Following a ferocious set by White Denim, for a moment the Duckroom seems to lapse into restlessness; it’s approaching 10pm on a Monday night, the venue is wrapped in a damp chill, and only the first of three bands has played. However, without fanfare, two drum kits are being assembled on stage, and the crowd at the front is beginning to perk up. A few minutes after the hour, White Rabbits are bring the double drums, the double singers, the double rock, and suddenly we’ve forgotten what time it is.
The six-piece band seemed a little cramped on the narrow stage, but they don’t really seem to mind, and besides, there was no time to bother. The White Rabbits set into a comfortable pace and, other than an awkward pause in the set due to some technical difficulties, the band generates a great vibe among the smokey, dim confines of the Duckroom.
Shooting Notes:
The Duckroom is a subterranean lair of a venue that just happens to book great bands. While I was a litte hesitant to bring the new D3 and accouterments to the smokey dive, I was also curious to see how the new camera would stack up against the dimmest of dim venues.
There’s no pit in the small club, so I staked out my spot at the front of the stage and shot as I pleased. With places like the Duckroom, there is never a restriction on cameras or limits to shooting.
Lighting:
Lighting for the show came from two arrays at the front and back of the stage. The front strip cast mostly warm white light that died down to a dim orange cast for White Rabbits’ set. From the back, the cans featured red and blue gels, along with a few unfiltered sources casting a little weak warm light.
There weren’t so much lighting scheme changes as there were “low” and “lower” settings on the dimmer switch.
Lenses:
I shot with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 for most of this set, supplementing it with the 85mm f/1.4 when I wanted just a little more reach. Beyond that, I was pleased that I didn’t need to reach for the other primes.
Exposure:
I shot at ISO 6400 at f/2.8 and 1/160 with the zoom and at 1/200 and f/2 with the telephoto prime. Given the fairly constant lighting, locking the exposure down and just firing away a straight forward task.
Processing:
Even though the lighting wasn’t really that dim, the actual quality of the light was pretty mundane. For almost all shows at the Duckroom, I go in with the expectation that I’m going to convert the images to monotone, and White Rabbits was no exception.
I processed these shots with a conversion to b&w with a slightly warm toning and left the noise reduction moderate to bring up a little grain in the finished web images.
End Notes:
Previously with the Nikon D2x, even f/1.4 primes were necessary for even the best lit performances in the Duckroom. While the lighting didn’t last for the headlining set by the Walkmen, I was pleased to be able to shoot with the f/2.8 midrange zoom for this set.
While my favorite venues are a little larger and have better air circulation, the Duckroom books a great calendar, and it’s a fine place for a more relaxed set of shooting.
For anyone looking to start out with music photography, I heavily encourage you to find a smaller venue like this where you can shoot and build up a portfolio. While the lighting isn’t ideal, if you can shoot in dives like the Duckroom, you can shoot anywhere.
8 Comments Add your own
1. Solange Moreira Yeoell | February 25th, 2008 at 4:48 am
just love all the shots and your reviews. The great thing is on top of the great photos you seem to enjoy the music as well. This might reflect on your work. I don’t feel this way with some other photographers in this field
2. Todd | February 25th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Hey Solange,
Thank you, glad to hear your thoughts on this set. I actually do enjoy the music, and try to photograph bands that resonate with me. It’s not always possible, and I have started photographing more and more shows where I don’t have any connection to the artists, but I think it does show when one is more interested.
For this show, though, I was all in. Like most people who get into music photography, I love both music and making images. While I really like shooting in larger venues with better, more interesting light, sometimes the best bands are playing in little bars and clubs.
3. Chris | February 25th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Wow, WAY cleaner stuff from the Duck Room than I’ve ever seen. Might be the camera. #2, #8 and #9 are my picks.
4. Todd | February 25th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Chris, this is what the Duckroom looks like when the lights are all the way up – which only ever happens for the openers, unfortunately. The only time the headlining band wasn’t playing in the equivalent of strong candlelight was when Joanna Newsom graced the venue’s tiny stage.
5. Andi | February 25th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Hey Todd,
I think the black and white conversion is always a dangerous style to use on a complete series of photos from a concert. If the conversion is not well executed, it just seems as if you want to hide noise, bad lighting or just want to look special.
Although I would not say that you got your golf ball on the putting green with your set of pictures here, you made it onto a solid fairway. I think I would like to see a bit more grain and less noise reduction (especially when I look at the head of the drummer), nevertheless there’s still coolness visible which fits the band.
Andi
Btw.: Those pics I told you of are now up on my site and flickr.
6. Todd | February 25th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Hey Andy,
That’s an interesting comment you have, as I have the exact opposite opinion. I would much rather see a single vision for set than one-off conversions in one style or another, because I feel it fragments the set.
To me, at the very least, a single monochrome shot in a set of color images means that that there was something aberrant about that shot that required a different treatment. At worst, the photographer wasn’t clear about his/her vision, either going into the shoot or afterward.
I didn’t apply extra NR beyond the standard in-camera levels and made no attempts to hide the noise, though I did not add any “grain,” either.
Regarding the drummer’s head, there’s a little bit of motion blur on his smooth forehead, and he’s also pitching forward, so the actual point of focus for this shot is more accurately in the plane of his shirt. In addition, to those two facts that there’s really no noise anyway since his forehead is largely upper mids and highlights.
Thanks for your feedback and thoughts.
7. Andi | February 26th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Ah, I see. Than that’s just an impression caused by the smaller file.
Yeah, you’re right. Just converting one single picture can even boost that feel of “someone just wanted to correct something here, doh!”. On the other side, individual styles in one set can much more apply to the single image in one set than one common style (and here I consider color as a style too, of course) if you do it properly and with your brain in action.
But for sure, there are arguments for both sides. Maybe I’ll try to do that Black ‘n’ White thing to a certain series too, just to get a litte feeling for it.
8. Todd | February 26th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Yes, I think some of the smoothness is caused by downsampling. I do agree that shot looks surprisingly clean. Other images in the set which had some exposure compensation are definitely not so clean.
For smaller clubs, I often go in with a mind to concert to b&w, while for larger theatre-style venues and arenas, I much prefer color.
speak up
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