Urban Nomad film festival closed its 2009 edition at an abandoned train warehouse next to Taipei Artist Village. Kicking things off with a screening of Sleeping Nights Awake, a black and white documentary on Sonic Youth, the event ended with electronic due KbN, fresh from SXSW and new Taiwanese band Boys and Girl. All in iall, it was a good end to the film festival. Here’s some shots from the night – shooting notes are at the end.
Shooting Notes – The lighting for this gig was, in a word, horrendous. With the screen behind the band, and weak work lights on them, getting the exposure correct and even getting usable shots in the near darkness was tough. For KbN, I ended up using a remote speedlight that was gelled blue and triggered with Canon’s ST-E2 transmitter. I left the ST-E2 on the camera all night to make use of it’s focus assist beam as there were times when it was just too dark to focus. Canon you make great cameras but Nikon is streets ahead in terms of low-light focusing. For Boys and Girl, I used mostly available light with the intention of converting to b&w in post. A few shots looked good enough in color to leave them as shot. Thanks.