David Bergman — ALL ACCESS — music, sports, and concert photography

I took the guys from You Me At Six around Union Square for a portrait session in New York City.

(Nikon D3, 24-70 lens, ISO 400, 1/250 sec, f/5.6)

This is a two-light shot of them emerging from the subway. One Nikon SB-900 is being held right over my shoulder and fired up into a white dome over their heads. It provides an even fill light.

The second light is being held by my assistant above the subway sign and pointed at their backs. I knew I would get flare, but I like the way it looks in this case.

I did the black and white conversion in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

I’m leading another full-day “Rock and Roll Portrait Lighting Workshop” at Adorama in New York, NY on Sunday, February 21, 2010. It’s limited to 15 participants, so sign up before it sells out.

Click to go to the Adorama site for more info and to register.

I recently worked with Taddy Porter, a cool band out of Stillwater, OK. Their record label hired me to produce a music video for the song Shake Me.

I spent about a week on the road with them and shot the video entirely with the new Nikon D3S DSLR camera. I’m really happy with the finished product and can’t wait to post it. The label is planning a big launch in the next month or two, so it’ll be out soon enough.

In the meantime, here’s a portrait I did of the guys somewhere in central Pennsylvania. I scouted this location while driving around with my assistant and thought it would be perfect.

(Nikon D3, 24-70, ISO 200, 1/250, f/22)

After I got permission from the farmer who owns the land, I set up four SB-900 strobes (one for each guy) and shot away. I did the post-processing using Nik’s Color Efex Pro and Totally Rad’s Dirty Pictures plug-in.

Sports Illustrated recently posted a series of year-end photo galleries on SI.com. I’ve been shooting regularly for the magazine since 2001 and will be covering the Super Bowl again this year.

They created a collection called “SI Photographers’ Shots of the Decade” and I’m honored that my images are in the same gallery with legendary photographers like Walter Iooss Jr., Heinz Kluetmeier, and John Biever.

The full gallery is HERE and my images start HERE.

Also, my Joe Paterno cover is #8 in the “2000s: Top College Football Covers” gallery.

Today’s cameras allow just about anyone to take a photo that’s in focus and exposed properly. So, how do you separate yourself from the pack?

The best way is to make the extra effort to go beyond what most people can or will do.

On New Year’s Eve, I documented Pat McGee’s “Down the Hatch” concert in Annapolis, MD. I produced a photo book and sold prints for fans on my site TourPhotographer.com.

I wanted to make unique photos that were better than anything that the fans could take — photos like this shot of Pat and his parents toasting the new year right after midnight.

(Nikon D3, 70-200, ISO 2500, 1/160 sec, f/4)

The concert took place in a hotel ballroom. Even though the stage lighting was pretty good, the scene looked like this:

(Nikon D3, 24-70, ISO 3200, 1/160 sec, f/4)

The crowd is a black hole and there’s no context in the photo. So, what to do?

Add my own light, of course.

I put a red gel and a blue gel on two Nikon SB-900 flashes and taped them to the speaker towers on the side of the stage. By pointing them at the ceiling and triggering with Pocket Wizards, the light bounced down on the crowd and gave me a nice colored backlight.

My lights had virtually no effect on the band – only the crowd. You can see the strobes and their effect below.

(Nikon D3, 24-70, ISO 3200, 1/160 sec, f/4)

I made a fun photo earlier that day in Pat’s hotel room as he got ready. He watched a youtube video that showed him how to tie a bow tie. It still took him about 15 minutes and multiple views. Those suckers are tricky.

(Nikon D3, 24-70, ISO 1250, 1/60 sec, f/2.8)

On New Year’s Eve last year, I was in Detroit with the Barenaked Ladies and made a photo of Steven Page also getting help with his bow tie.

Ten years ago, I covered Gloria Estefan’s millennium concert for the Miami Herald. The paper sent out a few photographers to make celebration photos at midnight and transmit back to the office on a very tight deadline. I’m proud of the fact that my image made the front page and is locked in a time capsule somewhere in South Florida.

Last weekend, I held my Rock and Roll Portrait Lighting Workshop at Eagles Nest Studios in New York City. We had a great group of shooters come out and I managed to keep them awake for seven hours or so while I gave away all my secrets.

To demonstrate different lighting scenarios, I did a live shoot with cool rock/pop/electronica band Cruel Black Dove. I warned them that they were going to hear everything that goes on in the mind of a photographer during a shoot but normally isn’t said out loud. Things like, “I have no idea how this is going to look but I’ll try it anyway.”

Fortunately, I was able to make a decent image or two in a very short amount of time. Everything was lit using only Nikon Speedlights.

This frame was made with two SB-900’s in a large softbox. The white walls supply the fill. I went way overboard with the post-processing, but wanted to show how much you can do to the image after the fact.

(Nikon D3, 24-70, ISO 200, 1/250, f/8)

For the next setup, I used a Honl snoot to focus the light on Anastasia (in white) and also had two VALs (Voice Activated Lightstands named Josh and Mike) holding strobes with Honl grids on them.

Thanks to Peter Preston and Mike Wren for the behind the scenes pics.

(Nikon D3, 24-70, ISO 400, 1/250, f/11)

If you want to experience the workshop yourself, I’ll be doing it again at Adorama in New York, NY on February 21, 2010. More info on the workshops@adorama site. I’ll have another live shoot with a different band so I hope you’ll join me then.

I’ve also had a few inquiries about bringing the workshop to other cities. If you are interested in helping me organize in your area, contact my workshop manager Josh Lehrer at workshops [at] davidbergman [dot] net and we’ll set it up.