But you are him. Damn usernames confusing me.... Wow youre a very talented photographer. You photographed my friends band, Delorentos. Good Job....I don't think I'd be solely relying on it as a full time job either, but its definitely a great side project to have.

Thats a really generous offer. Not sure when their next gig is but when I find out I may indeed take you up on the offer if youre free. Thanks a million.

DotOrg

i'm a huge delorentos fan and they're cool to photograph too, i'll have some new shots of them up on mine and maybe their website soon

virtually nobody in ireland does it as a full time job but with the right contacts and a bit of luck you can make enough money to pay for all the expensive treats like the 70-200 IS worth it

Zombrex

DotOrg wrote:

virtually nobody in ireland does it as a full time job but with the right contacts and a bit of luck you can make enough money to pay for all the expensive treats like the 70-200 IS worth it

I always wondered, when you have been given permission to shoot at a concert, do you retain complete rights over the pictures, or do bands normally demand a percentage of ownership of pictures of them, and any money made off those pictures??

DotOrg

Wicknight wrote:

I always wondered, when you have been given permission to shoot at a concert, do you retain complete rights over the pictures, or do bands normally demand a percentage of ownership of pictures of them, and any money made off those pictures??

if there is no contract between band and photographer then the photographer owns full copyright to all images. they may be published freely in editorial news stories but selling them as posters or merchandise may cause the band to try and stop useage as they haven't given a 'model release' but often they won't do that as they want the publicity that comes with more pictures being out there.

very rarely some bands try and make photographers sign contracts so that they own the rights (though not the copyright) to the images and are free to use them as they wish or stop the photographer using them. (though generally they are badly written and not by a legal person so they would generally be laughed out of court if contested)

but i've never heard of a band trying to claim money made by a photographer off pictures but it may have happened

most of the time music photography is treated like any news photography, they just want photographers there for publicity reasons. the bands rarely pay us to be there though unless it's for a specific pupose such as a live cd/dvd cover etc or for a tour documentary book etc etc