rapturedmind photography » Oberhausen

Skull Fist – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 17.09.2011

Daniel — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:22:25 +0000

Skull Fist from Canada started the evening with their Set. They didn’t really fit in with the rest of the Bands, but nonetheless the visitors seemed to enjoy the show quite a bit and started cheering soon. Another reason for that might have been ‘fanclub’ the Band brought and that screamed enthusiastically from the first minute on.

Shooting Notes
This was one of those sets, that make me always have a 50mm f1.4 in the bag. It was so dark and there where only a couple of spotlights on the Band. I was shooting at f1.4 and ISO 1600 with a shutter speed of 1/100 to get at least a little bit of light into my camera. If it would have been allowed, I would have gotten my flash out of the bag to get some light into the faces of the artists and counteract the mostly colourfull lightwash.

Every Time I Die – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 09.12.2009

Daniel — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:04:03 +0000

Every Time I Die is a bandname that I heard a lot before, so I was quite excited to see the Band finally live. Even though the crowd was a bit slow so early during the day, the guys laid down a great show. With a crushing sound and a lot of energy this set turned out to be quite enjoyable.

Shooting Notes
Getting along with the light this evening was quite hard. In Flames brought quite a big lightrig and blasted the stage with light. Unfortunatly there seemed to be only two options in the repertoire of the lightdesigner. It was on or off – so the exposure went from nearly black to surface of the sun in moments. This made it quite hard getting the camera setup right. But even when you nailed the exposure you still had to deal with the fact that most of the time the artists were lite only from one side and the other side of their body disappeared into darkness.

Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009

Heaven Shall Burn – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 09.12.2009

Daniel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:07:49 +0000

Heaven Shall Burn don’t tour a lot… or at least it was that way not long ago. With their last album ‘Iconoclast’ and the live dvd ‘Bildersturm – Iconoclast II’ they seemed to be around quite a lot. Hey, I don’t want to complain and to be honest I’m quite happy about that. Those two last outputs of the Band are so extremely good, that I can’t help starting to headbang, even when I think about them. Seeing the Band live, makes that experience even better. Heaven Shall Burn are always a blast to watch and that was no different this evening.

Shooting Notes
Getting along with the light this evening was quite hard. In Flames brought a big lightrig and blasted the stage away with it. Unfortunatly there seemed to be only two options in the repertoire of the lightdesigner. It was on or off – so the exposure went from nearly black to surface of the sun in moments. This made it quite hard getting the camera setup right. But even when you nailed the exposure you still had to deal with the fact that most of the time the artists were lite only from one side and the other side of their body disappeared into darkness.
When Heaven Shall Burn began their set, shooting started to get hard. The light wasn’t as even as it was before with Everytime I Die and there seemed to be just a mix of blue and purple spots. Using an ISO of 1250 I was close to my unity-gain ISO and I didn’t want to go higher, even though one or two stops more would have helped controlling the ambient a bit more, but the noise would have gotten out of hand. So I kept the shutter speed at 1/160 most of the time and the aperture was at f2.8. I was shooting most of the set with the 24-70 and got the 70-200 out for the last song, to get some close-ups.

Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009

Killswitch Engage – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 09.12.2009

Daniel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:15:12 +0000

When Killswitch Engage entered the stage, the crowd in the venue went wild. From the first moment on the Band gave everything and justified their position as co-headliner without a doubt. Next to being great musicians the Band is quite entertaining… led by the man who single-handedly brought the cape back into Metal (as Anders Fridén of In Flames put it so adequate). Even Singer Howard Jones had to shake his head in wonder a couple of times listening to Adam Dutkiewicz.

Shooting Notes
Getting along with the light this evening was quite hard. In Flames brought quite a big lightrig and the stage was blasted with light. Unfortunatly there seemed to be only two options in the repertoire of the lightdesigner. It was on or off – so the exposure went from nearly black to surface of the sun in moments. This made it quite hard getting the camera setup right. But even when you nailed the exposure you still had to deal with the fact that most of the time the artists were lite only from one side and the other side of their body disappeared into darkness.
This set was shot at ISO 800 and f2.8, but the shutterspeed varied quite a lot. Most of the time I was shooting at 1/200 to 1/320 but for some pictures I went as high as 1/1600 or low as 1/60 trying to deal with the light.

Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009

In Flames – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 09.12.2009

Daniel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:51:22 +0000

Seeing in Flames live in concert is always a blast. The location was packed and with a great sound and their energetic show everybody was enjoying it.

In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009

Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Daniel — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:52:58 +0000

After the great shows Path of Golconda and Laid in Ashes just played the Death’n'Roll Band Debauchery had a hard time keeping up and getting the audience on a similar level again. Also do to some technical difficulties the sound wasn’t tight and so, even though the Band really tried their best, in my opinion the gig didn’t come close to the shows I’ve seen before.

Shooting Notes
Shooting at the Helvete Club always requires using flash, do to the fact, that the light they got isn’t really bright and you would end up with shutter speeds of 1/20 or slower, even wide open, to get all the ambient light in the picture… naturally that is no option, do to the fact, that those shots would be completly unsharp. So using a flash, bumping the shutter up to 1/60 at ISO 800 and f2.8 made everything work out. Also shooting from the sides to the middle of the stage was necessary, because the lightrig was not really wide and concentrated to the center of the stage. When shooting to the sides you would end up with a picture just lit by flash with no stage light included. You had to watch out a little because the lightguy was going a lot of times for an really intense single colour wash (mostly red) and together with all the stagesmoke it was hard to focus and really cut through with the flash. Do to the really low celling you could bounce the flash really nicely and got a great fall-off towards the feet of the artists. Not a thing for every picture, but nice to get some different shots.
Also, when shooting Debauchery, one of the Bandmembers played an amp with an extra bright blue LED which illuminated half the stage and gave a nice cast from the sides which helped to outline the guys. If you take a closer look at the pictures you see it.

Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Daniel — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:43:42 +0000

Path of Golcanda is one of those Bands, that put out one top level album after the next, but never seem to be able to find a label to support them. With Yonah Records they finally found a partner to get their music, which is already known quite well, to even more people. Celebrating this deal was one of the reasons for the Band to play tonight, as well as the fact, that the new album ‘Return’ is about to be released (13.11.2009).
The last time I saw the Band live was three or four years ago, so I was quite happy to finally see them again. With their massiv sound and brilliant songs, they made the eve quite enjoyable. Even though the little stage seemed a bit to small for all those big guys, which gave them little room to move, they really rocked the house. The place was packed by now and the people really went crazy. Playing a lot of old Songs, the Band also introduced a couple of new Songs during the show, so waiting for the new album to come out, became even harder.

Shooting Notes
Shooting at the Helvete Club always requires using flash, do to the fact, that the light they got isn’t really bright and you would end up with shutter speeds of 1/20 or slower, even wide open, to get all the ambient light in the picture… naturally that is no option, do to the fact, that those shots would be completely unsharp. So using a flash, bumping the shutter up to 1/60 at ISO 800 and f2.8 made everything work out. Also shooting from the sides to the middle of the stage was necessary, because the lightrig was not really wide and concentrated to the center of the stage. When shooting to the sides you would end up with a picture just lit by flash with no stage light included. You had to watch out a little because the lightguy was going a lot of times for an really intense single colour wash (mostly red) and together with all the stagesmoke it was hard to focus and really cut through with the flash. Do to the really low celling you could bounce the flash really nicely and got a great fall-off towards the feet of the artists. Not a thing for every picture, but nice to get some different shots.

Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Daniel — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:18:59 +0000

Next up was Laid in Ashes. I would be lying if I said, that I like the Band. I love them. Starting from their debutalbum on, I’m a fan of the Band and when I got the time and the chance to see them I’ll go. The just got an enormous live presents and the show is up on the high end. Especially Singer Fabian is always a blast. Not only for his intense voice, but he is also always fun to shot, do to the fact, that he is constantly pulling faces. Jochen, the Bands regular Bassplayer, wasn’t here today, so Klaus of Execrate was helping out.

Shooting Notes
Shooting at the Helvete Club always requires using flash, do to the fact, that the light they got isn’t really bright and you would end up with shutter speeds of 1/20 or slower, even wide open, to get all the ambient light in the picture… naturally that is no option, do to the fact, that those shots would be completely unsharp. So using a flash, bumping the shutter up to 1/60 at ISO 800 and f2.8 made everything work out. Also shooting from the sides to the middle of the stage was necessary, because the lightrig was not really wide and concentrated to the center of the stage. When shooting to the sides you would end up with a picture just lit by flash with no stage light included. You had to watch out a little because the lightguy was going a lot of times for an really intense single colour wash (mostly red) and together with all the stagesmoke it was hard to focus and really cut through with the flash. Do to the really low celling you could bounce the flash really nicely and got a great fall-off towards the feet of the artists. Not a thing for every picture, but nice to get some different shots.

Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Daniel — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:02:07 +0000

First Band of the day was Exposed Guts from Bochum. Normaly a foursome, the Bassplayer got lost on the way to the club and so the rest of the Band entered the Stage with a bit of delay. Do to that, their playing time was quite short and they really had to speed it up… well, when playing technical Death Metal, that comes naturally. Even though the Band seemed to have listened a bit to much to the old Death Records, I was stunned. They played an awesome set with unbelievable great Songs… Check them out! This is no suggestion, this is an order (Exposed Guts)!

Shooting Notes
Shooting at the Helvete Club always requires using flash, do to the fact, that the light they got isn’t really bright and you would end up with shutter speeds of 1/20 or slower, even wide open, to get all the ambient light in the picture… naturally that is no option, do to the fact, that those shots would be completely unsharp. So using a flash, bumping the shutter up to 1/60 at ISO 800 and f2.8 made everything work out. Also shooting from the sides to the middle of the stage was necessary, because the lightrig was not really wide and concentrated to the center of the stage. When shooting to the sides you would end up with a picture just lit by flash with no stage light included. You had to watch out a little because the lightguy was going a lot of times for an really intense single colour wash (mostly red) and together with all the stagesmoke it was hard to focus and really cut through with the flash. Do to the really low celling you could bounce the flash really nicely and got a great fall-off towards the feet of the artists. Not a thing for every picture, but nice to get some different shots.

Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009