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Concerts & Plays - The Challenge of Live Performance Jeremy Webb If you've ever looked at a truly great landscape photograph and gawped open-mouthed at its sheer quality, only to find out later (even more impressively) that the photographer had to lie face down in a freezing puddle of water at dawn with a broken ankle to get the shot, its possible that a similar set of equally trying conditions might lie behind some of the great live concert images of our time. Live Performance encompasses such a diverse range of situations that although they sometimes demand different artistic and technical skills, they all share two uniting factors. First, each performance is a unique occasion, and secondly, each event has an audience.
Good theatrical and live concert photography seems to be getting harder and harder to achieve these days - not because the nature of performances has changed that much (mind you, our hunger for bigger, brighter, more spectacular events seems to demand more and more from directors and producers) but because such an open access society forces those in control of such events to try to exert control over the image of their celebrities in the collective mind of Joe Public, or to bow to pressure from the political lobby so that even parents are denied the right to photograph their own children at a Christmas nativity play because the local authority feebly submits to the perceived threat of a miniscule minority of dangerous paedophiles amongst millions of sane and safe human beings. What next for our scared society - the banning of all photographs of children? In my earlier years I managed to smuggle my camera into the Brixton Academy, past sniffer dogs and security guards that literally made my knees tremble. Despite the smoke, sweat, and spittle of this rabid mohican-haired mass I managed to get some of the last live pictures of The Clash in concert, and this bash in Brixton was their last ever live gig before they split up. I got these pictures because I was (and still remain) a music lover, and my late teens and early twenties were taken up with photographing the concerts of Wishbone Ash, Gary Moore, Desmond Decker, Hawkwind, Sly & Robbie, and a diverse variety of well-known bands visiting the local university concert hall.
Originally I photographed these gigs for pleasure, and for the kudos I gained from showing them around to my friends, but also for the fact that I could relive the event again and again through my photographs. Were I to try and repeat the camera-smuggling stunts of my formative years in this day and age, I dare say I'd be spotted a mile off (aah! the fearlessness of youth) and aside from anything else, I prefer the more intimate flamenco recital or pub gig for pure enjoyment, or the challenge of theatrical photography if I'm commissioned.
But enough of my reminiscing, what's out there for photographers in these days of high security and carefully-managed media images? It all comes down to the scale of the event and the size of the star on show. Forget Robbie Williams or Madonna, these huge gigs are for the big boys and girls with press passes and the right contacts. Instead, scale down your ambitions and approach the director/producer of a local theatre company in your friendliest, most upfront and affable manner, or write in advance of the event to the promoter of a reasonably prominent gig (this will usually be listed in posters or leaflets in advance) and explain what you want to do. It is possible that even asking for permission to cover a concert by a c-list band will subject you to a stern fax issued insisting you sign some scary contract waiving all rights to the selling of your photos. From this point on anything can happen, depending on your tenacity and negotiating skills. You have to nail your colours to the mast and know whether you want to treat this event as a bit of practice for personal enjoyment, or whether you intend to place them with the music press or some other market for commecial gain.
Since this is the commercial section, I'm assuming you'll try to sell your images, in which case the management of even a moderately-high-profile star will probably slam the door firmly shut in your face. But don't let that put you off. Once you're inside the venue with your camera smuggled-in in bits, at the front of the crowd, and with the lights down, who's to know what you get up to. Whatever the event, be it play, circus on ice, or touring musical, if you can get to photograph a full dress rehearsal then this could be your best bet - actors and actresses will be in full costume, the lighting as it should be, and no audience for you to annoy with your ceaselessly-bobbing head in search of the perfect viewpoint for the action. Better still, use the dress rehearsal as an opportunity to watch a run-through (taking a careful note of your 'cues' for pictures) and use the performance night to get those shots you've carefully observed in rehearsal. With your business hat on, why not approach the director and see if you can sell copies back to the actors and actresses. You never know, it could lead to further, more lucrative work. As I've already mentioned, stadium rock shows are really out of the question. You may be able to bag a star from distance but only the press pit will be filled with the type of professional who gets the pass to get in-front of the crush barrier - and even the press pack can be subjected to strict 15 minute shoots before being hauled out again. We've all seen Grannies pictures of Rod Stewart rendered as a tiny speck, half a mile away beyond that flash-lit-'back-of-the-head-of the-person-in-front-of-you' type of shot. Its not clever but it can be funny. Don't let it happen to you. The real secret of good live performance photography is to get close - that's it! hardly rocket science. There are of course occasions when you can get good results from a telephoto lens at distance but this usually relies on a seated, still audience, very bright stage lights or floodlighting, very fast film and an exceptionally-crisp lens. Like portraiture, nearness to your subject creates an intimacy which is required to cement the engagement between the viewer and the image, and any steps you can take to decrease the distance between you and your subject will benefit your live performance photography immensely. It goes without saying also, that flash is out of the question. It'll kill the atmosphere, fill-in the shadows, blow your cover, and annoy the hell out of those around you. Apart from proximity to the action and No flash, what else is required? In no particular order of importance I'd list the following:
These last two permeate everything you do. As with most forms of photography, your unique style and approach to picture-making are of far greater significance than which hardware - be it high-tech or low-tech, you use. As for the nature of light on stage, it's likely that for the majority of the time the level of illumination will be quite low. Although rock concerts will be punctuated with a rapidly changing choreography of lights, or even punctuated with flash bombs, spark fountains and dry ice, these moments will pass within an instant, frequently returning to more restrained lighting for the majority of the time. This forces us as photographers to use a faster-than-normal film to compensate for low overall light and also to use slower shutter speeds and wide apertures in order for the film to 'drink-in' the light available. The nature of stage lighting also throws up another technical challenge - image contrast. If a performer or leading actor/actress is picked-out with a spotlight against a pitch black background, unless you go in close and fill the frame with your subject, your exposure is likely to 'drink-in' the large expanses of black behind the subject, resulting in overexposure of the performer. To get over this, use spot-metering (if you have it) on the face of your performer, or reduce the exposure manually by a stop and bracket exposures around that setting.
You can always uprate the film then push process it in order to achieve faster shutter speeds but push processing can increase grain (which may or may not add a creative or atmospheric edge to your pictures). Sometimes slower shutter speeds and subject blur can make dramatic and evocative images which say much more about the excitement and spectacle of a live performance than attempting freeze-framed, pin sharp clarity at all times. But if that's your goal then a good punchy film like Fujichrome MS1000, or even ISO 1600 film at a well-lit live performance (either theatrical or music) could easily give you a 1/250th second shutter speed which is fine for a 80mm or 100mm lens to freeze action but a bit dodgy for anything more telephoto than that.
Many novices rightly point out that due to the use of tungsten light sources, you should shoot with a tungsten-balanced film. I would say that this is true for theatrical photography where stage lighting might be more commonly put to use in achieving a natural or neutral look, but in band photography I've rarely found that using daylight-balanced film has given me any problems, either because colour adjustments could be made at a later stage (during printing, or in the digital darkroom), or because the issue simply didn't arise and the image was improved by being a slightly 'warmer' colour in any case. Since lighting for rock concerts includes all colours under the sun, their depth and strength of colour are often so intense that their sheer power overrides any subtlety of rendition normally used to differentiate between these film types. So now you have your pictures, where do you go from here? If you're looking for markets for your images, try the Bureau of Freelance Photographers for info, your local press, or the still-steady range of music magazines like Mojo, or Q. There is also a wealth of websites out there (not forgetting this one of course!) with information on markets for your images - it all depends how thorough your research is and how much time you can devote to finding the best information. If its a branch of photography that you'd love to know more about, try looking at the masters of the genre - photographers like David Redfern, Dennis Stock, Fin Costello. Even if you only get pictures at the local pub, or the local am-dram society, remember, you might have pictures of tomorrows Robbie Williams, or the next Dame Judi Dench in the making...and those would be a set of negs worth holding on to.
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