August 11, 2009 – Opening up for Green Day on their arena-busting tour, Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand kicked off the night right with an infectiously upbeat set slinky dance-punk.
Photographer’s Notes:
I’d seen Franz Ferdinand several years ago at a club, so it was great to see them rockin’ a big stage supporting Green Day.
In a lot of ways, I thought that Franz Ferdinand’s performance was a great warm-up for Green Day. While the band didn’t move around that much during the alloted two-song the press photographed, the lighting kept us on our toes.
This live performance started out with lots of deep color washes – red and blue – that were punctuated by flare-ups of white light from high above.
For the most part, the white-light took the form of rimlighting more than anything, casting hot spots and sharp accents on the band members. I was very happy to see that, at least for some segments of the set, there was a good amount of haze on the stage to pick up this backlighting and give the set a touch more atmosphere. It’s all too often that openers get such a spartan treatment that these little details are always appreciated.
The catwalk that Green Day utilized for their set was in place and divided the photo pit. The ramp was just long enough and narrow enough that it made getting from one side of the stage to another too tricky to do often, so I ended up photographing the set from stage right for the first song and then running over to stage left for a hot minute during the second song.
Back to the lighting of this set, I think it touches on an important part of concert photography, which is that people only see what you show them. Five out of the ten shots in this show bright white light in some form (six if you count the rimlighting in #6), when in fact the proportion of white light for the set was very, very slim.
I often get comments that the lighting is great at the concerts I photograph, but this is only half-true. What’s more fully-accurate is simply that I press the button when the light looks good.
If there’s only 10-seconds of great light during your three songs, make it count.
This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 9:10 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, concert photographer, concert photography, Franz Ferdinand, green day, music photographer, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
nice shots by @toddowyoung on http://bit.ly/5ZCeB
nice shots by @toddowyoung on http://bit.ly/5ZCeB
[...] great photographers like Todd Oyyoung of ishootshows.com, Shirlaine Forrest, Peter Hill and the DrownedInSound team include a watermark on their web images [...]
Mais fotos de shows: Wilco http://bit.ly/7da8Y0 .Paramore http://bit.ly/4rxy4f / Green Day http://bit.ly/4LhcZT / Franz http://bit.ly/7WfgQ7
Welcome to ishootshows.com, the premier site for music photography featuring daily concert coverage, portrait features, and photo advice from professional music photographer Todd Owyoung.
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My name is Todd, and I love the rock show. My work has appeared in publications such as Rolling Stone, SPIN, the New York Times, Alternative Press, Metal Hammer, Entertainment Weekly, and Billboard Magazine. I'm available for worldwide travel for editorial and commercial assignments.
Some great shots as usual Todd, I’m really looking to shooting these guys myself when they tour the UK in November.
Thanks for sharing
Hi Dave, thanks for the comment. I think FF put on a great show, I’d love to shoot them on a headlining tour. Have fun and good luck with your shoot with them in November.
Todd, that second photo turned out real nice. You’ve two different colored lights going on there. the blue light sort of outlines him. Great shot.
Hi Julie, thanks for the feedback. Blue and red always make for a strange combination for stage lighting, glad to hear it works in that shot for you.
What a timely post, I shot Motorhead on Friday night and dealt with a lot of the lighting issues you discussed in this post, as well as lights that were pointed directly into the audience that made shooting a nightmare. Knowing when to click and timing is so important.
Great shots as usual Todd! Love your work!
Hey Groovehouse, thank you for the comment – I’m scheduled to shoot Motorhead this week, so your shots were timely as well. I think I see what you mean about the lighting – strong backlighting like that can be really tough to deal with, especially regarding flare.
Thanks again, glad to hear you enjoyed these images.
Nice shots, as usual :-)!
I had the chance to be on the pit in their last spanish tour. Here you can find my pics.
http://ionpositivo.com/2009/04/franz-ferdinand/
Thanks for the comment, looks like you got some nice captures out of the set you shot.
“I often get comments that the lighting is great at the concerts I photograph, but this is only half-true. What’s more fully-accurate is simply that I press the button when the light looks good.”
Great commentary here…I find myself really trying to *wait for the light* nowadays…and chill my trigger finger…
I used to just shoot at everything…now I burn through a lot less CF w/a lot less black frames:) not that I don’t have plenty of trash, but overall…anyways, great call out…it only really sucks when it never comes;) then you just got roll with it, get what you can, and move on…
Hey Elisa,
Thanks for the comment. I think that slowing down and concentrating on the key moments (whether those are pose or lighting) is a great way to not just shoot less, but to shoot smarter and more efficiently. I definitely agree with you – you just gotta roll with it!