Trial and Error

This Saturday I got thrown into photographing a live band for the first time, as a favor, both for my dad (member of the band) and myself. Instead of spending an incredibly long time, researching the “correct” way to take live band photos - I opted for the different approach, of trial and error. I wanted to test myself and try something new.

I of course had an idea, as to how I wanted to capture the photos, and as to what equipment I wanted to use. So I packed my Canon 5D III, and a borrowed Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, as my weapon of choice for the task. My thinking was, that I wanted to dictate the shutter speed and aperture, and then let the iso do, what it wanted to do. In hindsight I could probably have used a faster lens - to let more light in.

The settings I decided to go with, were a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second, because I didn’t want any blurred imaged. Again in hindsight, that would probably look pretty cool as well. I wanted to keep the aperture around f5,6 for a little dept of feel, and then blasted the iso all the way up to 3200. The Canon 5D III not being the newest camera, 3200 was as high as I felt comfortable with, without compromising the quality of the image with too much noise.

So there you have it, a small batch of the photos I took during their concert. At the end, the band liked the photos, and I learned a couple of things. There were some things I didn’t get to do, that I wanted to try - but that will be for next time.

I also shot a roll of Ultramax in my Canon A1, that has not been developed yet, when writing this, plus some video filmed on the DJI pocket.

If you want to checkout the band, head over to their Facebook page, and check them out - they are called The New Retrovation.

Back in May I took some band photos for them, this again was a first time for me (working/photographing with a band). Back then it was with a borrowed 5D IV, instead of my own 5D III. You can see some of the shots below.

The band had a certain look they wanted to hit, and this is what I came up with during the editing in lightroom and photoshop.

If you have any questions, or just want to give me any feedback, feel free to write below, and please go check The New Retrovation, over at their Facebook page.