July 29, 2010
4:00 pmBending the Rules
I’ve done a ton of promo photos for bands, and anything of that sort. But, the one style of promotional photographs that I have pondered about, and haven’t really grasped a specific style to is LIVE photos. Most of the bands would hire me for a job, probably won’t be playing in very classy venues.
The Great Exploration is a group of guys who play progressive, rock, or something music. They are an example of a band that hasn’t played in many classy venues. The show pictured above was in Roseburg Grange or something. The evening’s roster also included a couple other local bands, and touring bands Kiros, Sent By Ravens, Queens Club, and Emery. It was quite the show I must say, but 8 bands can be a bit of a long evening of loud music.
So, The Great Exploration played earlier in the day, when there was still daylight (luckily) and as you can tell, there is a TON of gear on stage from the touring bands. These photos, including the photo featured here, were taken with my 28-70mm 2.8L at 26400 ISO. Yeah, that’s right, after changing some settings, I was able to use the maximum ISO level on my camera to achieve these photos. Now, yes, as you can see, that grain is NOT added, it’s actually the effect of the extremely high ISO, and occasionally I even had light leaks! I used this to my advantage to create this grungy textured image that represents the venue atmosphere deeply and accurately.
But, is this my style for live photos? I guess it depends on the band and the venue. Gotta work with what I’ve got!
What do you think of the uber-grainy style?
Here are some more from the evening
I love it! Great work, especially since the venue lighting was awful.
Thanks Kit! Yeah, the lighting was pretty crummy, luckily you guys did have a bit of daylight left for me!
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