Shooting Shows: Between The Buried and Me

Shooting Shows: Between The Buried and Me

After having been shooting shows and writing reviews for a few online magazines, I have decided to take the time start writing little blog posts on the side to help with interesting advice.  Every show has it’s challenges and it’s eases, and I intend to share some that I run into and hopefully inspire people to enjoy and appreciate what I have come to love deeply.

Tonight, I shot Between the Buried and Me, on tour to promote their album The Parallax II: Future Sequences. The band is a technical/progressive metal band. Shooting metal shows comes with its own set of challenges, including, first of all, light.

The lighting in these shows will sometimes be extremely low, so your job will become significantly easier if you are not shy to use a higher ISO and a wider aperture (here I used f/2.8, to really get light in as well as high ISO [note the grain]). It is also important to post process accordingly. Be sure to look out for your highlights, contrast and clarity when using Lightroom. Depending on the camera model and lens you are using, you may be limited in how much light you can let in, but do not despair: grain is NOT the enemy. For anyone who’s shot film, you will realize that there is a difference between grain and noise. Grainy images give a vintage feel, if you like that. Noisy images will lose sharpness even if they are extremely sharp. Learn to compensate for aperture and ISO with shutter speed, but be careful to not get motion blur.

More often than not, metal shows will have constant single light colors, so something to be careful about is when you have color washing. Color washing is simply explained as follows: the person will look bathed in the color (completely blue, green, red etc..). Some ways to deal with this is to adjust the temperature, both in camera and in post processing. To fix it in camera, remember your color wheels, and if you can’t, remember this mnemonic: Really Young Girls Crave Bald Men (Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Magenta). Opposing colors will help you work around the problems you may encounter with color wash (opposing colors are: Red – Cyan, Yellow – Blue, and Green – Magenta). The second way, especially useful with red wash, is to go black and white. Simple, effective, clean, if the image is not overly crowded with objects. Be sure to post process your black and whites though.

On a far more positive note, metal shows are very active, with a lot of movement and energy. You will get jump shots (here it is important to adjust your shutter speed to freeze the motion), head-banging, and general movement.

Between The Buried and Me – February 26th 2014 – Corona Theater- Photo By Andrej Ivanov

Be sure to look through your viewfinder, and avoid the mistake I made in your images such as cutting off the fingers. When it came to shooting this show, in particular, the band was very active, with different lighting and a lot going on, on-stage. It is recommended to always watch with both eyes to be able to catch what’s happening at all times (this takes some getting used to).

One of the biggest challenges is shooting with no photo pit. This means you have to find creative vantage points to get shots, or risk going into the crowd. Don’t be shy to ask people to move, let them know that you are only there for a short time, and be sure to be quick!

When you come home, be sure that you pick your images carefully. Different photographers have different styles, and it depends what you are looking for. Personally, I was taught that the best images contain emotion, show action or simply don’t leave you even. Look at composition, color, and exposure on an aesthetic level. Try and avoid repetition and try and be as objective as possible. When being objective, always ask yourself: Is this a good image? NOT: Is this an image I am absolutely in love with? I’ve personally had to put some images aside because it just was not good enough, no matter how much I liked them.

I hope this helps a little bit, and gives a very brief overview and a taste for shooting shows.

For the review and all images of Between the Buried and Me, please visit:
http://www.thescenemagazine.ca/between-the-buried-and-me-at-corona-theater-montreal-live-review/

Remember: All these photos have been shot by Andrej Ivanov Photography (Me), and they are copyrighted to me. Please don’t steal!