frank kayser
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 p.1 #6 · concert photography help | |
I agree with EltonTang - without more specific information...
I will give you my "general formula" for shooting "available light" at concerts/shows...
Determine your own tolerance for image noise - at which ISO does noise become unacceptable, or rather, what ISO can you stand. Of course, that is dependent on your personal taste, and your post-processing drill - whether you use something like Neat Image or Noise Ninja, for example.
Set your camera to the highest ISO you can stand. That will give you the most latitude in aperture and shutter speed.
Shoot RAW. That will allow you to make the most adjustments to color balance, and if need be, exposure after-the-fact. Stage lighting is neither "normal" nor consistent in color or intensity. Any type of white balance shooting, in my opinion, is fruitless. In post processing, set the scene to what you remember the best. If you attempt to neutralize skin tones, or to 18% grey, the scene will start looking very odd, indeed.
The dynamic range on stage is often higher than the camera can capture. RAW will also give you the best highlight and shadow recovery, if needed.
Most of the time, I find myself shooting wide open, or nearly so, just to keep the shutter speed up. If your lenses can stand it, shoot wide open - if not, find out where you find the lens to be acceptably sharp, combined with enough DOF for the shot you envision.
So that means, shooting in Aperture Priority mode - and let the shutter speed fall where it may. Watch it in the viewfinder -
Imagine your shot, and crop in-camera as close to that vision as you dare. any after-the-fact cropping will just increase noise.
Know your composition. Anticipate. If your plan is to take a shot, and crop it later into something wonderful, it ain't going to happen. (none of us here on FM do that, do we?  ) Plan your shot, and execute. Timing is critical.
Know what is important in the shot - and make sure that is exposed as well as you can. Blown-out details are a no-no. But don't be too conservative, either - lightening the photo in post - even RAW - will dramaitcally increase noise. Reading the histogram is tricky - lights and specular highlights will seem to indicate a lot of overexposure. Fakery, fakery, fakery! Same thing - there is so much black - non-detail black, the histogram will be climbing the left side. Don't worry too much. The histogram will look like a big smile with one tooth on the bottom - that "tooth" is probably your subject exposure - look at that. Expose for that and then...
Chimp early and often. That is, look at the LCD often to judge exposure of the picture. A learned skill, and tricky because of where the LCD brightness is set. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Again, crop in the viewfinder as close as you dare. The less black background, and the less bright light, the more reliable (or should I say readable) the histogram becomes.
If you choose to spot meter. know EXACTLY how that works, or you will be even farther off than if you use Evaluative and exposure compensation.
If you possibly can, use a tripod, or at least a monopod. Shutter speeds are usually quite borderline.
Expect a lot of throw-aways - shaking, subject moving, microphone in the face, whatever. Experience is key - shoot as many gigs as you can - critically evaluate what went wrong, what was right - make a mental note of what to avoid, and what that you did right. Do more of the latter.
That's all I have - seeing the pictures or not.
Now, if you can use flash, that is another thing all together. I'll let someone else handle that one...
Practice! Evaluate!
frank
Edited on Mar 28, 2008 at 10:57 AM
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