Trivium (US) @ Hartwall Arena, Helsinki Finland

[kmb]

Trivium @ Hartwall Arena, 15th of Nov 2006, supporting for Iron Maiden.

I guess Hartwall Arena is the biggest indoor concert venue in Finland.

The three song deal was enforced, and I haven't had too much pratice for that, so basically I ended up taking rather "safe" pictures. Not too happy with these, there was potential for much more interesting pictures, but I wasn't up for the task quite yet. I should'we thought more about how to make most of the big venue, huge audience and so on. Next time I'll do more research.

I used two cameras, both hanging from my neck. Canon 20D with Tamron 17-35/2.8-4.0 and Canon 5D with Canon 70-200/2.8 IS.

1
http://kuvat.huumakuva.net/albums/userpics/10002/_MG_1251.jpg

2
http://kuvat.huumakuva.net/albums/userpics/10002/_MG_5663.jpg

3
http://kuvat.huumakuva.net/albums/userpics/10002/_MG_1246.jpg

4
http://kuvat.huumakuva.net/albums/userpics/10002/_MG_5540.jpg

5
http://kuvat.huumakuva.net/albums/userpics/10002/_MG_1229.jpg

[René Damkot]

Rather safe, but nice. I like #4 best. #1 and 3 have too much room at the top, too little at the bottom IMO.

[Darkhamr]

Great shots! If I was a teen I would be proud to hand #5 on my wall. LOL

[JustinL]

i think #3 looks awesome the way it's cropped. Was flash used on the last pic of the guitarist?

did you get to enjoy the band at all? singer looks weird with the long hair

[kmb]

Rather safe, but nice. I like #4 best. #1 and 3 have too much room at the top, too little at the bottom IMO.

Thanks for the comments. The idea there was that the lights would balance the picture and that the space would give an impression of how big the venue was...

[kmb]

i think #3 looks awesome the way it's cropped. Was flash used on the last pic of the guitarist?

did you get to enjoy the band at all? singer looks weird with the long hair

No flash was used, there were very powerfull human-controlled spotlights across the venue (the venue serves also as an ice hokey hall among other things, so they were a long way from the stage). The spots had a bit of a flattening effect when I photographed directly from the front (something I did not consciously think of - I was too busy agonizing about only getting three song to shoot).

I got to enjoy the rest of the show (I had to walk a detour to leave my camera bag outside the concert space), or at least I tried to enjoy it. Mostly I just thought how much more pumped the band and audience was at the end of the gig. I hate not being able to shoot at the end of a show.

I also got to enjoy the whole Iron Maiden gig, as the assignment was only to photograph Trivium, and Iron Maiden has a different record company. They would've made me sign a contract prohibiting showing the pictures outside the magazine through which I got the credentials, anyhow.

[René Damkot]

I see what you mean. I think on #1 I'd have tilted the camera a bit in line with the guitar, to get less 'dead space' in the upper left, and a bit more in the upper right. Also, I think I wouldn't have cropped the guitar. (I hope ;))
I think #3 gets better if you crop off the top and left a bit: Get rid of the dark corner...

[kmb]

I see what you mean. I think on #1 I'd have tilted the camera a bit in line with the guitar, to get less 'dead space' in the upper left, and a bit more in the upper right. Also, I think I wouldn't have cropped the guitar. (I hope ;))
I think #3 gets better if you crop off the top and left a bit: Get rid of the dark corner...

Thanks, valuable advice, I'll revisit these some day. I guess I'm a bit careless when post processing in a way, I just decide which way I want to go, and then sometimes carelessly try one thing without sitting back and meditating too much... These were processed in a hurry during a busy day (just wanted to get them out there asap since I tried to sell them to a couple other magazines). Excuses, excuses :)

Anyway, what I need to do is to spend a little alone-time pondering on how to shoot these three-song deals... I was just in too much hurry to spend time in such matters as thinking about the composition ;). One of the biggest problems is that I basically almost never know if I "got the shot" while shooting. I'm not sure if anybody knows that, for that matter (after all, there are so many variables that may go wrong, silly expressions while singing is for me one of the hardest to spot). So I don't know when I've successfully taken the "safe shots" and start to relax and use more time to find the wow-shots.

[Chio]

I love numbers 3 and 4.. well, I love them all. But those two really stand out for me :) Fantastic! I like the space on number 3.

[DwightMcCann]

I shoot a lot of one, two and three song "deals" and I just try to capture a lot of frames in styles that are as close as I can figure "on the fly" to what has worked in the past. I do not generally try to experiment or push the envelope. I don't feel that I can "pre-plan" since I haven't see the show before and generally have little idea of what is going to happen. I try to get to as many good positions as possible, watch that the talent is looking forward and then shooting away, switching lenses (or bodies) back and forth then moving somewhere else.

As for post processing ... I try to shoot so many frames that there is little to no post processing really necessary. I know many of my images would look better if I spent a lot of time on them but at some point it leans too far into photoart rather than photojournalism for me. I get my photoart urges handled with the collages that I am obliged to create, sigh.

[taygull]

These are nice shots....I did not read all the post but it looks to me like you are cropping with your eye.....that is something that has to change.

What I try to do is get the framing I like then "backup" a little in order to leave me room to crop in post. This is a must as you must leave room for the publication or client to print the shot in different aspect ratios.

When I say "backup" I don't really mean you physically back up or even zoom out. What I mean is you have to train your eye to take the shot so you have options in cropping for post process.

Had you done that then you could straighten, get all the guitars in the pics, and probably turned A images into A+ images. Since you are using the 20D you have enough pixels to allow a nice zoom crop and still get very good usable images.

[johnstoy]

I finally get what Rene' and you taygull are getting at, about the cropping/trimming and conforming to the ratio...It's for publication standards...

Now why didn't I think of that sooner?...I cut my own mats for my own framing...and it's all for personal use...(while growing up in NYC, I remember that printing is a typical subject taught in nearly all schools and nearly everyone takes a few classes of it.)..

kmb: These photos show a lot of action, color, diversity of subject composition and all in all, make for great shots...Each photo sustains my interest, a bit more, than many of the typical posts found through out the field...

I'm not even going to try to guess what each of the above pictures would look like if it had to be cropped to a specific and consistent ratio...

And of course, kmb, what we see in the view finder or the small LCD screen on the camera doesn't tell the whole story...It's not till each photo is closely scruitinized on a big screen, can I even begin to tell which is a keeper, worth working on...

[taygull]

I'm not even going to try to guess what each of the above pictures would look like if it had to be cropped to a specific and consistent ratio...



remember it is not always about what prints best but you want to leave yourself "creative room" when framing in camera......then if you think the best "look" for a specific shot is to crop out part of the instrument then do it. With backing off a little you leave yourself options.......I like options.

[johnstoy]

See, kmb, you're a pro...more power to you...I hope you get all the publications to print your photos...A lot of physical and mental effort goes into producing these photos...You deserve every penny for your efforts...

I see what you mean. I think on #1 I'd have tilted the camera a bit in line with the guitar, to get less 'dead space' in the upper left, and a bit more in the upper right. Also, I think I wouldn't have cropped the guitar. (I hope ;))
I think #3 gets better if you crop off the top and left a bit: Get rid of the dark corner...

Great pointer on your part Rene'...Composing on the fly is got to be a lot of fun...I'm game on tilting the camera, or even standing on my head if I have to, to get the framing right and the way I like it, in the viewfinder...There after, on occasion, stepping back a little bit, like taygull suggests, would also help leave room for adjustments...To date, I have been keeping an even keel, and not wavering from the most basic technique of square, proportional, and hopefully, total enclosure of subject, methodology...all, at the price of losing some artistic creativity...

Simply playing it safe, has been my method with the DSLR/and this forum posting. Someday, hopefully sooner than later, I'll break out of my conservative shell, and shock the photography world with innovative original creativity"...Look out world...LOL...If anyone asks, I'll just say Rene' and taygull, and Dwight too, made me do it...

remember it is not always about what prints best but you want to leave yourself "creative room" when framing in camera...then if you think the best "look" for a specific shot is to crop out part of the instrument then do it. With backing off a little you leave yourself options.......I like options.

A photographer shouldn't be confined to sitting in a chair, and expected to produce, great venue performance, photography... Not to mention, the restrictions of not using a zoom/telephoto lens, or any "professional lens"..So that's my measly excuse, and I don't particularly like it...
My postings to this forum are specifically trimmed for presentation here...All of my photos stay in their original format, and will be individually processed for trim and cropping, prior to mat cutting and framing...and someday, I'll get around to actually doing just that, matting and framing...

[CanonXTuser]

#5 #5 #5 .... that's a poster shot!

[DwightMcCann]

Oh,yes, I agree with Canon, but they are all good.