I wanted to go back to what I love for this assignment and include an aspect of gig photography. I have a gig coming up which would be a prime candidate as an event to cover, the Jagermeister Music Tour 2013 where I am attending the Bristol leg in March. The tour features bands such as The Defiled, Gojira and is headlined by Ghost, with the opening act of this date being Revoker.
At this initial point, my first issue is whether they would allow my to have a photo pass to this event. The gig is quite popular and will be attended by actual press photographers so I am not sure if they would allow an unaccredited student photographer to cover the gig. I have previously tried to gain photo passes for larger events and have been turned down so my first task is to apply and hope that I am accepted. This will make the process a lot easier for me to get the type of shots that I would need, with the quality that I would need. I am not sure that I will be able to capture the necessary shots or quality of shots with my compact camera and from the crowd.
Brief: To produce a selection of images for a rock magazine to accompany a live review of the Bristol leg of the Jagermeister Music Tour 2013.
Research:
I have seen many a rock music magazine over the past few years, I even interned for a music website. When looking at gig reviews in said magazines/websites, the photos that accompany the written review are pretty stereotypical and what you would expect as someone who had never seen one. The majority are of the artists, predominantly the lead singer, performing on stage, with/without their instruments, in various poses. There are also occasionally group shots/overview of the entire stage whether from the pit if possible or from the back of the room as well as the odd crowd shot, especially if there is interaction between the artists and crowd and maybe a shot of the front row from the pit. The photographer will try to capture all angles of the gig to be able to successfully capture the atmosphere in the shots.
This review of Download Festival 2012 by NME Magazine, with shots taken by Tom Martin, is a great selection of images with which to start my research. There are plenty of stereotypical performance shots included but as this is a festival coverage, there are shots of the bands that are not on stage, as well as images taken throughout the festival site including festival goers and the site in general to get a good coverage of the whole event.
I have also been looking through a few old copies of Kerrang! magazine to have a look at the general coverage shots that they have of individual gigs as opposed to that of a huge event like Download Festival, which is covered in the above link. I have decided to scan in the magazine reviews instead of trying to link to the websites, as the layouts are different and I will be basing my assignment on a print review.
(please excuse the quality of the images as they are scanned in).
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| Kerrang! Magazine Issue Num 1418, June 09 2012 |
Two reviews here of Slayer and Limp Bizkit headline shows. Both have a page each and five main images which include shots of the support acts as well.
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| Kerrang! Magazine Issue num 1410, April 14 2012 |
This review is a double page spread of a You Me At Six gig, including shots of the support acts and a shot of the setlist.
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| Both above images from Kerrang! Magazine Issue num 1418, June 09 2012 |
These are two double page reviews of a slightly larger event, Slam Dunk Festival. We have a lot more images trying to include shots of all bands over different stages.
Like I said, there are a lot of the same 'type' of image as I explained first off. Almost all shots are performance based with the occasional crowd shot thrown in. These give me a good insight into the type of images that would be appropriate for magazine coverage of a gig.
Planning:
I have been extremely lucky and have been granted a photo pass for the Jagermeister Music Tour 2013, Bristol event. When I announced this news to my tutor with reference to this assignment, he questioned the access that I would have with it while advising me on the type of photographic approach I could take with my coverage.
At this point, I really do not know what type of access I will have. There has been a comment that I may be meeting up with Jagermeisters' resident photographer Mark Latham to discuss details before the gig but this has not been confirmed. I am assuming that I will find out more on this on the day.
I am aware of the usual '3 song no flash' ruling while photographing gigs so I'm assuming this event will be no different and as far as I know, the standard access is in the photo pit in front of the stage only. The other thing that I am aware of is that I should always be aware of other photographers in the pit, not to hog one position and to move about as careful and discreet as possible.
Equipment Planning:
This is where I'm completely unsure which lens to use. I don't have a lot of equipment and only have my basic entry level Canon 1000D but I don't think that this will cause me any trouble to shoot with. My tutor mentioned in his notes to take two camera bodies, one with a telephoto lens and one with a wide angle lens. Unfortunately I only have the one camera at the moment so this is not an option for me. I have, at present, 3 lenses;
- a 28 - 90mm F4.5
- an 18 - 55mm F3.5 and
- a 50mm fixed lens F1.8.
There are four bands playing so I will aim to get as many images in the 3 song time limit for each artist as is possible. I would like to attempt to get some crowd shots too, whether they be of fans at the front or shots of the stage from the crowd/back of the room. Altogether with the performance shots, thee should give a good overall indication of the event's coverage, showing the event from all angles.
Undertaking the Assignment:
This was an amazing opportunity and as petrified as I was, I am so grateful for the whole experience. I really did love it after the initial nerves had passed.
Firstly, I did have very basic access. The pass entitled me to use the photo pit for the first three songs of each artist without using flash, as expected, as then we had to vacate the pit until the next act came on. Unfortunately, but again as expected, I did not have any backstage access or access to artists and I didnt get to meet up with Mark Latham either, which was a shame. Although I did get to say hello in the pit. This solidified the fact that the event coverage for the "magazine review" would be limited to performance and crowd shots.
Secondly, the pit was extremely narrow and had 3-4 other photographers in there with me, as well as three event security, so I can see how my research has paid off noting that you need to be wary of space and others in a limited space. I found it relatively easy to manoevre about, squeezing around the other bodies, making sure not to 'hog' one position for too long and to be aware of other photographers and not to get in their shots. All this alongside actually trying to capture the desired images does require an awful lot of concentration and has given me a new respect for people who do this day in day out.
Photography wise the shooting was successful but frustrating at times. I decided to go for the fixed 50mm F1.8 lens for the first act, choosing the brighter lens over the focal length. I found the brightness great but really struggled with the focal length being so close to the stage. It was great for shots of the drummer, who is predominantly at the back of the stage but for the upfront members I could only really manage head and shoulders shots. Which is great but when trying to get a full length shot or a shot with the guitars in frame, I had to take shots from the side so that it was further away, as opposed to being directly in front of the artist, which doesn't give the same final result. The other position that I tried was to squat down to attempt to get more in the frame, however for the most part this was unsuccessful and always had the amps, situated at the front of the stage, taking up the bottom of the frame.
After leaving the pit for the first act, I decided to switch to the 18-55mm F3.5 lens, as I was now more knowledgeable with which focal length would work. I got to the rear of the arena and used this lens to take my first back of the crowd stage shot, only to be jumped on by security who told me that the photo pass only allows you to use your camera IN the photo pit and that I wasn't to use it anywhere else in the arena throughout the night! That put an abrupt end to anymore crowd/stage from crowd shots that I was planning which made me hugely disappointed. Luckily I had managed to get that first couple!
The second lens was great for focal length but started to struggle with the F3.5 aperture. I struggled to shoot the second act as the stage lighting was ridiculously dark throughout the first three songs, focusing on red and orange lights with a bit of green thrown in. Even with an auto shutter speed/aperture setting and a 1600 ISO, I was very aware while shooting the final three acts of motion blurring in my shots.
The last act I found a lot easier to shoot. I was very grateful for a wider angle as the stage was now clear of a lot of the previous acts stage gear and I was able to get a few full stage shots, albeit from a side angle. Also, the final two acts introduced blue and white lighting during their sets which meant my lens was grateful for the extra brightness in the lighting and taking the shots became slightly easier.
All in all, a very educational experience!
Post Shooting:
After uploading the images, I could immediately see the differences in the lenses. The 50mm F1.8 images were a lot clearer under the red and orange lights but there were very few full length shots to work with.
The second act with the bad lighting and the F3.5 lens produced the smallest amount of useable shots, which was really disappointing. The images that were useable did not appear to be as clear as the ones from the first lens had been. The blue and white lighting during the last two acts also made a vast difference to the quality of the images and how clear the result. I still had a lot of images with motion blur, sometimes the shot was still workable, but there was definitely a bigger final selection for the final two acts than for the first two.
In my attempt to create a magazine mock up of how the images might look in a double page review spread, I have used the above example of the 'Slam Dunk Festival' review as a template to set the images out. I found an important issue here was deciding which images I wanted to include and which I could bypass.
These are the final images that I considered selected and edited:
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| there are 2 copies of each edited image saved here |
I aimed to use 2-3 images of each band. One of the lead singer was a must but I want to include other members as well, but it would have to come down to the most atmospheric and interesting photos in relation to the event.
- Similar images
These two images are the same really, just different camera angle and focal length. Whereas they are both usable, I prefer the closer focal length as we can see more detail in the artists mask and outfit.
These three images of Gojira frontman, Joe Duplaniter, although slightly different, are all usable but only one is necessary. The first, left, is in bright lighting but I feel the contrast between the light and dark areas takes focus away and too much shadow is cast. The image below is off to the side and I feel it better to use a front shot as opposed to a side one.
- Artsy Shots.
I'm really liking all these shots and maybe I can see a pattern in the type of shots that I like to take through these three images. But saying that, these are examples of the kind of images that I don't feel would be appropriate for a review magazine. These give me a more relaxed feel as opposed to the actual energetic and loud atmosphere of the event itself. These images can be immediately cast aside from inclusion in the article.
- Blurring.
Magazine Mock-Up
After making my final choices in regards to the images to use, here is the mock up of the photo review with blank white boxes for spacing of where the written part of the review could be included;
Final Selection of images:
After making my final choices in regards to the images to use, here is the mock up of the photo review with blank white boxes for spacing of where the written part of the review could be included;
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| Rock magazine coverage mock up |
Final Selection of images:
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| The AVD - The Defiled |
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| Needles - The Defiled |
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| Papa Emeritus II - Ghost |
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| Stitch D - The Defiled |
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| Nameless Ghoul - Ghost |
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| Ghost |
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| Joe Duplantier - Gojira |
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| Christian Andreu - Gojira |
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| Jack Pritchard - Revoker |
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| Jamie Mathias - Revoker |
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