Stampede @ Murphy's

If you gave me a choice of an environment to shoot a show in I would choose big lights, big stage, no flash. Not always the case. I try to use flash as little as possible because in most situations the scene becomes flat and the shadows created are distracting. For Stampede the few lights that they had up at Murphy's weren't putting much light out. I did get a good sequence of shots with my camera pushed to ISO 3200 at 1/50 and f 2.8.

The optimal situation to use flash at a venue is when the ceiling is not too high and it is a light color. The ceiling for Murphy's is an off white color. During Stampede's set I used my flash bounced into the ceiling with my bounce card on my Sb-800 up to reflect light forward.

It is important to feather your flash when shooting a group with each person at different distances from camera. With this composition, I pointed the flash towards the guitarist to evenly light each member of Stampede.  Notice the dark background on the right. Lighting the musicians takes precedence over the scene.

Stampede is a reggae band out of Deerfield Beach, Florida. They got a great vibe and are a good group of guys. You can check out there music at myspace.com/stampederoots . Check out the rest of the photos from the show