Shooting Shows: What Makes a Bad Photograph

Shooting Shows: What Makes a Bad Photograph

In my last post, I took the time to give an overview of what show photography entails. Let’s be realistic though, what we are looking for is to get the good images weeded from the bad ones. Now before I start, or get flack from anyone, the opinions I am voicing are MY OWN! Yes, big bold font, because they are NOT necessarily what someone else will qualify as a bad image! This is simply what I personally try and avoid and try and look for in images.

1) Over or under exposed images:

An overexposed image is too bright. I don’t mean too bright in the sense that we can fix it in post, I mean too bright where you’ve lost detail and cannot bring it back. I’ve had that happen. It especially tends to happen when you have washed out images, with the light washing the person.  You can still try to salvage the image but it’s a bit of a pain and results may vary.

Conversely, underexposed images will be very noisy when they are touched-up in post. Here we are talking at least 1.5-2 stops of light. It’s a pain to deal with again, and you loose sharpness. Again, unless you REALLY think that you don’t have better images, try and move along from it.

Here is an example of a VERY washed out image that I have for example purposes (This was The New Cities at the Metropolis, on October 18th 2012. I will not forget that show any time soon, the horrendous lighting of the opening band marked me significantly).

The New Cities – Washed out example – October 12th 2012

So not only was this photo washed over, it was also overexposed (yes I do keep some my bad images to remind myself of what I do wrong, and it’s something everyone should consider).

Protest The Hero – Metropolis – Washed out example 2

Here you can really see (and again this is an old image), that I had to do a lot of tweaking in the temperature section of Lightroom to get a DECENT color out of the image. Even then, the image is still a little washed out. And his face is priceless!

2) Mic Mouth:

Oh my old friend Mic Mouth. It didn’t start bugging me until my friend pointed it out to me, and now, It aggravates me to no end. And it should aggravate you too! Well let’s first explain what Mic Mouth is. Mic mouth is when the vocalist’s microphone ends up right in front of his face in an image. Sometimes, especially in hardcore bands, the vocalist will cup the mic in his hands, that’s fine there’s nothing you can do about that. But when you take a photo, from dead in front of the vocalist and his mic is covering his mouth, that’s a bit less excusable. So what’s the cure for mic mouth? Well don’t shoot them right in front of them! Scooch over a few steps to the right or to the left that way the microphone will not be in their face.

I ranted about mic mouth, BUT! sometimes, it is acceptable to have a mic mouth, if you see a bit of the teeth or mouth, if you are not dead center to them, OR If there is emotion in the eyes!

The New Cities, Mic Mouth example

See what I mean? It’s not nice… And the photo is overexposed and whatnot. Suffice it to say I did not use that image.

The Weeknd, Mic Mouth Example #2

Hand and microphone are covering the face, image is a touch washed in blue. Maybe a little too much space on top. Overall, not a good image.

Dan Mangan, Corona Theatre, Mic Mouth Example 3

Sometimes though… you just can’t win! Here, Dan Mangan had set up 2 mics, and there was no way around it except for moving around. Oh well, can’t win them all!

Rise Against, Bell Center, Acceptable Mic Mouth

So my last example of mic mouth is to really end the rant! Here Mic mouth CAN be acceptable. Let’s look why: You can see a part of his mouth. The photo is in focus and sharp. Yes there is a mic in front of his mouth, but look at the intensity in the eyes. Here we can accept mic mouth.

3) Badly composed images and using flash:

Alright if you’ve made it this far, then this is the home stretch. I’m combining two sections into one! So what is a badly composed image? Limbs cut off at the joint is one thing. It makes the person look amputated. Cutting off part of the instrument can make composition bad. Such as in a jump shot, cutting out the top of the guitar! Better to use a wider angle than to lose a part of the instrument. Too much at the top of the image is another problem. Finally, a crooked image, where the horizon is not straight. It can make the viewer a little seasick.

Last but not least, more often than not you are not allowed to use flash at bigger venues. The reason behind that is that it is VERY distracting to the artist. Sometimes you will not have a choice though, such as in small venues. What you do in that case is 1) Keep the flash to a minimum and learn to control the flash output! Pop-up flash and overpowered hotshoe flash will overexpose your images and ruin them. Keep it low! 2) Keep it polite: ask the artist if they mind that you use flash, in small venues. They are around, and more often than not they will say yes. 3) Try and avoid using flash if you can. If it’s an absolute necessity than rely on the previous.

Well I hope that gives you a little bit of insight in what can make a shot and what can ruin it! Remember, shooting shows is fun, but it is also work! All stuff to keep an eye for!

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