Electric Wizard LIVE @ ((Szene))

((Szene)) from above
1/30s, f/2.8, ISO 6400

Last night I photographed for Catapult Promotions Electric Wizard gig at Vienna ((Szene)). English band formed in 1993 in Dorset. They were supported by Kadvar (Germany) and Iron Heel from Vienna. Electric Wizard are often referred to as the "heaviest band in the universe". I really enjoyed the show. Decent heavy rhythmic music took me back all the way to 70s. The way musicians were dressed with their bottom wide long jeans and shoes intensified the past feeling. It was like trip back to the past. Great show shortly speaking.

Photography wise, very tough. Guys apparently wanted to keep the mood quite dark to match their music. I had to adjust to the conditions with very little light and almost all the time backlit shots. On the positive side last night I had full stage access which allowed me to look for different angles and I wanted to make the most of it.

Jus Oborn, Electric Wizard1/250s, f/2.8, ISO 6400

Trying to catch "the moments"... this is the most tricky part. 1st three numbers of each band's show I moved around the pit by the stage using mainly wide angle lens. Framed on subjects and followed them looking through viewfinder and waited for something interesting to happen i.e. a jump, emotion, different light, etc. Press the shutter button, and back to following the guy again. Trusting my camera settings I seldom look at the camera's screen, I do not want to loose those moments. Then I moved upstairs to shoot from above to get nice full stage view and finally for few moments went behind the stage to get shot from drummer's perspective. It is quite noisy there and... shaky. Platform with the drums seems so unstable that I wonder how come all those bits and pieces do not fall apart. I moved behind stage with caution not to knock down something and especially not to disturb musicians. Then I hid, I did not want to disturb and distract them to much. One more thought - normally I try to focus on eyes. But last night it was problematic to say the least. I mentioned already the low light situation but on top of that guys and one lady from Electric Wizard - Liz Buckingham - had really long hair and most of the time their hair were covering their faces throughout complete songs. I think I have only 3 or four clear face shots of her. Same happened to bass player. So I had to focus on their hair :)

Electric Wizard show in Vienna1/60s, f/2.8, ISO 12800

Technical stuff. First of all, at ((Szene)) you are not allowed to use flash. I started with F/2.8, ISO 6400, and shutter speed of 1/100s but very soon realized I had to go slower and pumped ISO to 12800. In such cases equipment can be really important. Ability of shooting high iso with acceptable noise levels is crucial here. Basically through whole show musicians were backlit with constantly changing lights making it difficult to see their faces. If I had problem to see details with my eyes, then for sure camera would have even bigger problem. I shot all in manual mode and kept changing shutter speed and ISO, and tried to overexpose according to meter readings by 1-2 stops to get at least some details of figures not worrying about blown-up flood lights. In some cases I had to go all the way down to 1/30s. Anticipating movements I tried to catch frozen moments. Sometimes I was successful and sometimes I had no chance and pictures came out not too good.

Liz Buckingham, Electric Wizard1/80s, f/2.8, ISO 6400

All in all I shot around 600 pictures, after 1st selection I trashed around 400 - not sharp, duplicated and too dark that I could not recover in anyway. Second selection narrowed down the set to about 90 pictures, which represents around 20-30 pictures per band, which is a good number.

You can see all pictures I chose in my gallery on Jerzy Bin Photography site.

Comments are welcome.

Cheers
Jerzy