concert photography log #1

decided i want to start blogging about my journey with concert photography! i'm just learning everything as i go + i am shooting on film which i have never done before prior to this hobby so there is a LOT to learn obviously.

i just shot my third show. i posted some results on my photography instagram here. i shot this show with my ricoh kr-super ii on ilford delta 3200 b&w film (shot at 1600 developed at 3200). this was my first time using b&w film and i am in love with the results! i also did some slight edits to the photos which i haven't done before and i definitely will continue doing that. i love when shadows have a really high contrast to the highlights and the editing really helped show that.

my first show i shot, i made the mistake of using an iso 800 film and not pushing it whatsoever. this caused most of the shots to not come out as i don't use flash. my second show i used a friend's camera (canon rebel 2000), kodak portra 800, and pushed it 2 stops. i'm very happy with the photos, and wished i had edited them before posting them because i feel like some higher contrast would have really made the photos pop. the issue i have with those photos is i was really unfamiliar with the camera i was using, especially the shutter speed settings so some of them came out a bit more blurry than others.

some things improvements i hope to make are to a) get a new lens. i have already been shouted at by enough reddit dudes that i don't have good enough glass for concerts. i currently have a F3.5-4.8 lens on this camera, so in the future i hope to upgrade to F1.4-2.8. b) i would like to try some more edits in the future, as i really think it helped elevate my pictures a bit.

excuse my lack of knowledge on photography jargon. i haven't done any of this in so long so this is all foreign to me. just wanted to log my progress as i go. i have another show next weekend, taking pics of some cool bands and i'm very excited for it!