All the photographers covering the Carrie Underwood concert (there were 4 of us: the house photographer, 2 shooters from the Bay Area, and myself) were limited to where the soundboard was near the rear third of the arena floor. A few minutes before the County star took the stage, a man leaned over one of the pieces of equipment and introduced himself as the lighting engineer for Carrie Underwood’s show. He let us know that there would be about twice as much light as there was in the previous act and how some of the stage effects were going to occur. He even let us know what the color temperature of the spotlights were going to be (6,400-degrees kelvin). That’s the first time that I’ve covered a concert that anyone has offered information like that.
The show started with a triangular-shaped portion of the stage, then slowly canted upward until it was vertical, evoking a stylized barn rooftop. Underwood then walked through a small door at the base of the triangle. She took several steps through the door and was hit with the spotlights as the triangle descended. It stopped and remained tilted up at a slight angle and was used by Underwood and her band as a stage.
Sure enough, as the lighting engineer said, there was about a stop more light than there was for Hunter Hayes. The color temp was right on, too, though it wasn’t as helpful as first thought. There were probably dozens, if not hundreds, of lights other than the spotlights. Many were of different colors and intensities, as stage shows like this are wont to do. Trying to find fidelity in the color balance was still difficult, but the offer of professional courtesy was still much appreciated.
