Martin Hannett - The Redemption

These are some shots from a night in Manchester dedicated to Marin Hannett. All the shots I've used from the set are in black and white, because the lighting isn't appealing in colour, as can be seen in the contact sheets. I used a 70-300mm f5.6 lens, an 18-55mm f5.6 lens and a 50mm f1.8 lens for the night, but mainly used the 70-300mm to allow me to work from further away, having more room to shoot. 

I like the range of photographs I've produced, the small exhibition of Martin's equipment allowed me to make more than just band photos, broadening the range of photographs.

This is one of my favourite photographs from the set, mainly because there's no detail in the people apart from a small amount of light on the top of their heads. You can only just tell that they are heads, which I think is a positive point to the photograph.

I did a lot of close up shots like this, mainly because using a longer lens allowed me to get much closer in to produce shots like this. I really like the close up shots, because they focus much more on the artist than anything else, it's a way of working I'll definitely use again, but in a broader range of work.

This is one of my favourite shots from the set, I love that the artist is oblivious to the photograph being taken, making it seem a lot more natural. Even though there is a microphone stand in front of his face, the large aperture makes the stand out of focus, and harder to see. I also like that the lighting is really soft on his face, because he is at the back of the stage.

If I was to reshoot this, I'd use a faster shutter speed. The drummer's hand is blurred because my camera isn't set fast enough to capture the hand still. It's something that's a problem in live music work, because the artists are constantly moving, but using faster shutter speeds means using higher ISOs, making the photographs grainy.

I really like the photographs of Spider Mike King, mainly because of the overhead lighting. His hat blocks out a lot of the light, creating large shadows on his face, making him seem more mysterious.

This one is the best example of the shadows, the artist is pretty much a silhouette because of the shadow from his hat. I think the photograph has been shot at a really good time, just as his face is almost completely blacked out.

A problem I had with using such a long lens was taking blurry or out of focus photographs, because the lens is so big, it's harder to keep steady, especially when shooting from long distance. Although I think I've produced some good work from the set, I will stick to using shorter lenses when possible to assure that more of the photographs are in focus.