First international concert-shoot

[Omag 2.0]

Hi all,

I haven't been around much lately, basically due to the fact that I've been shooting concerts for the last week. Last weekend at Songcity in Zottegem, Belgium, I was finally able to shoot some international stars.

Songcity is an event where 4 international singer-songwritters work together with 4 Belgian ones, in order to create new songs. The week is ended by a concert.

The performers are all legends in their field. Not the youngest, but they do put up a good show...


Elliott Murphy - American artist with a long history in music, currently living in Europe and performing on a regular basis with Olivier Durand, an amazing French guitarist.







Ellen Foley... Name doesn't ring a bell? Think Meatloaf's 'Paradise by the dashboardlights' - she's the woman in the song. The greatest hit she wrote was 'We belong to the night' and The clash wrote the single 'should I stay or should I go' around her.







Bob Neuwirth, another "big" guy. Work alongside Bob Dylan for many years and wrote 'Mercedes Benz' for Janis Joplin.




The fourth artist was Kit Hain, but somehow I didn't get any good shots of her, sadly...

Cheers,

Omag

[The Ruptured Duck]

Excellent shots!

[FsNovice]

Brilliant photos, the last one really captures the essence of a "gig" - the live unstudio like quality. I'm going to a Status Quo gig in a few months, but i shall never get even marginally on the fringes of what you class poor shots that you didn't post. Must be a tough life being a concert photographer, going to all these tiresome gigs and all that malarky

[61_OTU]

Great shots Kris, it's easy to see your skills developing. Can you tell us a little about how you set yourself up for these. I'm assuming that you used your Sigma 24-70.......but were these all with natural light, i.e. no flash?

Steve

[Omag 2.0]

Just got the Sigma 24-70 back from repair ( af-mechanism broke down, replaced), so all done with my Sigma 70-200 f2.8 and Canon EF 50-1.8

I never use a flash (partialy because it kills the atmosphere and partialy because I still have to learn using my Metz 58)

Basically, I aim for shuttertimes of 1/125 or faster. Depending on the light in the concerthall or tent, I start with ISO 800 and start working from there. In this case, I used f3.5 to f4.0 diafragma.

Usually I'm more in the f2.8-3.2 range, but that depends on the circumstances on stage.

Also, I aim for about 1 stop underexposure. That helps in cases where the artists wear white or strong coloured clothes against a black background. Otherwise the lighter parts will be overexposed ( burned-out).

It's all about experimenting really. Now I easely find the right settings and start looking into composition and timing. But be prepared to adjust as needed, because some artists have rapidly changing stagelighting.

[BigTruck]

well, once again you have blown me away with your concert shots, i appreciate you sharing yer info, good stuff to know for a learning photographer as myself, and as far as Ellen Folley, loved her back in the 80's and 90's, so cool that you got to see her!!!