An Evening With Magenta

The night of March 31st was an opportunity to embrace my lighter side and indulge in a bit of prog. Rob Reed, Christina Booth, Chris Fry and the rest of the gang presented An Evening With Magenta at the Montgomery Hall in Wath-upon-Dearne, in association with the Classic Rock Society. The evening was set to be a long one, incorporating three sets into the four hour gig, so we found some seating. I might be one of the youngest at your average CRS gig, but I still didn't fancy standing still for four hours.

Satisfactorily ensconced at the top of the seating with a very good view of proceedings, the evening started out with the very first Cyan gig this century.

The set also included songs from other Rob Reed side projects, such as Chimpan-A. An unfortunate side effect of the Chimpan-A music, though, is that it's very soporific. We sat blissfully dozing as the band tickled our ears with influences from Mike Oldfield, Yes and Genesis. A thoroughly relaxing start to the evening.

After a short break for more beers and a trip to the loo, the second set came up. This time it was the turn of Chris Fry and his brother Dan to promote their new album of instrumental guitar tunes. With a distinctly Spanish feel, the music seems somehow familiar and quite tranquil. I didn't expect the evening to be quite so soothing. But I'm not complaining!

Following another short break, in which I popped out to the foyer and picked up Paul Cusick's latest album, P'dice, the stage was set for the "headline" act. If they can be called that, considering it's the same people who'd been on for the preceding two hours. Magenta took to the stage proper and played a wide variety of material from all their albums, from the most recent, Chameleon, to the days of Seven and the always fantastic Metamorphosis.

During the Magenta set, the band played the song Red. Throughout this song, the stage was awash with red light. Those who have attempted gig photography with a digital camera before will know that red light plays havoc with the sensor, overwhelming everything and creating some utterly weird effects. Tonight was no different. But, given the song title, I decided to just go with it and see what I could get. Here is the result.

Pretty freaky, but pretty cool. Certainly fitting for the song!

All in all a very relaxed, pleasant evening of good music and banter. Certainly the most easy going gig I think I've ever been to. The band were on form, everyone was happy, and the evening passed much quicker than I could have expected.

Here's hoping the usual selection of Wentworth ales returns for the next gig though. I like Guinness, but it's no WPA!

How many days 'til Bloodstock?

That's right, 1 day to go until 5 days of metal, relaxation, light drizzle and beer. I've been preparing electronic survival kit because, frankly, I don't want to risk my iPhone, very nice watch or my good camera by taking them to a field full of mud and thousands of people. Astonishingly, I've also managed to do it on a very small budget.

Phone

One of the things I'm looking forward to this weekend is a lack of connectivity. For a guy who carries the Internet around in his pocket, this may sound odd, but with the world the way it is at the moment I think a few days of blissful disconnection will be nice. So here is my Bloodstock Phone:

Samsung E1110

The Samsung E1110. It's a phone. It makes phone calls. It sends text messages. It has vibration alert. It costs £10. What more could I need when the only messages I'll need to send are "where are you?" and "where's the beer?"

Watch

Casio F-91W

The one, the only, the classic Casio F-91W. Favoured by business executives and schoolboys in the '80s, and now favoured by people who want to explode a very reliable timer for some reason, this is the ultimate retro-chic watch. And it costs £9. The water resist will be very handy for when I'm diving into the mud, and the light will make it useful at all hours. Perfect.

Camera

Canon Powershot A495

Those who know me well will know that I don't take the subject of cameras lightly. I had very specific requirements for this assignment; cheap, reliable and standard batteries (no battery packs). The Canon Powershot A495 seemed to fit the bill nicely, and at a very reasonable £50 (for a Canon compact, no less! None of your Samsung rubbish here) it doesn't break the bank. In fact, it's so good that I sold my old compact (Fuji S1600) because, while the feature set is severely lacking in comparison, the Canon blows it away in pretty much every way. Sure, it doesn't have full manual mode or 15x zoom or many fancy modes and options, but it does what a camera should; it takes pictures. And it does it well. In fact I've taken to carrying it around all the time just in case I see something and the DSLR would be too cumbersome.

It wasn't the first camera I chose. Initially I picked up a Praktica SlimPix 5250. That seemed to fit the bill very well indeed, for many reasons. First, it has a plastic sliding cover to protect it while not in use. It also has no zoom or autofocus, so no moving parts to fail. Unfortunately, though, the picture quality was appallingly bad. In bright light it was ok, but as the light level dropped the fixed f/8 aperture was just too much for it, and the limited range of ISO meant that slooooow shutter speeds were the order of the day. I was hoping for a Lomo, grungy style. Oh, boy, did I get it!

The other issue was that it ate batteries like no tomorrow. The Canon lasts ages on a single pair of AAs. I still have the Praktica just in case I feel like doing some extremely lo-fi photography, but it'll probably just stay in the drawer looking forlorn alongside my 35mm compact which, despite having practically no features, is 4x the size of the A495.

Q-Strap

The other thing I'll be taking along is my Q-Strap. It's a low-budget rip-off of the famous R-Strap, and is a sort of sling that attaches to the tripod socket of the camera body via a sturdy carabiner. The sling-like arrangement allows the camera to hang by your side out of the way, but slides up the strap on a runner making quick access very easy indeed. I use it all the time with my SLRs and have experimented with the A495 too. The tiny size of the camera means that it hangs nicely by my side, and if I put the Q-Strap on underneath my coat, it will be protected from the elements, too.

So that's my festival electronic survival kit. I think it should serve me well. As long as I remember to charge the phone and take batteries with me ...

Gig Photography - Technicalities

In my last post about the explosion of gig photography in the last few years, I gave my list of ways to avoid being hated by the rest of the audience. An important skill, I'm sure you'll agree.

This time, I'll go through some ways that I like to ensure that the pictures I take come out well and don't look like rubbish. I'll also give a brief overview of my gig photo gear, and why I like it.

There are a few common problems with gig photos. Each of them has a solution, but most people just let the camera pick the settings and hope for the best. At some gigs this can work really well, because the lights are bright, and consistently so. But at many gigs this simply doesn't work at all. The list of common problems, as I see them, is as follows:

1. Underexposure - The pictures are too dark
2. Slow shutter - The band is blurry due to moving around too much
3. Position and zoom - The band is tiny
4. Rapidly changing lighting - Shots are unpredictable

1. Underexposure

This would be Anvil, if you
could see them ...

Underexposure is a common problem in live music venues. The house lights are off, the stage lights are unpredictable, and the camera's built in metering just can't cope with it. There are a few ways to deal with it.

Before I go on, and referring back to my previous post, I'd just like to point out that using flash is *not* a solution. It's annoying, and it usually won't work unless you're right at the front. And if you are, you risk annoying the band.

With that off my chest, here are a few ideas. First off, raise the ISO. I referred to this in my last post, too. It really does work. Pushing it up from ISO 800 (usually the highest a compact camera will go to automatically) to ISO 1600 will double the brightness of the pictures. Even when I use my dSLR with a fast lens I use ISO 1600 because it allows me more control, and gives some leeway.

Secondly, try boosting the exposure compensation. Even the £15 Praktica compact I have for a laugh can do this. Most cameras let you increase or decrease exposure by up to 2 "stops". This means up to 4x brighter than the camera thinks it should be. I can definitely help, although it might cause the shutter speed to slow down. This might lead to blurring due to movement.

2. Slow shutter

Purified In Blood? More
like Purified In Blur.

Slow shutter speeds will cause the movements of people on stage to blur, often turning otherwise clear features to mush. This can result in pictures that, while properly exposed and bright, are indecipherable.

The best way to combat this is by using a high ISO, as mentioned before. Once that's set, you may still be at the whim of your camera if you're still using automatic mode. Switch it, instead, to S (shutter priority) or Tv (time value) mode. This lets you specifically set how long the shutter can stay open, and the camera has to honour that setting. But how long is long enough?

• 1/30th of a second is good for "dramatic pose" moments, and may be the fastest you can manage with slow lenses. More than a tiny amount of movement would be badly blurred.
• 1/60th of a second is the lowest shutter speed that can be safely hand-held without introducing blurring due to shaking hands. You would get more clear shots of the band at this speed and is a little more forgiving.
• 1/125th of a second is what I usually use, because it's quick enough to get a clear shot, but gives some slight blur for very fast movement so it doesn't look like the band has been somehow frozen in mid-air. On slower compact cameras, this might result in images that are too dark because it can't compensate with a wider aperture.
• 1/250th of a second should allow you to get freeze-frame moments with no blurring at all, but you'll need a very fast lens and very bright lights to get this.

3. Position and zoom

Lacuna Coil look very tiny.

There's nothing worse than getting what looks like an epic shot of the whole stage, only to look at it later and realise the band are 8 pixels tall and completely unrecognisable. Getting close is a basic rule of photography, and settling for a huge picture with a tiny person in the middle is hardly worth bothering with. Fortunately there are two main ways to deal with it.

First, you could buy a camera with a good zoom on it. Consumer level cameras with 15x or even 30x zoom at the high end are available, if you have the cash to splash. Although by the time you're spending enough to get 30x zoom you might as well buy a dSLR. But a good zoom, especially one with image stabilisation and a fast lens, is the best way to get the picture you want if you're stuck way at the back.

But what if you're not stuck way at the back, but can actually get closer? That's the second tip. Get closer. Get close enough to fill the frame with the picture you want, instead of settling for tiny images. Get right to the front if you can, although the official photographers, moshers and other people might not like it. Refer to the previous post about keeping out of the way.

4. Rapidly changing lighting

Delain are hidden behind that
unfortunately timed strobe.

This is a repeat of a suggestion I made in my last post. Rapidly changing lighting might mean that what looks great on your little screen turns out rubbish because that vital spotlight goes off just at the wrong moment, or comes on and makes everything go white. That's the nature of the beast, and you have to live with it.

Continuous shooting is the answer. In difficult lighting conditions like those, I use 3 shot continuous shooting, because the chances are that one of them will come good. I don't tend to bother reviewing the pictures in situ, because even a slightly off picture can turn out awesome, and I can generally tell if something went badly wrong and take another.

That concludes my technical tips on getting the most of out whatever camera you take along. With a little practice, good pictures should be easier, and you won't have to spend half the gig staring at the back of the camera instead of at the band.

My cameras of choice

Anathema playing O2 Academy, Sheffield
Canon EOS500D with EF 50mm f/1.8

I have two cameras I use for gig photography. The first, my dSLR, is a Canon EOS500D. A lovely camera, to be sure. Consumer level digital SLR, usually with a 50mm f/1.8 lens stuck to the front of it. No zoom, but I have feet so I can walk. I also have a 28-135mm zoom lens, but it's bloody massive so no good for the "discrete" aspect of gigs.

Unfortunately, I'm frequently banned from taking that camera to gigs. Lots of copyright laws, over-active litigation lawyers and jumpy doormen have resulted in my being escorted off the premises. Not great fun, I have to say. This is apparently because it's deemed to be a "professional" camera because the lenses come off. Be warned.

Delain playing Manchester Academy.
Fuji Finepix S5700.

Instead, I take my Fuji Finepix S5700. It's a compact, 7 megapixel consumer camera, but looks for all the world like a tiny dSLR. It's a great gig camera for many reasons. I upgraded to it from the Finepix S5100, which is also amazing if you can but find one. Some of the reasons the S5700 is so good are:

• 10x zoom, so you can get close to the action even if you're right at the back.
• Electronic viewfinder, so you can do literally everything (including accessing menus and reviewing photos) without ever turning the rear screen on.
• f/3.5 constant aperture across the zoom range. Not the fastest (the S5100 opens to f/2.8 at its widest zoom), but most zooms (even the 28-135mm on my dSLR) get slower the closer you zoom. Not this one. I've never known a compact with this feature before, and it's a lifesaver. dSLR lenses that do this can run into the hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds.
• Great ISO 1600 performance. Still noisy compared to your even low-end dSLRs, but compared to pocket-sized cameras it's still more than acceptable. And once they pictures are scaled down to internet sizes it's all but invisible.
• Full manual control, with Aperture and Shutter priority modes if you want them.
• Takes AA batteries. Never worry about the battery pack running out; just carry a 4 pack of AAs in your pocket.
• Several continuous shooting modes, including exposure bracketing, top 3, bottom 3 and full continuous shooting.
• No shutter lag. You press the button, it takes the picture. Most compact cameras have a noticeable delay between pressing the button and anything actually happening, resulting in perfectly timed shots being ruined because the subject has moved by the time the camera responds.

Quite a decent list of features. And to top it off, they can be had from eBay for about £50. The flash is a little unreliable (mine is completely broken) but for gigs that really doesn't matter. Note that I did try to "upgrade" to the apparently superior Finepix S1600. It has 15x zoom and 50% more megapixels. It's also rubbish, with a shutter lag so bad (> 0.5 second) that by the time it actually takes the picture, chances are the subject is long gone. Stick with the S5xxx range.

That pretty much tops off my list of "gig photography tips". I hope some are useful and result in some good pictures that don't ruin the whole gig experience.

Gig Photography - Etiquette

The practice of taking pictures at gigs has exploded since the advent of the pocket-sized camera and the camera-phone. Where once was a sea of cigarette lighters, instead is a sea of square blobs of light as everyone tries to capture the moment on a piece of silicon.

My view of Epica, courtesy of the guy in front of me.

There are many who are annoyed by this practice. I am one of them, to some degree, although I am more forgiving than most. Photographs I can understand; they capture a moment. Videoing the event I don't get. A live music event is right there, in front of you. If you're just going to spend the whole time faffing with a gadget only to watch it again later, without the atmosphere, lighting or volume, then what's the point even being there? Watch it on YouTube the next day instead. It's free, and you also get the added bonus of buffering.

But philosophy aside, there are practical issues that need to be dealt with. These are both social and technical. Much of the etiquette of gig photography is, or at least should be, self-evident. Basically, don't get in anybody else's way, obstruct their view, or otherwise influence the event that they have paid (with money and/or time) to see. Like everything else in life, it all boils down to "don't be a dick." Look at this guy:

He held his camera up for 20 minutes. I know that because there were big numbers on the screen counting how long his recording was. It was long enough that he had to switch arms twice because they got tired. The people behind him were tired, too. Tired of seeing the whole thing through his tiny screen.

There are some key rules that I try to stick to that, as much as possible, avoid getting in people's way. They're very simple, but apparently don't occur to most people.

1. Keep out of the way

Don't stand right in front of somebody and block their view. Try to be discreet (and, indeed, discrete). Stand to one side, or get near the front and get lower down.

I am more aware than most of this because of my height. Even when not taking pictures I have to be careful not to block other people's view. Well, I don't have to; many tall people see to have no problem with standing in front of someone 12" shorter than they are. But I do, so I avoid it.

2. Turn off the screen

Bright screens are distracting. Like fireflies flitting through the audience, they can be really irritating. And like spotlights right in your eyes, if one goes up right in front of you it can incite you to murder. Or at least pent-up frustration.

But what if your camera doesn't have a viewfinder? Well, get one that does. Or if you have one of those micro 4/3rds jobbies, get the optional add-on viewfinder. They're very nice. Alternatively, check out rule 3.

3. Be brief

I am aware that not everyone has the benefit of being 6'3", and using a viewfinder would result in lots of backs of heads. Fair enough, I wouldn't deny your picture-taking rights. But be brief. Turn it on, lift it up, frame and shoot. Then turn it off.

When you've taking your shot, avoid chimping. That is, avoid checking every single shot on the back of the camera before deciding it wasn't quite right and shooting another. In fact, best thing is to turn the picture review off altogether, otherwise you're breaking rule 2.

Instead of the usual "frame, shoot, review, frame, reshoot" cycle, use continuous shooting. Even my cheapest compact camera supports continuous burst shooting. If you can limit the number of continuous shots, set it to 3. That way you don't get too many, but the chances of catching the ever-changing lighting just right will be drastically improved.

4. Don't use the flash

Remember rule 2, about how annoying tiny little screens can be? That's magnified by bursts of very bright light from your little compact camera's flash. Especially if you forgot to turn off pre-flash and red-eye reduction. Many small cameras can flash up to 5 times for a single shot, somewhat like a strobe. Distracting, especially if you're unlucky enough to be stood next to somebody with one of those cameras.

And the problem, really, is that even if the flash goes off, it likely won't do any good. The distance between most of the audience and the band is way beyond the range of an average consumer level built-in flash. 10 feet is probably all you're realistically going to get, so anything further than that is just going to be annoying with no benefit.

Instead of flash, bump up the ISO. Most phone cameras have fixed aperture and shutter speed and use ISO control anyway, so leave that as is. Other small compacts have ISO options up to about 1600. Set it to 1600. Leave it there. The fact is that if you get some high ISO grain on a 12 megapixel image, it'll be all but invisible by the time it's scaled down to 1.5 megapixels and put on Facebook.

That's all folks

That's it. That is my list of rules for gig photography etiquette. Four simple little rules that will ensure you get a few good snaps to share with your friends, and the rest of the audience won't hate your guts for it.

Tune in next time, where I shall reveal my hints and tips for getting good pics and extol the virtues of the Fuji Finepix S5700.

Realising My Imagination

Recently I have become increasingly dissatisfied with my photographic equipment. Over the last couple of years, I seem to have lost the spark that I had for a very long time for learning, practicing and enjoying photography. Last week, I think I figured out why. I was using the wrong camera. So out I went and supplemented my Fuji S1 Pro by giving it its own mini-me. A tiny little Fuji S5700.

I've been into photography for quite a long time. I got my first 110 format point+click when I was about 7, by sending off tokens from tins of beans. The strange stacks of single use flash cubes perched precariously on top of the tiny device remind me very much of my childhood. Slightly oddly coloured animals at the zoo, and people with bits cut off and lens flair covering half their bodies. Good times, those. I also had another camera, although I have no idea what it was. I remember it looked something like this Sugaya camera though. I also remember that I loved that camera, although I never had chance to do much with it.

Some time in the early 90s, my dad got me my first 35mm SLR. It was a Zenit E, made in the USSR (said so on the bottom), and came with a fixed 56mm lens. The thing was entirely mechanical. No batteries except for in the optional flash gun, although it did have a piezo trigger in the hot shoe. The metering, film selection, exposure and focus were all manual, though. It really taught me about what goes into a photograph. What I took for granted in the fixed focus, fixed aperture, fixed speed pointy-clicky cameras of my childhood.

I made the transition to digital in 2001 with a huge Kodak monstrosity that was cheap. It was a 1.3 megapixel thing, but was about 4 times bigger than the Canon compacts that were just coming out (the precursor to the current Ixus range). It had autofocus, but no manual control at all. It did me ok, I guess, but I couldn't really explore my artistic vision. Zoom, for example, was achieved by walking closer to the subject. I got rid of that after a short while and replaced it with another Kodak, this time a Kodak DC-215. It had every shortcoming of the original Kodak but was a bit smaller and had 2x optical zoom.

So I went off Kodak and tried other things. I ended up buying myself a Fuji Finepix S5100 in 2004. That camera is the one that really got me into photography properly. It was small, a bit too light, and the screen was miniscule, but that was okay. It had every configurable option under the sun. Full manual exposure, manual focus or 3 different autofocus options, configurable flash power, auto-bracketting, exposure compensation, and to top it all of, a 10x optical zoom (the equivalent of a 300mm lens on a 35mm SLR). With 4 megapixels and a Fuji SuperCCD, it really was a great little device. I could stick it in P or Auto and let the camera do all the work, or I could take full control of every aspect of the picture.

So far, so good, and I wanted something more! What better option than a digital SLR? I bought the S1 Pro for £100 around 2007 or so. It has a single kit lens, 28-100mm at f3.5-5.6. Not the longest telephoto or the widest wide-angle, and not the fastest lens either, but sufficient for perhaps 70% of photographs. I have used it successfully on many occassions to take some pictures that I'm very proud of. But something was lacking. Well, two things.

Firstly, the thing weighs a ton. It's huge, even compared to other SLRs, and the bag I have to carry full with replacements for each of the seven batteries it takes, in 3 different types (AA, CR-123 and CR-2032) makes it even heavier. It's not a camera you can just take out and about without it being very conspicuous.

Secondly, I have outgrown it in many ways. The occassions that I make best use of the lens I have for it could be adequately covered by a fairly standard compact. Sure, it has a better quality of picture because the sensor is so much larger than that of a compact, but the trade off is not in its favour. To do the best I would like to, I would need three lenses.

• A 35-200mm zoom
• A 56mm or 80mm prime
• An 18mm-50mm zoom

These should, ideally, be faster than the one I have. f2.8 would suffice. Unfortunately, to get these lenses it's looking like I might have to pay up to £1000. Ouch.

A570is - Rubbish at gigs

At the same time, I was growing increasingly frustrated by my new compact, a Canon PowerShot A570is. Not a bad little point-and-shoot if everything you're ever going to photograph is in broad daylight, approximately 2 to 20 metres away. Other than that, you're out of luck. This was most evident in photographs I take at gigs.

S5100 - Great at gigs

I find the PowerShot's pictures to be too noisy/grainy, blurred with soft edges due to its slow lens and low light. More generally, though, they are very much snapshot quality. Point the camera at the stage, try to get the best you can using the kit available to you, don't try anything too fancy. The S5100, on the other hand, allowed me to get better angles, better light control, and cleaner pictures without having to fight with it.

So, the Canon is on eBay. A shiny new Fuji S5700, successor to the venerable S5100 of old, is sat on my table. I look forward to getting back the fun and satisfaction I once had from my photographical expeditions. It'll be fun.