Battle of the Bands - Tips for next time?

[kombisaurus]

Last week I shot a heat from a Battle of the Bands competition being held here in Perth called AmpFest (http://www.ampfest.com.au)(not related to the US AmpFest). Considering how young and fresh-faced the bands looked, the performances were great.

I've been in photography for a while but I haven't got a lot of concert shooting experience and tend to concentrate mainly on other genres (sports, landscapes, etc).
Obviously there are many similarities (particularly to shooting sports), but the lighting and exposure scenarios are completely different compared to most other photography.
The lighting at this venue was so-so. Certainly it wasn't anything great, but it could have been worse too.

Here is an assortment of photos from Friday night. All feedback is welcome.

I was shooting with a 1D3 at 3200 ISO and while most of the shots shown here were with a 24-70 f/2.8L and 70-200 f/2.8L IS, I also have a few fast primes which I was a bit surprised I didn't use (50mm f/1.4, 135mm f/2L, and Sigma 28mm f/1.8

I'm heading back to shoot the next heat this Friday (at a different venue) and I'd really appreciate any pearls of wisdom that might help me improve on my next shoot.

http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292874854_UySrP-M-3.jpg
1.

http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292884484_KBW9k-M-3.jpg
2.

http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292882115_gSLKW-M-3.jpg
3.

http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292882968_o6NLN-M-3.jpg
4.


http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292895560_SUCcu-M-3.jpg
5.

http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292890004_pHqQN-M-2.jpg
6.

http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292897627_zXs7H-M-3.jpg
7.

http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292891735_iiDMn-M-3.jpg
8.

[johnstoy]

#2 and # 8 are real nice composition and framing... They are my choice for the portfolio... I'd add #1 after cropping out the empty side, going vertical might do the trick...

[Rock Photo Star]

Let's see.

You are shooting with a 1D3 at 3200 ISO and own a 24-70 f/2.8L and 70-200 f/2.8L IS plus a 50mm f/1.4 and 135mm f/2L. It's probably you that ought to be giving people advice ... at least on how you came to own such awesome gear.

As far as your shots, very much looks like talent show lighting reds and greens-yellowish greens. Shots look solid under that lighting except 2 and 6 where the actual musicians are blurry.

As for composition and action, the shots are kind of boring to me, especially as at least half appear to be from the back-side. The ones from the front are okay - maybe the bands were boring action and expression wise.

Only 1, 6, and maybe 8 would make my cut in a set, maybe, depending on what else to choose from. But, sometimes, you get a boring band and these would be the best for that band.

You clearly have the gear but have to figure out why the action shots were blurry and visualize better angles and opportunities for more interesting shots.

TAke a look at my sets at www.KillerBandPhotos.com, to get an idea of what to me are good sets, action, composition, etc.

p.s. the sigma 28mm 1.8 I had was absolutely crap. noticeably poor quality images than from my CAnons as well as misfocused constantly. Might have had a bad one.

[kombisaurus]

Thanks for the feedback guys. :D

John, I did actually take a portrait oriented version of #1 as well as the landscape one. I chose the landscape version of #1 because there is no doubt to the viewer that they are performers (the mic acts like a "6th band member" in the photo), but it doesn't surprise me that some might prefer the alternate shown here:
http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292874680_r27bM-M-3.jpg

Rock Photo Star, you are dead right about the lighting being "talent show lighting". There was enough light to shoot with but it was tough to make it look interesting. It very much depended on where the performers were on stage at the time. The back of the stage was also very dark and there were hideous plain white walls as backdrops from many angles. I feel like I'm making excuses, but I'm not. I know I have plenty of room for improvement and a good photographer works well no matter what he's presented with. Instead of complaining about poor light I need to work out how to still turn it into great photographs.

Thanks for the link to your examples, and there are some great shots in there!
Being fairly inexperienced bands, visually they generally still have a lot to learn about putting on a good performance. One of the bands however did do a great job of being animated so I did have a few opportunities in there.

I shoot a fairly wide variety of sports (mainly different olympic sports), and I find when shooting a new one that it usually takes me a session or two to get into the right "headspace" to be able to anticipate, compose, and frame the action as I'd like. I need to get an understanding of the flow of the action and be able to review and refine my technique a bit in order to see things before they happen. I guess the same can be said for stage performances like these.

As for the blurry shots (which I assume you mean #3 and #7, the two b/w shots), the motion blur was a deliberate attempt to capture the sense of movement. See below for a very similar shot to #7 but where the artists are sharper and the singer is facing the camera. I'm guessing by your response that you find the technique distracting rather than emotive (exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for).
http://www.digitalkinetics.org/photos/292882434_HgGJf-M-3.jpg

I have a real love/hate relationship with my Sigma 28mm. When I nail a shot with it I love it - colour, contrast, bokeh, sharpness (from f/2 onwards) are all wonderful and put my 24-70L to shame. But it is completely let down by it's rediculously bad auto-focus. The AF is unbelievably slow, innacurate, noisy, awkward, innaccurate, and basically unusable in many situations. Such a shame.
It does perform noticably better on my 1D3 than it did on my 30D however. And while the AF is still inaccurate, slow, etc, the AF microadjustment feature on the 1D3 have improved it a *lot*.

[Rock Photo Star]

I have a real love/hate relationship with my Sigma 28mm. When I nail a shot with it I love it - colour, contrast, bokeh, sharpness (from f/2 onwards) are all wonderful and put my 24-70L to shame. But it is completely let down by it's rediculously bad auto-focus. The AF is unbelievably slow, innacurate, noisy, awkward, innaccurate, and basically unusable in many situations. Such a shame.
It does perform noticably better on my 1D3 than it did on my 30D however. And while the AF is still inaccurate, slow, etc, the AF microadjustment feature on the 1D3 have improved it a *lot*.

You know ... the more I think of it, especially after hearing you say this lens should be the dogs bollocks [have no idea why that's a great thing :) ... I wonder if I ever really got an in focused shot with the 28mm I had on a 40D. I tried it for 2-3 gigs and quickly gave up as I simply could not rely on it to get focus.