A Gig Photo Gig

Bassist for Red Rockin' Wolf
Ed Caramanico.

I get the chance every so often to photograph bands during their gigs. I prefer to be able to get audience participation with the band but sometimes it just really doesn't happen or when there are circumstances that prevent it from being photographed. Such was the case at this gig. For this gig I was set out to capture a bit of action and emotion. If the members aren't jumping in the air or doing something extreme that can show movement then the task becomes harder and I have to find a way to fulfill my task. Here, in the photo above, the bassist clearly has his fingers on the frets and has the bass propped away from his body. This shows that there is some type of action going on. Of course the bass is normally against the body so one would figure there is movement and in their head and conjure up the thought that he is shaking the instrument for effect.

Normally I do not use flash But have come to the conclusion that during these gigs that are on the ground floor (no stage) it is safe for me to break out the flash. I would not want a musician to fall off the stage because of a blinding flash I popped off. So I decided that if I have to use flash I am going to use gels. First reason being the lights on these performers are gelled lights being around 200-300 watts each. Plus there are strobes as well. Pretty blinding to begin with, right? So in order to keep with the colors I used 2 flash units. The background flash has a CTB (blue) gel on it and the main flash had a CTO (orange) gel. And I set my camera's white balance to tungsten which makes the light from the orange color corrected to white and the blue bluer. I made it a point to keep the flash at a low output so my ISO is still high enough at 400 but not so high that noise becomes an issue (Where's that D3 I want, will beg, work for, for my birthday). However this is enough to get some very good photos and I don't blind the performers.














Drummer
For RRW
Gil Walters


Normally I will setup the blue to light up the background. and take the CTO with me on either a small tripod or just lay it on the floor if nobody is going to crush it that is or I'll have an assistant. I try to keep the main flash between 45 and 60 degrees off my center with the subject.

With the above photo I was looking to get the sticks up but found it difficult to capture even though I am an experienced musician myself. It was quite amusing to me that this just didn't happen and so I started to laugh out loud. Good thing I caught myself doing that people were starting to wonder. So I looked for some emotion in his face. Here he has his eyes closed and a slight smile along with his hand positions denoting a sweet spot in the rhythm just before the hit. And that shows he has a bit of groove going on.

I hope y'all enjoyed this post. Please tell me what you think by posting your comments below. And I will get back with you next week.
Peace,
B