Insubordination Fest
Over the weekend, I went to Insubordination Fest down in Baltimore for the second year in a row. It was a really good time, despite having a cold, but I won’t get into a lot of specifics, just a few highlights, I guess.
The Smoking Popes kind of sucked. I would have been disappointed if I was actually expecting more, but even though I’ve always been a fan, I just haven’t really been that into their reunion. They completely ruined “Pretty Pathetic” and a couple of other songs by dragging them out way too much. It was awful, actually.
But Tenement, Dear Landlord, The Copyrights, The Leftovers, Dead Mechanical, and the Dopamines were all super good. The biggest surprise though was Less Than Jake. We didn’t want to pay for a second night for the hotel room, so our plan was to drive back Saturday night and since LTJ didn’t go on until 12:15, we couldn’t stay for much of their set. We watched about a half hour and watched them rock a bunch of stuff from Losing Streak. This was really great. Hearing them play those songs instantly brought me back ten years. So much fun.
This fest was also my first attempt at any kind of band photography. It was mostly a failure. Out of almost 300 pictures, I only liked a handful of them. The two main issues I had were lighting and getting a good spot. Since I’m a short dude, I pretty much need to be in the front, but I’m past the point in my life where I want to push and squeeze past people to get up front. Being in the front also comes with the risk of your camera getting damaged if the crowd is moving a lot and pushing forward…or if there are a lot of stage divers. Not good. As for the lighting, I felt like the venue that hosted the show has worse lighting to work with than most venues, but it should have been workable. The issue is just that with the low-level of lighting, I really had to crank up the ISO to be able to shoot with a fast enough shutter speed even with my 50mm 1.8 wide open. I ended up with a lot of noise in a lot of pics. But even with the ISO up to 1600, my pictures all came out really dark. I was able to successfully use the flash for some shots, but for many, it killed the entire mood of picture. I don’t want to make excuses for my lack of skill and experience, but I definitely think there was little I could do without a bigger flash that I could aim at the ceiling to bounce the light. Oh well.
Here are the pictures I actually consider “useable.”
Insub Fest was my first attempt at some band photography too. I had to put my camera awhile for a while during The Dopamines set because the beer was starting to fly and I was right up at the stage. I agree that flash definitely killed pictures. I only attempted for a few. I shot wide open with a 50mm f1.8 at ISO 1600 and was actually impressed with the lack of noise. Before that I don’t think I had gone over ISO 400 before.
Looks like you got some good shots though. You can check mine out on my Flickr page, if you’re interested. http://www.flickr.com/photos/oparrish I got a few of The Dopamines and The Leftovers and 1 each of Off With Their Heads, Jetty Boys, and Be My Doppelganger.
Ah! You got some good pics too! Your white balance is definitely much better than mine. I ended up leaving most of them as they were shot, I couldn’t get them where I wanted them. Most of the noise in my pictures was unnoticeable until I started trying to lighten them up. I could get a way with a pinch, but any more than that usually resulted in a lot of noticeable noise.
Dude, those pics came out great! You’ve really developed serious skills with that camera.
I think no matter what, live music tends to yield 300 pictures and only a handful of good ones (well if you have a digital, anyway *cue burning jealousy while clutching my 35mm pentax with 24 exposures per roll*) IMHO, The Copyrights and Dead Mechanical shots came out the best!
one trick (if you can swing it) is to go manual, get really close, like REALLY close to the band and set your exposure based on that, then back out to your shot and take it, even if it looks dark. the flash can really flatten an image, but if your camera is trying to expose based on the whole shot, it’s going to over/undercompensate for the lighting.
again, I’m using an old camera without any automatic anything. I just go by my light meter, which is misleading in that type of lighting. that’s the advice an old photography teacher gave me, and it’s helped me a lot to at least keep the process in mind.
Thanks for the tips, Leah. These shots were (mostly) taken in fully manual using spot metering to expose based on the light on the subject’s face. I would have liked to shoot in shutter priority for ease, but the camera wasn’t ever really happy with the light available at the shutter speeds I wanted so I just slightly under exposed in manual.
Being a somewhat experienced music photographer and the ‘official’ – duh – Insub Fest photographer I wanna add a word or two.
First off – don’t get encouraged cause you are not happy with the results of your very first try. Getting a feel for the light at shows (which is really bad 9 out of 10 times, unless you go to really big shows/venues) takes some time and experience. If I look back to my first photos I can see that I’ve c0me a long way.
2) If you plan on getting more band shots eventually just learn to accept that high-iso will give you noisy images. During Insub Fest I switched between Iso 1600 and 3200. 95% of my band shots are done at Iso 1600. The trick is to get the exposure right and not to brighten them up in photoshop afterwards too much.
3) Since this was your first time there, I can tell you the light last year was even a lot worse (on the main stage, the second stage seems to not have changed)! There was a weird blue-red pattern throughout most of the days in 2009 and all the photographers hated it.
4) About positioning: You pretty much have two options. One is to go to the side of the stage. Like you did in the House Boat photo. Excellent position! Going to the sides will also help you avoid getting faces blocked by microphones. (that happens if you shoot singers full frontal) The other option is to really get in there! I know it sounds crazy at first, but the front row is actually a good spot. Its much better than rows 2-5. Why? Well if you stand in the front you can lean against the stage and use it as a stable position. Even if people push from the back you can’t fall over. There is a lot less movement overall in the front row than in the back. Especially since these spots are usually occupied by people who don’t want to let their spot go! Additionally: stage divers try to jump over you and you see them coming. Two rows further back they will land on you and you have no idea where they came from. In five years and hundreds of punk shows I only got equipment damaged once and that was a minor thing.
5) I could write endless paragraphs about flash. The only advice is: If you haven’t yet, get an external flash. The in-built one won’t do you any good at shows. I know you have the 50mm/1.8 so there is really no need to focus on flash.
Bottom line: Keep going, I found combining music and photography – two great hobbies on their own – to be the best thing ever happening to me.
Marc
P.S. Fest photos: http://www.bit.ly/insub2010