Author Topic: Some shots from a live show (Read 4165 times)

Akira · « **on:** July 18, 2017, 15:29:15 »

On July 9th, I visited a live show of my friend. He is leader of a Grand Funk Railroad tribute band and has collected the same musical instruments over many years as the ones used by GFR. Some equipments are even used by the members themselves.

I was not asked to shoot the show, but I happened to have my D750 with 50/1.8G and could take just the right position for this limited rig. Here are some shots from their exciting show.

atpaula · « **Reply #1 on:** July 18, 2017, 17:09:18 »

I like the framing and the atmosphere.
The colors, not so much. What ISO?
Next time in Japan I got to go to their show.

golunvolo · « **Reply #2 on:** July 18, 2017, 17:15:13 »

Akira, very good job! Your timing is spot on capturing emotion and movement. I'll love to see them live

armando_m · « **Reply #3 on:** July 18, 2017, 17:23:35 »

Well done Akira !

it is challenging doesn't it ? hard to choose the right exposure balancing DOF, speed and ISO, it seems you did use apertures around F4 or so ? the DOF is not that thin

chris dees · « **Reply #4 on:** July 18, 2017, 17:51:18 »

Nice series and story.
GFR is THE band from my youth. I still have 10 or so CD's/LP's from them.

In Holland we have a band called "The Analogues", they do the same with instruments and music from the Beatles. (I'd rather see/hear "your" band

Akira · « **Reply #5 on:** July 18, 2017, 23:25:04 »

Thank you for dropping by and commenting!

Aguinaldo, the ISO was mostly set to 6400. I guess the red channel tends to be over-saturated, which makes balancing the color difficult, except for the first two images.

Paco, the band, especially the leader/guitarist was emotionally charged. It was a great entertainment. Concentrating on the music helps me to predict the movement of the players, as you know.

Armando, it is indeed challenging. But the highlight priority metering mode and the wide dynamic range of D750 helped a lot. For the larger DOF, I wanted to include the image reflected in the mirror. But maybe I should have used the auto ISO mode and M mode to prioritize both shutter speed and aperture.

Chris, yes, GFR was one of the most happening band from our youth. The only tribute band I've involved was for "The Firm". Since I play the fretless bass, I enjoyed analyzing and playing the part of Tony Franklin. We also played some Led Zeppelin songs from "In Through The Out Door" which they never got to perform live due to the untimely passing of John Bonham. We could copy the performance on the album quite closely because our band had both the bass and the keyboard players.

Rick Waldroup · « **Reply #6 on:** July 19, 2017, 00:35:53 »

Excellent set. You captured the energy of the band extremely well. I really like the shots using the mirror- great stuff.

I saw Grand Funk live back in 1969 or 1970 when I lived in Los Angeles. I was young, maybe 15 or 16 years old. Great show...

Akira · « **Reply #7 on:** July 19, 2017, 04:45:02 »

Rick, thanks for kind comments. I have two different live albums of GFR from thier legendary US tour. The performances are insanely energetic. It is well understandable that they inspired a lot of teens (hopefully for good stuff.

)

tommiejeep · « **Reply #8 on:** July 19, 2017, 05:38:57 »

Akira, great job. You certainly captured the energy.
Tom

Nasos Kosmas · « **Reply #9 on:** July 19, 2017, 06:21:15 »

Very nice Photos Akira!
I use to make concert photos just for fun and I have to say that the almost new led lighting compared to old style filter lighting is very challenging, the light is almost monochromatic changing every second , the shadows are monochromatic too and very sharp and the hole thing is unpredictable you need al lot of luck to make a nice color photo plus my Nikon gear D7XXX I tried tends to overexposure

Very good again!

Akira · « **Reply #10 on:** July 19, 2017, 07:53:39 »

Tom, thanks for kind comments. The band made it easy to capture the energy, as they are energetic themselves!

Nasos, thanks! The venue mostly uses the conventional incandescent lighting with some additional LED lights. The tendency to overexpose the red channel could be caused by the excessive near IR emission from those incandescent lamps. As the reviews of dpreview.com often point out, Nikon cameras in general seems to show the tendency to overexpose in contrasty scenes. I also found that tendency on D7000 I used to use. The highlight priority metering mode newly implemented on the recent generation models like D750 largely mitigates the problem. Also, I feel that D750 is my first Nikon camera whose AF can be reliable.

JJChan · « **Reply #11 on:** July 19, 2017, 08:16:03 »

Akira
It is not easy to capture live shows - I think it helps being a musician as timing is everything (hence good for bassist!)
Great shots and the 50mm 1.8G is remarkably useful too

JJ

Akira · « **Reply #12 on:** July 19, 2017, 09:08:46 »

JJ, thanks!

Yes, actually this is one of the situations where 50/1.8G shines for its strong resistance against flare and ghosts.

Ashlandish · « **Reply #13 on:** September 12, 2017, 07:07:22 »

Last month I saw Grand Funk Railroad at the Tillamook County Fair in Oregon, a very small venue, perhaps with more cows than people. A far cry from the arenas they played in the early 70s.

I wandered up to the stage early, and asked if I could take pictures in the front area separate from the crowd. The manager looked at the camera, asked if I was going to sell photographs, and said yeah, sure, when I told him the camera was just for fun.

I had never shot a concert before, and not being much of a photographer, have not posted a photograph online until now, but thought perhaps Akira or his friend in the tribute band might be interested in images of a recent Grand Funk Railroad performance.

The concert was a indeed lot of fun, the band members bringing energy and commitment. They seemed to enjoy their time as much as the audience. Not grand images, and maybe too many, but I had a grand time.

First Don Brewer and Mel Schacher, founding Grand Funk Railroad members: