Performing on the “Ben Folds And A Piano Tour,” singer-songwriter Ben Folds rocked the ivories of his Steinway & Sons in the Chaifetz Arena.
Photographer's Notes:
While you might think that photographing a singer-pianist might be shooting like fish in a barrel, photographing artists like Ben Folds are shoots that come with their own unique challenges.
Whenever I photograph a solo performer, I find that facial expressions play a huge role in the success of the images. This is particularly important with more subdued performances.
In addition, this set was interesting due to the fact that Ben Folds did pop up from his seat several times during the three allotted songs, but never for very long and always quite quickly.
Beyond timing and a little attention to facial expressions, composition and framing play a big role in photographing a single subject like Ben Folds. Due to his relatively static position at the piano, I found myself concentrating on three distinct types of shots with Ben Folds:
- close-up
- mid
- wide
While these modes of framing are nothing new to concert photography, for a solo performer like Ben Folds, they can be ever more apparent.
Ben Folds was relatively close to the stage, unlike the last time I photographed the musician at the Pageant, so the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 and Nikon 70-200mm covered most of these three images quite well. I did break out the 14-24mm f/2.8 for a few slightly wider snaps, but 24mm was nice enough to cover the whole piano just fine.
Overall, lighting was nice and bright thanks to a spotlight from the front, so keeping ISO relatively “low” at ISO 1600 was a breeze.
End Notes:
Check out the set of images of opener Matt Pond, who kicked off the night supporting Ben Folds. Want more Ben Folds? You can see the full set of images from his performance at the Pageant in 2008 here:
