DIY Photography » Concert Photography: Awesome article here.

I have shot concert photography for a few years now, and here are my tips and some samples of what I’ve done. I have TONS stored away too, which I should scan at some point. So far, I’ve only shot REM or tangential REM bands (Minus 5, Posies, etc).

My equipment:

Canon EOS3 with a 28-70mm L lens and a 50MM portrait lens (1.8f)

Film:

Agfa 3200 black and white film, pushed to 6400ASA
Fuji Sensia 1600 (when they still made it), pushed to 3200ASA then cross-processed
Fuji Astia 800 pushed to 1600, cross processed

Printing/Scanning:

Printing of black and white was on Ilford Satin finish black and white paper, to reduce contrast
Printing of color in the dark room was on semi-gloss Kodak color paper

Scanning is on a Canon FS4000 film scanner at 4000dpi to an uncompressed TIF, resulting in about a 120 megabyte image.

My tips for concert photography:

Understand that I’ve never taken photos with a press pass. With all the bands I take pictures of, I’m friends with them, so typically I’m using an all-access pass and have full reign of the entire back/side stage, audience and front barrier.

What I’ve found that comes in handy is to see the concert a night on the same tour, but without taking photos. You’ll get a better sense of the lighting patterns, and how the setlist effects it. If you can, on the night that you’re taking photos, try to get a copy of the setlist, as that way you can usually predict blocking and lighting of the performers.

Get close! My best photos are of moments and small fixtures rather than entire people. On one tour I photographed, I did the concert footage in black and white, and instead of focusing on performers, focused on elements of the performance itself. Hands, feet, guitars, amps, shadows. I reserved color and full shots for the pre/post concert (and soundcheck).

Don’t shoot digital! You’ll get some shots that are OK, but they are too glossy. The grain, the grit and the grime make for more believable photos, I’ve found.

Some samples and info on how I got them:

September 11, 2003, Las Vegas, NV during Nightswimming - REM of course. Taken on 1600ISO slide film, cross processed and scanned. This is where that laminate comes in handy. I was on my knees, behind the bass cabinet, holding the camera up above my head so it peaked above the cabinet. Technically I was on the stage.

Taken in 2000 in San Diego, before the show. An example of 1) my cross processing technique and 2) why the quiet moments before a show of a performer make a more compelling photograph. This is Peter Buck, of R.E.M. when he was on tour with the Minus 5.

During soundcheck at that Minus 5 show. These are Scott McCaughey’s hands. I used a wide open aperture at 1.8f to get a very very shallow depth of field

Peter Buck, the Knitting Factory in 2000. The first time I met him incidentally. Don’t be afraid to try different angles for full-body shots.

Michael Stipe, 9-11-03. Why knowing the set and lighting is important. Michael during Losing My Religion always sang without the mic stand, which meant he usually moved to the front of the stage. You’ll notice that he’s looking into the camera. My camera lens is big, so he was looking at the crowd and saw me, etc. I think it scared him.

I can finally take the wraps off a new project of mine.

The “Regina World” concept began long ago. Actually it predates my coming to WBR as I was a beta-tester for Linden Labs a few years ago at the request of Howard Rheingold. Since then, I’ve followed its development closely, as it rose above There.com and Sims Online to become the defacto metaverse.

When I got to WBR, I wanted to do a project in world, and Regina Spektor is the first that presented itself. She seemed logical, as she is a visceral and visual artist, with a defined aesthetic.

Regina’s loft was developed with Millions of Us, Inc.

We launch the world next week…..

Preview…

Patti Smith, 1976

Post-script: I realized that March 23, 2006 marked the 10th anniversary of both the first time I met Michael Stipe and the first time I saw Patti Smith live. I was just about to turn 17.

Google seems to be getting more and more into the personal organization space.

The latest is Google Notebook. From what I can tell, it is like a personal Wiki. I think the nicest thing about it is its integration with Firefox. Anyhow, Google Notebook is organized by Notebooks and then Notes within them. Notes can have Section Headings, and the whole thing (or parts) can be made public.

Here are some screen shots….

Here’s Google Notebook on login. Notice the clean Google aesthetic with contextual indicators of UI actions.

This is the Firefox extension in action. It adds a link to the bottom of your screen where you can add notes and such to it. At any point you can maximize to fullpage view. You can also drag any text from the webpage to a new note.

A clean and simple screen to add new notes.

Here’s the non-Firefox UI. Pretty clean with some AJAX in there for good measure.

Here’s the interface to add a new note.

All in all, its a nice, elegant and easy to use service, but is it revolutionary? No, not at all. Also, as Google’s mission is to organize the world’s data, and not necessarily my own, I do wonder if I’d entrust the contents of my Yojimbo! library to Google Notebook. I think not.

They post photos of you as a kid of course! And animals, family, houses and rock stars. To wit:

My grandma and grandpa (mom’s side) on their wedding day. Pregnant with my mom too! My grams was 18, my grandpa 21.

The grandparents house… or what happens when a brush fire destroys your home and everything in it, and you know how to streeettchhhhhhh insurance money very far.

I took this from inside the Antilla in Aruba, at about 50 feet of depth.

Amy and I dancing to a performance of R.E.M.’s “Beat a Drum” from Toronto, that they sent in for us to dance to as our first dance. We met thanks to Mike Mills, so it seemed fitting.

My uncle Ian (left), Rachel and myself. I was 4, Ian 9 and Rachel about to turn 2. Ian is my mom’s little brother.

I may get in trouble…

All Java source code on Government servers, and military servers

All SQL schemas on Government servers, and military

Visual Basic source code files on Government servers and military

We just launched a new site for Head Automatica The site is our first foray into Drupal based sites, and uses prototype.js, moo.fx and other Javascript libraries intensively. Some AJAX inside, but mostly its based on RSS feeds and standard Drupal modules (Story and Event). We also on the back-end, customized the admin to make it more intuitive for bands.

This is phase one and we’re launching more stuff later this week.

Design was done by Prod4Ever, programming by Chime. Internally: Kathlene, Jeff, Robin and myself worked on it extensively.

It’s also the third or fourth site done in accordance to my Flash Is Bad (FIB) edict. Flash is only allowed for players/ornamental content now.