Concert Photography

My wife and I had the amazing fortune to be at Ingrid Michaelson's Denver pop up show at the Walnut Room on January 30th. I debated bringing the camera questioning if photography, especially a DSLR, would be permitted. I was surprised to be met with a big shrug at the door and as you can see from some of the shots below I'm happy I had it along. I used my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens since I knew I would be needing as wide of an aperture as possible. I still had to have my ISO set at 1000 to 1600.

She started off with a little chat before playing and it was during this time that someone from the audience gave her a gift. You can't see them in the pics but they were cute felt ukulele pics the audience member found on Etsy.



This first shot of the night made me think back to the concert related photo blogs I'd read. They all mention how red is some of the hardest lighting to photograph though while at the same time it is the favorite lighting for so many concert lighting techs. Throughout the night I attempted shooting with less and less exposure trying to get images as sharp as possible with the idea of boosting exposure in Lightroom. Unfortunately red lighting is completely unforgiving. You have to get your exposure spot on in camera.

Thank goodness the red wasn't the only lighting option that night. My "green" shots were some of my sharpest and I was able to boost exposures when needed slightly.









We were standing about 10 feet away from where Ingrid Michaelson was most of the show but right in front of her backup singer, Allie Moss.



Being close helped to get some more crisp shots as well as fill the frame and really work with composition instead of just getting a shot.



Now...back to red!