Redwall Photo Blog

Ha Ha Tonka @ Subterranean

Tasha — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:37:17 +0000

Ha Ha Tonka is always fantastic, like I mentioned in my last post about them.

This set, aside from being long and including some songs I hadn’t heard before, also included an impromptu guest appearance by some of the Treaty of Paris guys that were in attendance – this whole show had a the feeling of a great party.

Shooting Notes

Once Ha Ha Tonka hit the stage, the lights brightened up at bit from the earlier sets, but as usual, SubT has spotty light with lots of strong colors. As you can tell from the pictures, some areas had red light, some yellow, and some green. They all mixed together and gave a rainbow sherbet effect. Not really the ideal situation. However, that’s the way it goes in small clubs.

I shot 99% of this set with the 35mm f/1.4 and the 135mm f/2, partially because of the light situation, but also because I’ve really taken to prime use lately. It’s always nice to mix it up. Also, I embraced the crowded stage and lack of pit and took to shooting between things and people to get a “peek-a-boo” effect to some of the pictures. You can really see what I mean on the first shot below.

Ha Ha Tonka @ Subterranean

Advanced (Sort Of) Concert Photo Editing

Tasha — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:52:03 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve a tutorial of any sort, so I thought I’d expand on my one-minute edit and do something a little more advanced. For this, the screenshots you will see are from Adobe CameraRaw and Photoshop CS4 because that was what I had open, generally I would probably do most of this in Lightroom with a splash of CS4 – however, this tutorial does also work for LR, the tools are just in a slightly different format in LR.

This tutorial really focuses on some tools to recover detail and fix color washes. The other night, I was shooting a show that had intense color washes of every color – green, blue, magenta, red, etc. It was hard to meter for, but worse than that, the photos were just flat since everything was a monotone of the current wash color.

I started off with this:

First thing I did was adjust white balance, exposure, recover some highlights with the recovery slider, fill lights, clarity, etc. These are standard edits that I do to all my photos.

I also turned down the vibrance a bit, so that the color wasn’t so overpowering. I return it just about to the standard amount at the end of the edit since I like nice, colorful pictures, but I find turning it down at this step gives me a better slate to work with:

I then went to the HSL tab, where I adjusted the hue of the magenta color – bumping it all the way to the right to add a bit more yellow:

Then I adjusted the saturation of the magenta, turning it down a bit, since it was so saturated and overpowering:

And to get some detail in the face and skin, I increased the luminance of the magenta:

This is kind of the trick… I went to the split tone tab and adjusted the highlight and shadow tones until the colors seemed more natural in the image:

And, like I said, I went back and turned up the vibrance now that I had made the rest of my adjustments:

As one last small step, this one done in Photoshop - I took out a bit of the red, because I thought the image was still a little too warm:

This is my final version, after slight cropping and a bit of sharpening… tada!:

Compare it to the “before”:

While the color is still not what you’d get from an arena light show, there is only so much you can do with certain types of light. I feel that after the edits, I got a usable photo that has a bit of dimension and detail to it! The whole edit took me under five minutes.

Do you have a trick that you use to combat washes? Please share!

Manchester Orchestra @ House of Blues

Tasha — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:36:09 +0000

This is yet another set from Q101’s Twisted concert series…. same night as The Bravery and As Tall As Lions.

Shooting Notes

Honestly, this was one of my least favorite sets to shoot from Twisted.

While I generally love smoky stages because I love the effect it produces, this smoke didn’t seem to do much in the way of cool effects and rather just made it really hard to focus (looking at the pictures now, it doesn’t look that smoky, but I swear, it was there). The band didn’t seem to interact with the audience that much, and stayed relatively far back on stage. I had a lot trouble getting pictures that were technically good as well as interesting. I did enjoy the Harry Caray masks though, even if they were a little creepy.

The majority of this set was shot with the 70-200mm and quite a bit of manual focusing.

Manchester Orchestra @ House of Blues (12.15.09) Twisted

Sick Puppies @ House of Blues

Tasha — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:22:21 +0000

Chicago loves Sick Puppies, so it’s always a treat when they make the trek from Australia for a show.

Despite having run into Sick Puppies at Angels & Kings before, I’ve never seen them live. I was missing out, because they are fantastic. Sometimes it’s hard for a three-piece to both entertain and make music that sounds full, like a recording, but they did both. Very talented, and from what I’ve seen of them at A&K, and heard, they’re also super nice, which always makes me like a band even more.

Shooting Notes

You might notice that there is an abundance of photos of bassist Emma Anzai and drummer Mark Goodwin, but only a few of vocalist Shimon Moore. This is because there was a large object (humidifier? fogger?) blocking the pit right down the middle, and obstructing most of the view to the other side of the stage. I was on Emma’s side (Mark was pretty much dead center), and was really only able to get a few shots of Shimon when he popped over to my side of the stage for a few moments. While kind of annoying, that’s part of what concert photography is about – adjusting to unalterable conditions and making it work. For a less powerful/energetic band, the obstruction might have been more of an issue, but Sick Puppies is so much fun to shoot that I hardly missed the other side of the stage.

The moody smoke was interspersed with bits of white light for this set, which is one of my preferred light set-ups. Aside from only being able to cover one side of the pit, the only other difficult part of shooting this set was keeping up with Emma. She is one of the most active bassists I’ve shot in a long while.

I used the 70-200mm and 24-70mm, and stayed mainly around 5000-6400ISO, since I had to keep shutter speeds around 1/160-1/200 to compensate for the fast movement. Aperture was f/2.8 as usual.

Sick Puppies @ House of Blues (Twisted)

Resources That Everyone Should Know About

Tasha — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:44:32 +0000

I’ll take a little break from music photos to share a few free resources that I use daily and have made my life much easier.

The first is Dropbox. Dropbox is a file sharing site/program that allows you to just “drop” files into a folder on your computer to share with others. The files you drop into Dropbox are given a unique link, which you can then share with others. I use it for almost all of the files I need to send to clients, and also use it to share files between computers.

The main reason I love it is that you don’t have to connect to open an FTP program, connect to the FTP, then upload…. the time I save being able to simply put a file in a folder that sits on my desktop is amazing. The other reason it’s amazing is that your files are accessible anywhere… even if the computer you’re on doesn’t have an FTP program, or you don’t have the link for the file, Dropbox has an interface online where you just sign into your account and can access your files. Try it out here!

The other resource I use constantly is Signature Confirm. Signature Confirm is an online contract-signing service. You create your own contract and then email it to your client via Signature Confirm. The client can then review the contract and electronically sign it. I especially love Signature Confirm for my live music work because, so often, it’s practically impossible to meet up with the band before or after the show to get a signed paper contract. Getting the contract signed online before the show makes the day of the shoot much less stressful. You can sign up for Signature Confirm here.

I hope my little informative interlude has helped point you in the direction of some fabulous resources. If anyone else has any online services that they use and love, let me know!

The Bravery @ House of Blues

Tasha — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:40:43 +0000

Continuing in the theme of my last post, this set is also from Q101’s Twisted concert series. Manchester Orchestra and As Tall As Lions also performed the same night.

Shooting Notes
You’ll notice the prevalence of black and white shots in this set… usually that means the light wasn’t that great. Well, the light wasn’t that great (reddish in color and not much front light)… so that theory held up in this case.

However, there are some bands that I think lend themselves well to black and white, and I think The Bravery is one of those bands. I can’t exactly explain why I feel that way – they’re not a throwback or super artsy band. Just a feeling, and I like to go with my feelings when it comes to photos.

I used my 16-35mm quite a bit for this set, even though the band only occasionally came to the edge of the stage. But, singer Sam Endicott is so tall and skinny that the distortion of the wide angle made him taller and skinnier… it was an interesting effect, and one that I wanted to explore, so I kept the wide angle on hand much of the set. Yet, you never want to have only one look in a set of photos, so I also used the 70-200mm for some more “standard” shots.

The Bravery @ House of Blues (Twisted)

The Used @ House of Blues

Tasha — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:04:17 +0000

The Used is one of those bands that everyone knows. They’ve been around forever, and had several hits… even if you’re not a fan, I’m sure you know at least one song.

In fact, I remember back in 2002 or early 2003, listening to a certain member of The Dog & Everything (a local Chicago band) sing “The Taste of Ink” during a hot summer load-out after the LaGrange Bandshell show. It’s odd that I remember that, but I think that’s when I actually started listening to The Used.

It’s those kinds of bands, bands that have been around so long that you have memories built around them, that are exciting to shoot. The Used was no exception.

Shooting Notes

This was part of Q101’s Twisted, a five night music festival, and the light was very dim for The Used’s set. Lots of dim red lights, with only a few bursts of bright light (which is where the majority of these photos comes from). 30STM also played the same night as The Used, as well as the After Midnight Project.

Most photogenic part of the three songs was when singer Bert McCracken leaned out into the audience for some crowd participation. He stayed up toward the front of the stage for a while immediately following holding the mic to the crowd, which also yielded some good shots.

I stuck to the extremes for this set – the 16-35mm and 70-200mm. Nothing less than the extremes for The Used, right? Exposure was all over the place – anywhere between 1200ISO-6400ISO, 1/100-1/200. I always shoot at f/2.8, so at least that was constant. The drastic change in exposure was due to the bursts of bright white, which went right back to the dull red. There really wasn’t much middle ground for this set (similar to my lens selection, I guess).

The Used @ House of Blues (Twisted)

Gold Motel @ Schubas

Tasha — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:25:58 +0000

Gold Motel opened up for Butch Walker, which is a hard spot to be in. How do you impress Butch Walker fans, many of whom believe that Butch Walker is the ultimate in live performance (and I might be included in that statement)? However, Gold Motel was good, and I heard a lot of the audience members also saying that they enjoyed Gold Motel’s set.

Singer Greta Morgan might look (and sound) familiar to you. She was previously in the popular Chicago band The Hush Sound, and after they went on hiatus, she formed Gold Motel. Gold Motel has a similar sound, but a bit more laid back and throwbacky (don’t you love making up words?). It was a good choice for an opener for Butch, and I can see them playing together again.

If you want to check Gold Motel out, visit their Myspace.

Shooting Notes
As I mentioned in the Butch Walker post, I actually went to this concert to enjoy the show, not necessarily to take pictures… so there are only a few shots from Gold Motel’s set. Since I couldn’t move around, and wasn’t in the best spot for photos, I mainly focused on playing with the light the few times I did lift the camera to my face. There was a red spot that gave me some interesting rim lighting. Other than that, nothing much worth noting.

5D Mark II, 135mm & 24-70mm. Settings were around 1/200, f/2-f/2.8 (depending on lens), and 2500ISO-4000ISO.

Adam & Kevin Recording @ Audio Is King

Tasha — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:21:13 +0000

Kevin Andrew Prchal and Adam Krier (of AM Taxi and LBC) just recorded a Bruce Springsteen cover, “Reason To Believe,” in response to the crisis in Haiti. They explained why they did it it much better than I could:

“We chose the song ‘Reason To Believe’ by Bruce Springsteen, not only for its brilliance, but mainly for its significance in the way the world took form and found hope out of an otherwise hopeless situation. This song is for the tireless doctors, the relentless volunteers, the steadfast soldiers and the separated families who continue to search for their loved ones. They, like the rest of us, at the end of every hard earned day find some reason to believe.”

They, as well as Augie & Dan from Audio Is King, were nice enough to let me take pictures during their quick recording session. Thanks all!

To download the song, head over to Kevin’s website: http://www.kevinandrewprchal.com. What are you waiting for?

Shooting Notes

I would like to dedicate these shooting notes to Augie Schmidt, since ,with his addition of a light to the studio, it is much easier to shoot in. So, thanks Augie for the light, it has changed my life.

Shooting at Audio is King is always fun. There are always interesting people, interesting objects, and never a shortage on hilarity. Before the aforementioned light, the ambient light was minimal, and I would have to shoot at 6400ISO, 1/60th, f/1.4… but now with the wonderful light, I can shoot around 5000ISO, 1/125, f/1.8. Not ideal, but much more manageable.

Other than that, the only difficulty is trying to stay out of the way, as there IS a job being done. I used my 135mm f/2 quite a bit for just this reason. The longer length let me stand back against a wall and still get the shots I wanted.

(And this is my husband Aaron who likes to play drums. He’s cute, isn’t he? I’ll keep him.)

Kevin & Adam Recording @ Audio Is King

Bruiser @ Angels & Kings

Tasha — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:43:35 +0000

Bruiser got in touch a few days before the show to see if I could cover it, and luckily, I was free. The concert was part of the One Manno Show concert series that is hosted at Angel & Kings every Wednesday by Ryan Manno. Usually featuring local bands, the shows are always a good time.

From their Myspace, I think this is an apt way to describe Bruiser: “Sometimes we sing & sometimes we scream, but neither in that “LA crap-rock” or “wear-your-sister’s-jeans” sort-of way.” They don’t lie.

Bruiser has also just signed to Window Licker Records, who also co-hosted the show this past week. Congrats to them!

Shooting Notes
The stage at Angels & Kings is small, so it’s difficult to get a clear shot, since everyone is crammed up there with all their gear. For that reason, I actually used the 70-200mm quite a bit, despite the small stage and being right against the stage. Shooting across the stage allowed me to not only avoid the “mic in the face” look, but also made it easier to isolate the performers from the gear.

The light is comprised of LED panels, and is either red or bright white. Despite the brightness of the white, Bruiser was kind enough to deal with the white so I could get some shots (the red LEDs definitely do not get along with my camera). While the white light isn’t exciting, it is even and consistent, which is nice. I just wish there was a bit of back light… but oh well.

Bruiser @ Angels & Kings