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Concert Photography
i am going to start doing concert photography, just wondering if anyone has any tips for whether I should use an external flash, or whether the flash on the camera will work. Im using a digital rebel. I was previously using an old vivitar 283 flash, but the hotshoe just broke off. Any suggestions would be appriciated. Sep 10 05 12:06 am Link Allegiance Design wrote: I've found that when I use flash at a venue 1) it usually isn't powerful enough, and 2) you get flat looking pictures; and 3) they actually dislike it. Anyways, the following has been recommended to me. Sep 10 05 01:14 am Link set your flash to use second curtain flash if you can and a longish 1/15 or so.. you'll get some unreal images.. i might try to find one here to give you an idea mate. good luck, try lots of ideas out and enjoy the night. cheers rexy  Sep 10 05 01:20 am Link I find that using the burst setting on my camera helps a great deal. Most digital cameras have a setting where you can shoot several frames in rapid succession. By doing this you are using the existing lights to illuminate your shot. Yeah, there's a lot of guesswork involved. But in the end, only you know how you got the shot and everyone else can sit and admire the end result. Oh, and you'll have to go through and delete stuff a lot as you go to get rid of the stuff you hate...(I've shot as many as 500 frames to get maybe 30 that were worth keeping in one night) If you want to see what results I've gotten with this technique, check out my concert stuff. http://www.studio42photography.com/bands.htm Sep 10 05 06:12 am Link i've been shooting event coverage / nightlife long before i've been shooting models. best bet is to shoot at F5.6 and switch it off from 1/2.5 to 1/30, depending on the action going on. iso 400. on camera flash will not work. external flash always! i usually bump up the power +2. here is an example...  shot at F5.6 @ 1/30. was able to capture the gogo dancer in movement and the ambient lighting and still make it look good. here is another example...  shot at F5.6 @ 1/2.5. waited for the right time to take the picture and bam! ambient lighting with a glimpse of the dj (christopher lawrence) tearing shit up. trust me on this.  Sep 10 05 08:26 am Link I have found that using natural light is the most acceptable form for shooting concerts. ISO 400 is fine, you can get away with an f-stop between 2.8 and 4.5., shutterspeed 60 or 30. Using a monopod is great to sterdy the camera, wide angle is great if you close up, but long lenses are useful, to capure the individual performers. Fill flash can be used, but set it to 2 stops under. Sep 10 05 08:37 am Link depends on how close you can get to the stage and how the venue is lit i would take a 50mm 1.4 and a 85mm 1.8f if i can get close or for backstage pics and what not. If you cant get clode get a 70 or 80 to 200 2.8f and leave the flash alone and work on hand holding . Depending on how you ar going to print ou can probably go up to 800 iso but if its for web you can use 1600 becacue the grain wont show as much in a smalll image Sep 10 05 12:23 pm Link I was hired (back in April) to travel to Delaware and shoot David Bromberg and Arlo Guthrie (us old f**ks know who they are) at the Grand Opera House. It's an amazing venue and the house lighting system is as good as they get. I shot everything @ ISO 400 w/ no flash, fill or otherwise. I have a 2.8 70-200L IS lens that made the shoot a breeze. I was able to hand hold (some w/ monopod) down to 1/8 sec or greater and get great results anywhere from f2.8 to f8. I had all access, so I could get as close or as far away as I needed to be. My only problem was with the LD (lighting director). Since I was hired by these artists to do the shoot I was supposed to be given some lattitude in regard to working w/ the LD to make sure that certain things didn't happen, i.e.- pulling the overall levels of light down too far, NEVER using green in anything frontal, etc., etc. We had a long conversation at sound check and he took notes. Sound check went amazingly (where I got the best shots), but when the light came up for the actual show, he'd either forgotten everything or just decided 'screw him' and was all over the place. I shot 1,200 images (2 shows) and ended up w/ around 300 keepers. I guess some decent advice would be to shoot RAW if you have the storage in your pocket and keep yourself within 2 stops + or - of where you'd like to be. In RAW your latitude in regard to exposure is greater. Enjoy the shoot. I envy you - I'd rather shoot a live act that a model - any day any time....... Sep 10 05 01:44 pm Link seems like alot of people don't use flash for nightlife. would love to see some examples. Sep 11 05 02:37 pm Link Visual Mindscapes wrote: someone tell me how to post images and I will :-) Sep 11 05 03:08 pm Link Jay Farrell wrote: Visual Mindscapes wrote: someone tell me how to post images and I will :-) https://modelmayhem.com/posts.php?thread_id=6936 Sep 11 05 03:19 pm Link I agree with others about the suggestion to ditch flash altogether. Here are some photos I did from a concert a while back, using available light only: (http://www.scottpix.com/custom/ffb04.html) - Use the fastest lens you can afford - Shoot RAW if you have the storage. You'll have a lot more latitude to enhance marginal images afterward. - Shoot LOTs of images. Throw most of them away. - Push the ISO to 1600. It will be a bit noisy, but you can greatly reduce that with software like NeatImage. - Be aware that stage lighting will look way more contrasty and have much more intense color in your images than it looks like with your eyes. Look at your LCD screen a lot until you get used to the colors you get. - Remember that your automatic meter seeks to achieve a medium tonal value (18% grey). Most concerts are on a dark stage. If so, your meter will be fooled, and many of your photos will be overexposed. Most of the images I shot in the samples above were 1-2 full stops below what was metered (I shot in aperture priority with -1 stop or more exposure compensation). Sep 11 05 08:47 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: Nice pictures. Sep 11 05 10:36 pm Link Scott Aitken wrote: Sounds like alot of work. When doing event coverage, do you think you people have the time to "edit" 100+ images? Sep 11 05 10:40 pm Link Visual Mindscapes wrote: Yeah, it's a lot of work, but immediately throwing away 75% of what you shoot makes it quicker. Sep 11 05 10:44 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: I also think that's the problem with photographers now a these days, they spend too much time in post production and wasting time when they could be doing something less important. Sep 11 05 10:50 pm Link Visual Mindscapes wrote: I shoot as many photos as is needed for the circumstances. Sometimes that is a lot, sometimes not very many. Sep 12 05 02:43 pm Link Most concert venues and bands won't let you use flash and you can only shoot the first 3 songs. It's too distracting to the artist and being so close to the stage. I did not use a flash for any of the images in my main portfolio and concerts was all I did for my first eight years of photography. http://www.crphotography.com At concerts I always prepare my cameras for fast speed and low light. If you get to the show during the sound check, try and talk to the lighting engineer and ask where the best place for lights would be which will give you an added plus from the other photographers. Good luck. Sep 12 05 02:55 pm Link So many different suggestions on here... I'd have to say if you're using a flash I always use the onboard for th emost part for a couple reasons. If anything I get too much light from it and have to knock it up to 5.6 or so. Having an external flash can get in the way or become a hastle. I can't begin to tell you the problems I had using an external when you've got crowd surfers coming down on your head, not to mention it's just another thing to have get lost or stolen. (Somebody stole one of mine at a big festival I shot a couple years back) The reason I do like the external flash is because I can use a faster shutter speed which helps with artists who really run all over the stage. When it comes down to it it's nice to be able to not have to use a flash, but when needed and if you're allowed it needs set just right. As somebody else stated just enough light to get the subject, but still have the coloring of the stage lights in the shot. It should be noted that most major shows if you're cleared to shot you're only allowed to shoot the 1st 2-3 songs and the majority of the time no flash is allowed *especially large acts* and the lighting usually sucks for photographers but looks great for the crowd. Sep 13 05 12:59 am Link Visual Mindscapes wrote: That's what actions and batch processing are for. Sep 13 05 03:02 am Link I use the digi rebel as well. The internal flash is really really crappy(For a lack of better words). However, this is were your manual adjustment skills will really be tested. Thank God for digi(No wasted film). Also, some of the best looking shots from a concert are those that had no flash at all. If you would, see my work at www.sandersentertainment.com and go to the Gerald Levert and Carl Thomas ports. The Eryka Badu shots were with 35mm and no flash. I just Freddie Jackson this past weekend and I used the internal flash(When needed) and the pix came out ok. When I didn't use a flash at all, those pix looked great for that natural(as if you were there) effect. Trial and Error will be your most practiced method of know what not to do at the next event. Like someone has already stated, arrive early to talk with the lighting tech's and talk with security to see where you can and cannot go ahead of time. Trust me, you do not what to get embarrassed during the show. If you are "gifted" enough to be on stage(Left or right of stage) and there are the stage monitors or huge speakers....EAR PLUGS EAR PLUGS EAR PLUGS!!!! That music will throw your equilibrium off and you will stumble and possibly fall. You'll do just fine. I just started shooting models and I must say that love the action of concert photography much more then the modeling side. But, I'm sure it'll grow on me. Take care and shoot everything!!!!! Heawatha Watt Sanders www.sandersentertainment.com Sep 13 05 04:31 am Link Back in the days of film, I was the house photog for the Charlotte Coliseum (Charlotte, NC). I shot every show there for 5+ years. Frank Sinatra to Milli Vanili and many in between. Using 3 bodies..... 20mm 105mm and 180mm. 400 chrome and 1600 C-41. NO flash was allowed and you only had the first 2-3 songs to shoot. Usually from the corner of the stage f/2.8 (wide open) on auto. In nine minutes the light changes so much there's no time to think. Usually had time to reload at least 2 cameras and got some great shots. http://www.musecube.com/themulcher/4394/ Mark Sep 13 05 12:02 pm Link VirtuaMike wrote: Yeah, but SI doesn't shoot in RAW and there is no such thing as batch processing for RAW images. Thanks. Sep 14 05 05:59 am Link The one time I shot some concert stuff, I used a canon 540ez. The band didn't like it, so I went to just using the existing stage lighting and shot at 800 iso. They loved it. I have one of the shots in my port. Sep 14 05 06:23 am Link Visual Mindscapes wrote: Funny, I just batch processed over 500 Raw photos. Weird. Sucks that I couldn't have done what I just did. Sep 14 05 06:37 am Link Brian Diaz wrote: Hmm, so you're saying you did the same editing batch for all 500 of your RAW images? Why would you need to shoot in RAW then if you are editing all your images the same way eh? You even threw away 75% of your shots because they sucked. Sounds like alot of wasting time and it still doesn't make sense to me. How big is your memory card... 8GB? Last time I checked, I was only able to save a little more than 100 RAW files on my 1GB card. Unless you have 6 or 7 memory cards... but why? Or do you bring a laptop to all your event coverage? I think not. Sep 14 05 08:56 pm Link Visual Mindscapes wrote: Basic color, resizing, and sharpening for proofs. You even threw away 75% of your shots because they sucked. Sounds like alot of wasting time and it still doesn't make sense to me. How big is your memory card... 8GB? Last time I checked, I was only able to save a little more than 100 RAW files on my 1GB card. Unless you have 6 or 7 memory cards... but why? Or do you bring a laptop to all your event coverage? I think not. These 500 were in the studio. But I have taken a laptop for event coverage. Sorry for the confusion. Sep 14 05 09:08 pm Link The keeper rate wasn't as high as I hoped, but still came away with a couple dozen good ones! Most were shot at f2, w/ a Canon 50mm 1.4 lens, 1/320 shutter, and 1600 ISO. Never any flash. http://photos.imageevent.com/boxer3/rec … ts/FIX.jpg http://photos.imageevent.com/boxer3/rec … 20copy.jpg http://photos.imageevent.com/boxer3/rec … 20copy.jpg Sep 14 05 10:08 pm Link I batch process raw on weddings- I use file brower in PS- look at the ones that have the same exposure, move to a new folder, batch process. If you get a really good one you can go back to the original Raw file and do a more precise exposure tweek-thats why we shoot raw no?. For concerts I typically use: Big shows where I have a media pass: Digi cam w/ a spot meter built in, no flash as usually describe on the media pass or by the PR agent, 80-200 lens, 50 mm 1.8, 20 mm 2.8. 3 songs, iso set at 640-1000 depending on on stage light, hopefully free beer. Small shows: Digi cam, 10.5 fisheye lens (Nikon), 18-70 lens, Sb800- I feel an external flash is a must for small shows that let you use it- external will have more punch and I can diffuse it for wide angle photos and it doesnt vignette on wide angle lenses, Of course I use a flash difuser on flash when I use the fish, usually I shot slow shutter speed here to pick up any light that is on stage 1/8 @ 5.6 is the norm. I usually pick up a 40 of Bud from the convience store across the street as free beer is never provided at small shows. Sep 14 05 10:18 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: If that were the case, why do you suggest certain camera "settings"? Don't you think it would save time if you shot it right the first time, instead of deleting 75% of the images and batch editing? These 500 were in the studio. But I have taken a laptop for event coverage. Sorry for the confusion. So who was there to watch the laptop while you were "covering" the event? You don't think you would miss something while doing all this? Once again, where is the time management? Sep 14 05 10:24 pm Link The559 wrote: Actually, that is not the reason why I shoot in RAW. I only shoot in RAW for model shoots where we are limited on time and the environment is at a constant change. Sep 14 05 10:26 pm Link I've been doing live band photography for a few years now. I work for 2 major concert venues in Edmonton and I also have a contract with the biggest live concert company in Western Canada. I've got some of my work on http://www.markmarek.com/ Not sure what type of bands you will be shooting, however if you get to doing big guys, there will be strick restrictions from tour managers given to photographers. In general you're most likely going to get first 3 song and absolutely no flash. Depending on the venue, for the most part security guards will not let you past barriers with the flash unit mounted on, but that's not the case happening all the time. However if you do trigger flash you are very likely to get escorted. I have seen a photographer be pointed at by the singer because he used flash and it screwed him up a lot. And besides it's really embarrasing. Non of that applies if you're shooting local bands - their second gig ever in a club for 15 people. These guys will feel happy seeing photographer around and the more you trigger flash at them the more self confident will they feel. Until you become a star you do enjoy attention. If you're gonna get serious about live band photography, a low aperture lens will be essential. f2.8 in full zoom scale at the highest. You'll be getting better with each gig and once you start doing 4-5 each week just like I do now there will be no situation you would not handle with ease. Also, get yourself a pair of earplugs. You will be hanging in the area between the stage and the audience barriers. You will be a foot away from speakers. I was neglecting it for over a year until earwax builtup blocked my left ear comletely and I had to see a doc. I was told that if I go on like that I would be deaf in mid fourties. Never ever have I gone to shoot a band without this essential tool. Good luck buddy. Mark Sep 14 05 10:27 pm Link MarkMarek wrote: It's not the venue that's the case, it's the promotors who throw the events who make these decisions. There are these cool thing called press passes. Sep 14 05 10:32 pm Link Visual Mindscapes wrote: Sorry, I was quoting this from my poit of view assuming you do have photo pass (got a huge collection of those on my door). Without a photo pass you're not gonna get anywhere (that's once again assuming you do big names). Even with photo pass though, you will not be allowed (in most cases) underneath the stage with the flash mounted on your cam - tour manager's instructions to security personnel. I go through all that a few times a week. At the entrance you give them your name, they put a sticker on you saying PHOTO, you get in and are allowed backstage as well as under the stage to shoot during first 3 songs. NO FLASH. Sep 14 05 10:36 pm Link MarkMarek wrote: I've never had a problem with an external flash shooting big named people at concerts. Sep 14 05 10:46 pm Link I prefer available light for most concert shots Sep 17 05 01:44 am Link MarkMarek wrote: I've brought a laptop to many festivals and shows. Sep 17 05 06:42 pm Link |
