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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :-)