shooting bands

D

deputy dawg

Messages
174
Name
Martyn
Edit My Images
Yes
Just curious to know what people do when they shoot a band with huge variations in light ie. from lots of white light very bright to just lazers and spotlight, etc. I know most people like to shoot manual and lighting can have a pattern so you can pick your moment. But when it appears random at either ends of light and dark whats your chosen aproach.
 
It is hardly ever random, even when it appears so. :)

Personally I shoot manual all of the time - but I also have my camera set up so that should I switch to AV there will be no locking of exposure on a half press of the shutter and AF is on a rear button. This way the camera can do some clever stuff and hopefully sort any tricky exposures out in situations that you describe. Not used it yet though...
 
I don't shoot many bands, and mostly small venue when I do.. but I prefer manual as I find that my camera struggles to keep up with the lighting changes and movement around the stage. Shooting raw around an average exposure I usually find that the keeper rate on the lead singer is quite high (on an exposure basis). Most of the lighting variation is going on around the band, rather than on them.
 
thanks for the replies so when the lighting is erratic you wouldn't use spot metering linked to focus point ?
 
deputy dawg said:
thanks for the replies so when the lighting is erratic you wouldn't use spot metering linked to focus point ?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't, but you might get away with it on Av. It really depends on the venue and what you want to achieve.

If the lighting on the band drops, if you allow the camera to compensate your subject/background ratio is probably screwed anyway. Ugly backgrounds and erratic lighting are the bane of small venues, you need to develop your own way of coping. I find the ugly colours from LED venue lighting to be much more of a problem than the variable light levels. Thankfully b&w is pretty much the norm for live small band photography.
 
I tend to use manual, I start with 1/60 f.2.8 @ 800 ISO and go from there. In most of the venues I shoot a technically correct exposure gives an image that's over exposed from an artistic point of view. You are also more likely to get a usable image out of an underexposed sharp image then one that's soft because the shutter speed is too long.

If the lighting is changing really quickly I do sometime use continuous shooting.
 
thank you for the input, just wanted to get my head around it before i have a go, most of the places are quite dingy, but occasionally there is some light. will be interesting no doubt.
 
I shoot all mine on auto. I find you can spend so much time faffin with manual settings that by the time you've decided what you are going to use the lighting has changed and the subject has moved.

Back in the day when I was a youth and the only digital things I had were a watch and a clock radio I used to just set my film camera on 30th of a second and F1.8 with 400 ASA film and that really was a game of hit and miss always looking for pools of light or interesting silhouettes

Now I just use a 50mm F1.8 lens or a 35mm F2 in small venues and pubs, use a single central focal point and ISO 1600, again you are a little in the lap of the gods because both the lighting and subject are completely out of your control but thats part of what makes it interesting.

401540_10150551876677531_691837530_9515525_1143955766_n.jpg


419095_10150551876882531_691837530_9515528_2095785013_n.jpg
 
Hi,
There are quite a few methods! I never use manual because the lioght is changing way too quick for you to faf around. So I would suggest a] a fast lens b] use either shutter of apeture priority, i have tried all sorts and I am bugg**ed if i can tell the difference when I get home!
I would suggest you try apeture priority for half the shots say on 2.8 and the other half on shutter say at 1/200. I use centre spot focus and and spot metering. Always focus on the eye and take lots of shots. Use 1600 ISO and see what sort of results you are getting, its the only thing I adjust. With three songs typically you cannot mess around being pretty!

I cheat a little and use safety shift on mine, shutter priority. Set to 1/250 and the camera sorts the best it can do. My job is to the get the best shot and focus!! We make a good team...

There is a very good tutorial by Doc... do a search, its full of useful info!
 
guys, i'm thinking of adding a Canon 50mm f1.4 to my camera for "band" live photo's. Would this be a good addition to my 28-135mm f3.5-f5.6 lens? I have used my original lens to take some images, but i feel due to me not having the greatest confidence in the world i didn't get up close with the band so the images were under exposed. Though this can be overcome once i have experience with my camera & venues.
 
I was all set to buy one of those F1.4 50mm's and I read a review on Amazon where of the 48 people who responded 46 gave it massive thumbs up, said it was the best thing ever BUT there were two reviews that slated it and both were from guys who were using it in low light.

The others were using it for portrait work and obviously the super short depth of field gives a lovely dreamy blur of a back ground.

So I wouldnt spend the money I'd just go with the traditional 50mm F1.8 for under £90 and see how you get on. You can always upgrade later.

Bear in mind, you stop it down to 1.4 and the depth of field is so short that your focusing will have to be absolutely spot on and you have absolutely no margin for error which is ok when you are shooting stationary objects or people posing specifically to have their photo taken but in a live environment it would be a chore I'm sure
 
Thanks Neil, i'll try that first, saves me spending money on something that may not be suitable :)
 
aidan257 said:
guys, i'm thinking of adding a Canon 50mm f1.4 to my camera for "band" live photo's. Would this be a good addition to my 28-135mm f3.5-f5.6 lens? I have used my original lens to take some images, but i feel due to me not having the greatest confidence in the world i didn't get up close with the band so the images were under exposed. Though this can be overcome once i have experience with my camera & venues.
Click to expand...

For small venues, consider the Sigma 30mm f/1.4



You do need to have the confidence to get in close, generally less of an issue with small pub venues.
 
love those photo's. I've got a fair few gigs coming up so chance to gain more experiance. I think i'll go for the Nifty Fifty & see how i get on with that as its dirt cheap atm.
 
I like a zoom. With high ISO, hard cropping can show too much noise, and if you can't move about easily and get stuck at one end of the pit, it can be difficult to get the more distant band members. Mind, good high ISO and decent noise reduction gives you far more latitude now.

These (from 2009) were done on a 5D mk1 + 17-40:

3b79cf18.jpg


4429b32d.jpg


0324fbfc.jpg
 
some good shots :thumbs: interesting as to how different people are when it comes to camera settings and i guess the key here is if the lighting is constant, there isn't an awfull lot of difference (runs for cover). However i think if its inconsistant Tv and spot sounds like the best route.:suspect:
 
I'm surprised to see so many people discouraging the use of manual because of the "faffing around". What exactly are you faffing around with? I change my aperture and shutter speed settings without taking my eye away from the viewfinder, and it only takes a second or two.

I did my first ever gig shoot earlier this week, and shot in manual with no issues whatsoever. Of course, you should always shoot with whatever you feel the most comfortable with, but I do find the idea that manual involves a lot of faffing around quite bizarre.
 
Forgot to say: I tend to shoot in manual, and sometimes use low-power flash if allowed (though the ones I posted were all ambient).

One thing: don't change lenses when shooting bands if they have a smoke machine going. The smoke juice often has oil or glycol in it and will make a horrible mess of your sensor over time.
 
onona said:
I'm surprised to see so many people discouraging the use of manual because of the "faffing around". What exactly are you faffing around with? I change my aperture and shutter speed settings without taking my eye away from the viewfinder, and it only takes a second or two.

I did my first ever gig shoot earlier this week, and shot in manual with no issues whatsoever. Of course, you should always shoot with whatever you feel the most comfortable with, but I do find the idea that manual involves a lot of faffing around quite bizarre.
Click to expand...

If the light are changing fast [and I say if] then you dont have time to adjust shutter or apeture to get a decent exposure before they [or the performer] have changed again. Much better to limit the variables and concentrate on good position/angles/focus. The camera I find is generally quicker than me. I base this on the gigs that I do where we only get 2 or three songs, if I had more time or the lights were reasonably constant then I would use manual. I think I average about 250 shots for three songs.
For someone just starting out at gigs I would stick with AV or TV no question!

But at the end of the day its whatever works for the tog!
 
I always shoot manual, with AWB.
No flash. Just compensate the exposure with a spin of the thumbwheel.
After a while it becomes second nature.
Dean:)
 
my limited view is there is not a set way to do anything, music photography is new too me,and it looks to be quite a challenge. But believe there are situations where manual or semi auto have there place just need the experience to know when.
 
deputy dawg said:
my limited view is there is not a set way to do anything, music photography is new too me,and it looks to be quite a challenge. But believe there are situations where manual or semi auto have there place just need the experience to know when.
Click to expand...

Yup. That's it; there is no set way to do it. But it takes practice, and, like the rest of us, you'll cock it up a fair few times before you find your way of doing it - and that's the most important thing to learn.
 
Unless you have some sort of low light monster like a d3, then manual, wide open and about 1/80th with iso as high as you dare.

Shoot in raw.

Unlikely to over expose, unless its a really well lit gig, quite the opposite and you'll be pulling it back from raw quite a bit and not changing settings at all!

Auto exposure will blow it most of the time and yield dicey shutter speeds even with spot metering.

Manual is much better at capturing what you see than auto is, because of the way auto exposure works.
 
I suppose it just goes down to one thing, get out and shoot.
 
onona said:
I'm surprised to see so many people discouraging the use of manual because of the "faffing around". What exactly are you faffing around with? I change my aperture and shutter speed settings without taking my eye away from the viewfinder, and it only takes a second or two.
Click to expand...

For me its just too much hassle chasing a performer round a stage for 45 minutes who is moving in and out of pools of light, that are also changing their position.

No matter how good you are and how fast you can change your appeture and shutter speed to compensate you are always playing catch up, you end up spending more time watching the cameras meter readings and flicking the wheel back and forth that you end up missing the action

I'm not saying its impossible and there will be guys out there who've done this kinda thing for years and it will be second nature, but this is the original posters first venture into gig photography and he's clearly unsure about.

the more things you can take away from setting the camera the more you can concentrate on the performers the more chance of capturing 'the moment'
 
deputy dawg said:
I will cock it up thats for sure lol
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what i've felt like with my band photo's. My best results are of stationary planty things. But ideally i want to be able to do band photo's as alot of my friends are in bands.
 
I will say something else about changing lighting... it's awesome but I would strongly recommend against trying to adjust exposure for it or let the camera do it.

I shoot manual for many reasons. One of them is specifically to not get shots ruined by the lights changing. You see when the lights are on the artist, the exposure is fairly constant - yes you can have ups and downs but the difference between two lights and three lights on the artist still generally falls within the limits of the sensor and doesn't blow highlights.

Invariably when the light does something amazing, if you are relying on the camera for exposure, it will **** it up. Those really dark moment where the only light is a raking spot across the peformers face... yep... unless you are really good & fast with spot metering you will get an averaged exposure and blown highlights

Personally at a gig I don't want to have to think about such things... so I use the first few framed to get the exposure right and then just shoot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top