Dream Theater 5/13/08 - Chicago (Rosemont)

[mattymo]

Well, I mentioned in metalphotographer's Seattle DT thread that I'd be shooting the Chicago show... and thanks to "metalphotog" for the advice... the first three bands were awesome, but yah, no light, even with the 50mm wide open and at iso1600 it was tough. I got a few pix of those bands... and some practice in.... I just wish I had my camera sooner, to be able to practice this concert thing more with my less than 2 week old 40d! haha. I think a new faster zoom lens is in my future...

I host/program a metal radio show in Madison, WI, and got a ticket/pass through the record label.. my seat was in like the 4th row behind the orchestra pit, my sidekick on the show got on 3's list and was 4th row center in the orchestra pit, so I left my camera bag with him while I took pix in the emtpy front row for the first couple bands. (no barricade at this show) During Dream Theater....everyone in the front row, stood right at the stage, so i was only able to just stand right behind them, as to be nice to those folks. The security enforced the 15 minute shooting rule... but yet, everyone that snuck in a P&S was still shooting the whole time... I talked about that with the security guy before Dream Theater... so when he kicked me out during Dream Theater, I just went back to my bag and stayed there! There was an empty seat next to my friend, so I just snapped pix from there for the rest of the show... security guy didn't bug me til about 2 minutes left in the show (thankfully after the keytar solo) then I just whipped the cam out quick to take a pic of the band taking a bow... and the other security guy comes up.. "put the camera away" I just laughed and did what he said...

wow, i got carried away with my story! anyways...

without further ado some of the better ones, no pp, just crops and resizes to post online.

1
http://www.bweeta.com/images/blog/dt_jm-jp01.jpg
2
http://www.bweeta.com/images/blog/dt_portnoy01.jpg
3
http://www.bweeta.com/images/blog/dt_myung01.jpg
4
http://www.bweeta.com/images/blog/dt_petrucci_face.jpg
5
http://www.bweeta.com/images/blog/dt_labrie01.jpg
6
http://www.bweeta.com/images/blog/dt_jordan02.jpg
7
http://www.bweeta.com/images/blog/dt_jordan01.jpg
8
http://www.bweeta.com/images/blog/dt_petrucci02.jpg

And the biggest thing I've learned by reading this forum is to not cut off the guitar!!! and I was so conscious of this while shooting, but this one (#8) I just missed, and it's one of my favorites too, I still had to post it.

Here are the rest of the decent ones here
http://picasaweb.google.com/mattymodotcom/ProgressiveNation2008Chicago

I need to use a better FREE image hosting place... any recommendations?
I used photobucket a little, I have my own domain/host with lots of space, but I don't want to do a lot of work when posting images and stuff, just something fast and easy so I can take more pictures and spend less time at the computer!

(I'm just testing the picasa, it's my first gallery there, and I'm not likin' it so far)

[Rock Photo Star]

Technical
Maybe it's me. They all seem a little soft/oof, except for 7. Looks like they could be sharpened without hurting the image quality though. If you haven't run them through photoshop, I would sharpen them.

Action, Emotion
Okay but not great. Doesn't look like you had a lot to work with. 1, 6 [wish a little more light to face or contrast], 7 my favorites. 8 and 5 would have more impact if sharper.

Makes me glad I passed photogging them in Columbus or Cleveland. It wouldn't be worth the 3.5-5 hour drive for these poses or from what is being described of the other bands. It's a sad thing, but after years of looking at photographs of prog bands, they don't seem that exciting live to photog. And I love prog bands like Porcupine Tree, Between the Buried and Me, and respect Dream Theater.

As always, check my sets at KillerBandPhotos.com (http://www.killerbandphotos.com) and you'll see what I think are good sets and shots to get, ie. where I'm coming from and whether I know jack, lol.

[mattymo]

Thanks for the comments... I've shot a few shows, with the Powershot A70, 75 and 95, and yeah, prog bands don't do a whole lot. Ozzfest the last few years was pretty fun. Dream Theater is my favorite band, so it was way exciting to take pix with my new cam. Sucks that it had to be my first DSLR show, I did get most of the DT shots in RAW... So i'll have to play with them more.

they did seem to soften up a bit when I resized/saved, but thanks for the tips... I come from the TV world where the "sharpen" control on a VTR/VCR or TV just adds unwanted artifacts... this is a whole new ballgame!

Here's a gallery of some other shows I've done...
http://www.bweeta.com/v/concerts/
The wife went a little crazy with the black n white on them, but heck, she took the initiative to organize the photos a while back, so I can't complain! Oh, and these were all taken WAAAYY before I ever came on this forum to learn some good skillz... which I'm still a n00b and still learning!

I'm going to shoot some local bands on Saturday... we'll see if they can make some better faces for me! haha

[René Damkot]

Yes, they could be sharpened a bit. I use Manyk SRS for resizing and sharpening (link in the FAQ). Works pretty well.

Some appear to be focussed in the wrong spot (#2 on the drums rather then drummer; #4 and 8 on the guitar neck).

Apart from that, Rock Photo Star pretty much said it all...

[karinne]

Nice shots! Especially the ones from Myung and Pettucci.

Ugh!Is Jordan still doing that crappy solo on his keytar? That's the one thing I really couldn't stand at the Systematic Chaos tour.

[Metalphotographer]

It's tough to get truly exciting shots with really technical bands like Dream Theater as they have to concentrate on what they are playing so much.

Given that I like the photos of Jordan a lot. My keytar photo was taken from the back of the venue so I couldn't get in so close. One suggestion (other than the sharpening others have suggested) is to tweak the white balance on some of them (#2 comes to mind) in your RAW processing software so that the flesh tones are a little more natural.