Fighting Spotlights

Something that comes up in discussion more and more amongst music photographers recently is the curse of the LED spot. These may have their benefits for cost, power and the environment, but they are bloody annoying for photographers. Unlike a normal incandescent light with a gel, LEDs emit light solely on one wavelength – like sodium street lights, which means that in some area there is no colour to balance – you just can’t shift the purple!

This was the issue, again, at a recent night I went to at The Hop in Leeds, to see Driven Serious. I was not really out to shoot seriously, but as they are mates of a mate and therefore good for a bit of promo sharing I thought I’d take some stuff.  I only took my 1000D because I wanted to have a few and not have to lug the expansive camera round, and I went back to the lens I always used to use for these kind of things – the Canon 50mm f/1.8 mkii.

I don’t really like the whole ‘black and white it’ll be right’ attitude to saving images (and monochrome does not go with the Images from The Underground style, but these were very grainy (ISO 1600 on the 1000D is somewhat rough) and flooded with purple light. I think, these have worked nicely in the classic monochrome style though, and for this quite intimate gig they are a better option.

The gig was fun, though a little odd – The Hop in Leeds is primarily a drinking and covers band pub (though the selection of Ale is fantastic) and the band were on a little gantry to the top floor…