Brooks and Dunn - Nashville, TN

[bayougator]

Greetings all - posting 4 photos from an impromptu concert last nite in Nashville, TN - the concert was unannounced - some sort of event at The Stage - a downtown honky tonk bar in Nashville - the duo Brooks and Dunn and their 10-piece band and vocalists. It was unusual to see this mega-selling act on such a tiny stage - they're used to selling out 18,000-25,000 seat arenas and amphitheaters. The place was packed and the crowd was pretty wild and pressed against the stage - lots of smoke -

great sound, great act - all photos were shot with a 18-200mm/f3.5, the smoke inside the bar was very thick - would appreciate on any suggestions on handling the smoke with regard to exposure and lighting issues

thanks in advance -
1.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p07064347107601bda38c127de0bbd6b7/e927d9eb.jpg

2.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p9652079b867fb1c0533542845ce65c8f/e927d9d7.jpg

3.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p1a945192572424b7e2a25228dcd3b721/e927d9e2.jpg

4.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p044e5d89448f3d5acb7f8a8157cf5367/e927d9e5.jpg

thanks -

[Inspired Photography]

Hi Mate,

Looks like you couldn't have been much closer with so many people being in there!

Would have been tough with a f3.5 or worse zoom, so well done.

Looks like the focus on 2 is on the guy in the back, not the guy in front, but looked just OOF at first glance.

Rob

[bayougator]

Hi Mate,

Looks like you couldn't have been much closer with so many people being in there!

Would have been tough with a f3.5 or worse zoom, so well done.

Looks like the focus on 2 is on the guy in the back, not the guy in front, but looked just OOF at first glance.

Rob

Hello - thanks for the comments - it was pretty tough to get any closer - folks were absolutely territorial about staking a place as close to the stage as possible -

re: focus - had to go with manual at a certain point in the show as the autofocus seemed to be thrown off by the haze - this photo was shot with the autofocus and despite the AF lock and reposition, I did not anticipate/compensate for how shallow the depth of field was -

I kicked myself for not bringing the 70-200mm/F2.8 but given the crowd, the tiny space, and the weight of the lens - I decided not to - was not sure how more latitude the 2.8 lense would have gotten me but kind of wish I had brought it along -

Any advice on managing/photographing the smoke?
Best wishes -

[René Damkot]

I like #1.
#2 is too centralised IMO & has too many distracting elements.
On all I don't really like the skin tones, while #4 is way over saturated & has too much contrast.
On the smoke: Try USM 15%, radius 150 or so.

[bayougator]

I like #1.
#2 is too centralised IMO & has too many distracting elements.
On all I don't really like the skin tones, while #4 is way over saturated & has too much contrast.
On the smoke: Try USM 15%, radius 150 or so.

thanks for the comments -
agree about the skintones - could not get away from the orange tones - any suggestions re: settings or should I rely more on post-exposure processing or convert to B & W?

[René Damkot]

Post processing helps. If you shot Raw, give DPP a try ;)
On settings: I use Tungsten as WB, or, if lighting is very reddish, K=2800

[DwightMcCann]

#1 and #4 are very appealing although posted a bit small. And while B&D play a lot of large venues they also play smaller ones like mine which is only 1300, so they are very flexible. This was clearly a great opportunity. They need to outlaw smoking inside back there, too!

[bayougator]

Post processing helps. If you shot Raw, give DPP a try ;)
On settings: I use Tungsten as WB, or, if lighting is very reddish, K=2800

thanks for the advice on the white balance, this will very handy for future shoots in similar settings - will look and try to see what I can manage with the processing -

#1 and #4 are very appealing although posted a bit small. And while B&D play a lot of large venues they also play smaller ones like mine which is only 1300, so they are very flexible. This was clearly a great opportunity. They need to outlaw smoking inside back there, too!

thank you - agree about the smoking - this definitely was a great opportunity for both taking the photos as well as a great concert - rather than the usual set list - they ran through about 12-14 songs. most were covers of classic tunes by Haggard, Jennings, Cash, and others - am still sifting through the photos - will attempt to post some more in a larger format.