Photowehrks blog | Jason Lehr

Upstairs at Valentine’s

It’s official. Upstairs at Valentine’s may be the worst place to shoot a live act. The last time i was there was for Deertick, when i blew out the highlights on almost every shot. This time i was there to see Sgt. Dunbar, Paper Ships, MATHEMATICIANS and Beware! the Other Head of Science (the show was great, btw).

The thing that makes shooting there so difficult is that the ceiling above the performers is really low. Since the stage lights are attached to the ceiling, by the time the performer steps up to the mic, they’re literally less than 2 feet away from a spot. It really doesn’t matter what you do – at that point, there’s so much light on the subject that something’s going to get washed out. There was an added benefit this time of a row of spots pointing at the crowd, which made it difficult to compose shots that don’t have a glaring white orb in them.

About half-way through the night i bumped up the ISO from 1600 to 3200. MATHEMATICIANS cut their lights down, and when Beware! went on stage, they cut all the lights. The only available light was from their light bars and strobes. I didn’t shoot a lot of their set because i was having too much fun listening.

You should really check any of these bands out if you get a chance. They all put on a great live show, and they’re all really talented musicians.

See the rest of the set here.