Concert photography-tips and equipment

I am wanting to explore concert type photography..are there any tips anyone can give me

for shooting, equipment, books I can check out or classes I can possibly take somewhere-

maybe online??? I currently have a 35 mm Canon Rebel SLR and a Digital 6MB Canon EOS.

Are filters good for enhancing color lights and different things with digital?? Thanks so

much in advance!!!!

 

meredith

I find iso 1600 to be good for many concert situations and of course the fastest lens you can get. I use the Nikkor 50/1.4 when I can get close or a 100/2.5 and 180/2.8. You can see a few shots on my website.

 

-A

Um, those focal lengths are for manual lenses on film. They might be too long for your DSLR, especially for handholding purposes.

Thanks A!!! About what range do fast lenses cost? Thanks!

Sneaking a camera in to an event may be the hardest part, usually a press pass is needed. Fast lenses are needed. How much $? From a hundred or less for a 50mm F1.8 to over a thousand for some.

As Rob says, it varies widely - but that is the reason I dumped the Nikon AF system and went full manual so I could pick up gorgeous AI-s lenses for a song rather than be stuck with cheap AF lenses due to budget restrictions. My three lenses cost a total of $300! But in any case, don't pass up the Canon 50mm if you don't already have it!

If you do a search here, you will find lots of posts on this subject. This one - http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00EKXh - came up just a day or two ago. There is also a tutorial somewhere on photo.net specifically about concert shooting.<p>

 

I do a lot of concert photography, mostly for (print or web) publication - there are two or three others here who also do this. You should look for Loren E's posts, he's really worth checking out.<p>

 

Most of the time, you want the fastest lenses you can afford. You should pick your lenses based on where you will be standing. I shoot with a 20, 35, and 50 most of the time, but I always have a pass so I can shoot on or close to the stage. Digital is very useful because of the high ISO performance. I shoot at 1600 most of the time.<p>

 

I wouldn't use filters - you can do that afterwards with digital.<p>

Can these fast lenses be used for indoor/outdoor portraits as well? do most portrait

photographers have fast lenses? Thanks!

 

mer

You can use fast lenses for whatever you want. Some people like fast lenses for portraits so they can blur the backgrounds, some people (like me) prefer portraits with a sharper background for environmental context.

<p>Click on Learn -> Concerts and you'll find the photo.net tutorial on concert photography. It's an older article, from back in the film days, but at least most of what it discusses should also be applicable to digital. Heck, for digital, you don't generally need to worry about enhancing colours via filters; you can do that quite easily in software, and that also saves you from the light penalty (coloured filters rob you of light, and light is often in limited supply at concerts).</p>

I shoot concerts with black and white film pushed to 1600 and two prime lenses: 35mm f/2 and 85mm f/1.8. If I shoot colour, I use fuji NPZ 800 and push it to 1200 if I have to (and have it push processed by my lab). You definitely need some speed to take advantage of the (often minimal) lighting at concerts. Fast prime lenses are invaluable. The cheapest option for a fast prime for your system would be a 50mm f/1.8 for about $80.<p>

Another problem with concert photography is access. If you're not shooting for a publication, try small bands at small venues. Getting in touch with them ahead of time always helps.<p>

As far as filters go, stage lighting usually doesn't need the extra help as it is dramatic enough already, and filters can diminish the already limited light hitting your film/sensor.<p>

Josh<br>

<a href="http://www.joshchapman.ca"><u>joshchapman.ca</u></a><p>

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/3203468-md.jpg"></center>

With 35mm film I usually go for Tri-X shot at 1600

and then develop in Diafine, which keeps the grain amounts quite low for 35mm, like some people said above, use prime lenses.

These unaffordable 80-200 f2.8 IS zooms might be nice too, f2.8 primes are something to start with, but surely you'll be drooling over at least f2.0 lenses sooner or later. There are incredible fast lenses around too, but I supose one has to be more than lucky to catch something in their focus with nothing but a hint of DOF - I haven't got any of these.

 

Crank up your ISO, practice spot metering and forget about filters. Bring bunches of memory cards or film rolls to fire away, because focussing trouble and camera shake will make it hard to hit. Consider a Monopod if possible. Shoot RAW not JPG, if lighting is as critical as during concerts you shouldn't lose the chance to rescue your pics during postprocessing. Another good idea is to try out your handholdingskills in advance.

 

Grab cameras with good focussing skills in low light and low noise at high ISO. The Minolta 7D might be a choice because of it's antishake with primes. I don't know the EOS line too well.

 

I doubt film to offer advantages today, but I still like it and go for either 800ISO color neg, or really fast B&W.

 

About focal length: I used anything between 15 and 200mm yet. Maybe 50, 90 and 135mm are the most important lenses if you are able to move a bit.

 

Start with smaller local events and keep your camer bagged if there's really no light. I wouldn't shoot 1/30 sec wide open at highest ISO without a monopod and lots of hope. A good way to build a name is working for bands. Ask their roadies to turn up the light a bit according to your needs.

Fast lenses like 50/1.4, 105/2, 180/2.8 are nice for concert photography, as are the 70-200/2.8 VR/IS zooms.

 

I like iso 400 color neg and C-41 black and white films such as 400UC and BW400CN for concert photography. Any faster film and it's just too muddy and grainy IMO. If you use C-41 based films you need to take care to give the shadows enough light so that it looks good when printed. BW400CN is absolutely remarkable stuff and it's low contrast is perfect for concert photography.

 

I have read good things about E200 for concert photography but don't use it myself. It would be easier to use in some sense since you can push it 1-2 stops and it is exposed for the highlights, not shadows so in effect it's faster than iso 400 C-41. Try them out.

 

For digital, you probably will be shooting at iso 400-800 with fast lenses. That's ok, the results should be good. Focusing will be much more difficult with digital than with film bodies because of the small viewfinder images.

 

I would not use filters for this, they eat too much light.

 

Look through Steve Mirachi's Concert Photography tutorial in the Learn section of photo.net.

All my experience comes from shooting in smaller live music venues (pubs & clubs) where I haven't had a problem getting permission so far.

 

From late 2003 to early this year I shot with a Canon Powershot A80, with custom settings of f2.8, 1/30s, ISO400 for use under lighting.

 

A couple of months ago I upgraded to a Nikon D50 and am shooting with the 18-55mm kit lens for the moment until I can afford to buy a new one. I am still working out all the settings, but generally ISO1600, f3.5, 1/30s, Shade WB works for me with some flash shots for backup.

 

Here's a shot I took with those settings last week

http://photos.timchuma.com/ZombieGhostTrain/photos/photo45.html

 

Thanks.

I'm a rock photographer for a newspapera and here are some tips...

 

1 - Ear protection. I wear big earmuffs like ones construction workers use. They work great!!!

 

2 - Bring a stool. I use a 1 foot plastic stool. I usually put it near the side of the venue. It works great for photographing over the head of the crowd.

 

3 - Fast lenses!!!! I use a Canon 85mm 1.2 that works like a dream. Canon makes some very fast 50mm lenses that aren't that expensive.

 

4 - Off camera flash. If you already have an offcamera flash get a sync cord so you can use it at an angle. This works great. Also fun to play with using two flashes.

 

5 - Fake Presspass. I have a real one, but it might as well be fake. It is just a photo of laminated photo of me with the name of the paper at the top.<div></div>