October 7, 2008 – Britpop rockers The Kooks rolled into the Pageant, churning through a boisterous set amidst a din of screaming fans and popping flashbulbs. Led by singer Luke Pritchard, the boys from Brighton delivered a fast-paced set that drew heavily from their sophomore album, Konk, released earlier this year.
Photographer’s Notes:
Despite blasts of quickly changing color washes that had me shaking my head, this set was actually pretty fun to shoot, in no small part thanks to frontman Luke Pritchard. The singer proved a very expressive subject with no shortage of gestures to capture.
Pritchard was a moving target throughout the first three songs, which added to the challenge and kept things interesting.
The band’s monitors were set up about two meters back from the edge of the stage, so I relied on the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 for much of the set. The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 helped pick up a few wider shots, while the 14-24mm f/2.8 only came out for a single overall of the stage.
For this set, I concentrated on Pritchard, not only because he proved to be an interesting subject, but because he also received the lion’s share of usable stage lighting.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2008, britpop, Dan Logan, Hugh Harris, indie, live, Luke Pritchard, Music Photography, Paul Garred, photography, rock, set list, the kooks, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
The Kooks http://tinyurl.com/49umnd
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Hey Todd,
It’s interesting to see your pictures of the Kooks in a venue.
I had the chance to shoot their performance at an outdoor festival this summer in Luxembourg. Unfortunately they played quite early, so light was not really a matter as daylight made most of the job.
Anyway I like your shots, and I agree that Luke is a very expressive, fun to shoot, leadsinger!
Great job!
Hey Dan, thanks for the comments. I,too, was interested in how the stage treatment would be, as I’ve seen some great shots from outdoor festivals that had a nice mix of daylight and lighting effects.
Thanks again!
wow Luke looks so passionate, good job again Todd. the drummer shot is superb.. he dressed so formal for a drummer
Because of the wide shot you did for the entire stage i am aware of how far the drummer actually was haha. so good job on the drummer shot – and he is pretty dressed up for a drummer. And Luke looks so passionate and emotional – once again awesome work.
Hey Jessie, thanks for your comments.
Luke was very animated for this show, which was both good and bad. Nice for a little variety in the poses, but his movement also made for a very challenging set.
The drummer was up on a riser at the back of the stage, but I was happy that the 70-200mm worked out pretty well for him. Overall, the band was set back much further than a lot of rock acts at this venue.
Thanks again.
Eh I double commented.
I thought my first comment did not go through haha.
UGH! PAGEANT, what are you DOING! Not as bad as Vamp Weekend, but certainly not the best I’ve seen there…
Flash woulda helped, but I think you got some definitely usable shots. Above all, 1, 5, 6, 7. I think where there was the white light, the red light came in for some nice rim lighting, but that looks pretty rare. I like the shot of him on the speaker, but looks a bit harsh on his face – granted, not exactly changeable. The lighting and capture of the drummer is nice, however.
I also enjoy this photo. Tres nice.
Hey Chris, thanks for your thoughts on this set.
Unless the band brings their own lighting setup, there is a high chance that photography will be challenging at venues like the Pageant. This isn’t to say it looks bad watching from the crowd, but simply that it doesn’t translate well for photo.
The best lighting I’ve seen at the Pageant has always been when a tour has their own effects setup. Indie shows and other gigs with smaller production budgets always get a much less involved treatment.
I think flash would have been an interesting option, but given the three song limit and the fact that the Kooks’ songs are often under three minutes, that in itself would have been very tricky.
All this said, I thought the lighting for this tour was relatively good, or at least a little better than I expected. :)
Todd,
Your pictures are incredible. I am just wondering how you get so much light with no shake. I have a 50mm prime and crank the ISO, open the aperture to f/1.8 and then I shoot, if I’m lucky, around 1/40 and I still manage to get blur if there is enough light, or just dark pictures. Any ideas? Also, are you using flash at all? I’ve been to a few shows lately and notice some guys using flash, I researched this idea, and it seems to be a great idea, for motion blur and freezing the subject. Thanks for your time!
One word [if that]: D3.
Bow chika wow wow.