Shooting a Heavy Metal Band

[tjdphotos]

It's all about having fun, let that run you. Also, it can be tricky in a venue with lighting, especially different colored lights on stage. Your camera must be fast, since it will be darker for half the shots so watch out for the noise. i'm usually at iso 800 or 400 with flash. F5.6 average. Don't forget to capture the creative stuff, journalistic stuff, as well as the regular boring shots...them all on stage. Get a closeup of the guitarplayer or bassplayer's right hand along the strings...action shots. Get the kickdrum with their name on it. Get some shots of their gear...amps and guitars on stage before they go on. Make sure you know where you can and can't go. Use bounce flash, but if the ceiling is black, this will be an issue. Each venue is different. Oh yeah, use a contract, especially if you want to keep the rights...especially if they are on the "verge" of being signed. Figure out an hourly rate for shooting and editing and give them all the photos on disc. Give them a discount if you want. Being a guitarplayer for years, I know what I would want shot for my own band, so that helps in giving others great photos. Here is one of my fav shots I took of a recent band:

I checked out that Ross Halfin site and I have to say, although he is pretty good with controlled lighting, he really seems to suffer during live shots. There is much better work on this site by our members.

Have fun and good luck!
Steve

What Band is this dude from?

 

[RyanLilly]

6. I'm assuming you know how to use your camera but I just thought Id add if your shooting them on stage make sure the light crew turns of the strobes and moving lights. You really dont want to deal with those!

Ok, I seriously Laughed out loud when I read this. Don't ask the anyone on the crew or the Lighting Designer to change anything for you; they won't, and you will look like an Idiot. The Production crew work for their client, not you. Plus after they tell you no, they will get on their coms and make fun of you to the rest of the crew.

What you can do is get a set list, and politely ask a few questions about the lighting, where/when strobes are used, Moles (audience blinders), Pyro, etc... Take some notes, that way you know what to expect and be a bit more prepared. Also if you shoot the band in the same settings, or even different bands with similar lighting rigs, you can easily anticipate whats coming next.


But seriously, don't try to tell/ask the production crew to do anything, they don't tell you how to take photographs.
One on an event, a member of the media came up to us(Lighting and Sound production) and told us, not asked us, that When the Celebrity came around to his side that we needed to turn down the music so a local celeb could ask him a question on camera. So we said shure, and changed nothing. The Media guy came back up to us after it was over and said, "well that didn't work out the way we had planned" I said, "that too bad" turned away and continued to work. That was a good day.

On not so good day, a coworker of mine was mixing at a concert and a guy made his way up to front of house and shouted "hey, Hey turn up the kick drum!" The engineer turn to him and yelled back, "Hey man, I don't come to your work and tell you the fries are burnt!"