OK, I wasn't too excited about this challenge, but I decided it was going to be a "growing experience". I found a gig, went down on a Wednesday, talked to the band, and shot some pics. The venue was very small and nothing too special. I was hoping for at least a smokey spotlight or something. I brought my Canon 50mm f/1.8 because I was hoping to shoot without a flash. This was shot at ISO 1600 wide open and 2/3rds underexposed (to be pushed later). That got me to 1/125th.
I used post-processing to make it a little more exciting. NeatImage initially, crop, levels (actually to darken the picture while preserving the midtones, so the push wasn't needed), contrast, selective desaturation, then color balance (to add the blue cast to the whole pic and not just his shirt), USM, another NeatImage run, and finally a tiny bit more USM.
I'm hoping the star and color cast will provide a little bit of separation from other pics, but I will be satisfied with a 5.5. I emailed this and two other pics to the band and they liked them enough to put them on their site...
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You did well to keep detail in the performer as well as the lamps. Tilted composition works well. Some basic editing desaturation has resulted in strange bright blue strips over your photo which spoil the effect. Would it have been better as it was?
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