HIM’s performance at the Pageant brought the Finnish band’s self-proclaimed Love Metal to an adoring crowd. After being sonically assaulted by the metalcore barrage of Bleeding Through, Ville Valo and fellow Fins brought a more melodic version of metal-laced rock wrapped around Valo’s own sailing vocals.
As always, for the full set of images from the show, hit the Flickr.
Photographer’s notes:
Throughout the first three songs, Valo was relatively calm, manning the mic without unnecessary theatrics, though he seemed to genuinely enjoy his time in the spotlight. Without a guitar or another instrument, Valo was free to dedicate himself to his duties on vox and made for an easier subject than many other rock frontman who take double-duty.
Without the dynamics of a guitar neck entering the composition, I was free to photograph the singer from both sides of the stage and concentrate more on pose and lighting.
Lighting:
The first three songs were marked by relatively abundant light, which came predominantly from the back in the form of strong white and blue-tinged spots.
A few minutes before the band took the stage, while the house lights were still up, pale smoke began to seep up from the back, foreshadowing the intense backlighting.
From a photographer’s perspective, the performance benefited greatly from two spotlights positioned on either side of the stage. These lights were a huge boon for photographing HIM’s frontman Ville Valo, who was lit up with relatively warm light in contrast to the cool cyan and smokey blues that dominated from the back.
Guitarist Mikko Lindstrøm and bassist Mikko Paananen, who both played at the front of the stage with Valo, were lit with primarily with cooler light.
Exposure:
With intense blue-cyan lighting for much of the first three songs, metering and white balance were one challenge of the set. Toward the end of the first song, the lighting balance settled down and the side spotlights came into play, which stabilized the exposure around ISO 800 at f/2.5 and 1/160 second.
I varied these settings at various times by 1/3 to 1/2 stop depending on different priorities, but this exposure remained relatively consistent through the third song.
Lenses:
While there was just enough light to use f/2.8 zooms, the fast aperture and high performance of my 50mm and 85mm primes kept them in good use through the set.Even with three other photographers in the pit at this concert, maneuvering shooting down-stage with the 85mm f/1.4 was an easy task, and the telephoto proved perfect for securing tighter shots of the singer.
In addition to the 85mm, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 came into play as well and proved great for slighting longer shots that framed Valo’s wide hand hold on the mic stand.
The Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 was used less than the primes, but was still invaluable for a few slightly wider perspectives not afforded by the two primes. For stage-front concert photography, the DX midrange zoom is never far from my D2x, and this HIM show was no exception.
20 Comments Add your own
1. Hello to all the HIM fans&hellip | November 2nd, 2007 at 10:13 am
[…] night the fine folks at heartagram.com, HIM’s official website, linked up my post of images from the Pageant concert October 26. So far there’s been a ton of interest coming […]
2. narnina | November 2nd, 2007 at 1:47 pm
hello
very good pictures
3. Todd | November 2nd, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Hi Narnina, thanks very much for the comment. Glad you enjoy them.
4. fan him of chile | November 2nd, 2007 at 2:47 pm
hermosas la fotitos
amo a him
him en chile
please
him es toda mi vida
bye bye
5. Todd | November 2nd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Thanks, glad you liked the images. It’s great hear from HIM fans from all over the world. I appreciate the comments.
6. Sez | November 2nd, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Great photos mate - really appreciate the photographer’s notes too, very interesting
7. Mónica | November 2nd, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Hi, good evening. I´m a fan of HIM since 2000 and it´s a pleasure to see the band so well represented by your pictures. By the way, greetings from Portugal.
Keep up the good job and take care. Love it.
8. Todd | November 2nd, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Mónica: Thanks very much for taking the time to comment, the band was great to photograph, especially Ville. I regret only photographing all of the band members, but that happens sometimes. Thanks for the greetings from Portugal, good to hear from you.
Sez: Glad you enjoyed the images! I’m happy you found the shooting notes of interest, too. Thanks very much.
9. Leticia | November 3rd, 2007 at 12:06 am
THANK YOU for such amazing pictures!
so clear and lovely!
you really captured the beautify of HIM!
i only hope to reach this level and be
able to photograph bands
of such beauty!
great work, and greetings from cali!!!
10. Todd | November 3rd, 2007 at 10:13 am
Thanks for the comment, Leticia, glad you enjoyed the images. Good luck with your photography.
11. paige | November 4th, 2007 at 3:59 am
Hello there. I would just like to say thankyou for representing HIM so well through your photos. I am going to be going to college to study photography so I greatly appreciated the photographers notes. Much love from California. (and please keep bringing us excellent pics of our fav bands! ill check back in for the a7x)
12. Todd | November 4th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Hi Paige, thanks for the note. Glad the shooting notes were of interest to you, good luck with photography in college! Avenged Sevenfold is in just a few days, and I should have the images ready a day or two after the show.
13. Concert Photography Featu&hellip | November 8th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
[…] Nikon D3: ISO 25600 Samples from IFANikon D3: New ISO 6400 SamplesNikon D3: New Low-ISO SamplesNikon D3: High ISO SamplesHIM @ the Pageant — 2007.10.26 […]
14. HERMANNI | November 11th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
OLA A TDS ESAS FOTO ESTA JENIALES
15. Andi | November 15th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Great photographs. I was at the same show a day earlier at Congress Theater in Chicago. I was not in the pit, but I stood in the first row by the barriers separating the pit and the audience. I had my Powershot G9 and made a ton of pics. I am an absolute amateur at photography and I very much appreciate your notes on technical aspects of those pictures you posted. I wish I could take a class with you on how to shoot pics in such a challenging environment like a rock concert, especially when you also have to take into concideration that you’re there primarily to see the performance of your iconic band and only then take pictures :))) and believe me being in the first row in the crowd of fans is not an easy task either. Anyway, great pictures and always great memories.
Best regards, Andi.
16. Todd | November 15th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Hey Andi, glad you enjoyed the images — I hope they capture a little bit of what you saw in Chicago. It’s always a bittersweet situation when I’m a fan of the band and have the assignment of shooting.
Though I have the best seat in the house for the first three songs, most of the time I absolutely could not tell you what songs were played. Everything goes on automatic, so it’s not quite the same as just enjoying the show from the crowd.
Thanks again for your note, I really appreciate it.
Todd
17. narnina | January 1st, 2008 at 7:06 am
I love it ville photos very good love
18. dominique GICQUEL | March 28th, 2008 at 5:19 am
J’ai 53 ans, je connais l’existance de HIM depuis 2000 et je trouve que c’est un des meilleurs groupe. Mais, mon appréciation est peut-être faussée par l’AMOUR que je porte à VILLE VALO ; mais ça m’est égal, je l’aime plus que ma vie (qui ne vaut plus grand-chose depuis qu’un neurochirurgien s’est amusé au savant avec mon cerveau et qu’il m’a loupée!)Mais j’aimais la voix émouvante de VILLE, ses yeux clairs comme l’eau résultant de la fonte des glaces, et LUI (donc,HIM !)0000000000000000000000000Bref, vous aurez tous compris que j’ADORE VILLE et que j’adore ses textes, son regard, s
19. dominique GICQUEL | March 28th, 2008 at 5:23 am
J’ai perdu mon texte ! j’aime VILLE VALO depuis 2000 et rien ne m’empèchera de l’aimer ! J’avais écrit un long plédoyer sur lui et le groupe, mais, mauvaise manip. et j’ai tout perdu!!!
20. bucky | July 5th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
wht can i say? valo is the best in any situation
speak up
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