This was my sixth year taking photos at the Meredith Music Festival and once again a multitude of eclectic acts graced the stage over the weekend. This is a shot of Explosions in the Sky guitarist Munaf Rayani taken on 9th December 2011. More official photos up at 2011.mmf.com.au and aunty meredith’s flickr page.

These are the three custom settings I pre-programme when shooting where the available light can range from full sunshine to dark in a matter of minutes. I’ll often adjust these slightly depending on the conditions but find these a good place to start.

• Bright Sunshine – f8, 1/250th, ISO 100
• Shade – f5.6, 1/120th, ISO 400
• Dark – f2.8, 1/100th, ISO 1250

Most of the time I use two cameras, one with a 70-200mm zoom lens and the other with a 16-35mm and switch between the two depending on the type of shot that presents. For a shallow depth of field effect I’ll use a 50mm f1.4 or (as I was fortunate to borrow for the Dirty Three set) a 85mm f1.2 lens with its crazy halo effect when shooting into the light.

Most of the shots get some sort of curves/saturation/dodging/weaving treatment in Adobe Lightroom to help make them stand out or focus attention on certain aspects of the composition. Turning a shot black and white while adding extra contrast helps if the original wasn’t colourful or dramatic enough.

I was able to get few backstage band shots during the weekend including one of Custard who turned out to be more than happy to be photographed, especially since it was only their second gig in a decade.

It’s always interesting seeing different interpretations of the festival from other photographers perspectives and worth checking out Kristy Millikin’s festival photos and also the review from Mess and Noise along with photos by Leah Robertson.