concert photography tips and tricks with the 40D

Hey guys.

 

I recently got a Canon 40d. I do a lot of concert work but don't have a lot of experience yet with the 40d since I just

recently got it. So far I have shot two shows with it and a family party.

 

This weekend I am doing a big music festival up in RI and another festival the following week.

 

Any cool tips and tricks that you can offer? Cool effects and settings that you like to use?

 

I've been trying to read up on the manual as much as I can. I also bought the David Busch book on the 40d which

has been very interesting and helpful.

 

-Eva

Get good, fast lenses, such as the 50mm f/1.4. Leave the f/4+ stuff at home unless you're shooting daylight gigs. It's not much different than shooting film, really, except you're not locked in with sensor sensitivity so you can switch ISO values willy nilly if it suits you. Take a lot of test shots and figure out what level of digital noise you find acceptale, and set your ISO accordingly. Oh, yeah, and shoot RAW so you have that tiny little extra bit of wiggle room on the underexposed stuff. Otherwise the sky's the limit.

Have you any other lenses than the previously mentioned EF50mmF1.8MkII & EF28mm to 135mm F3.5-5.6?

 

I think the ` cool tips and tricks` reside more in the lenses you have at your disposal rather than the difference between using the 40D to the 30D you used before: this is especially so if you are far away or if there is low light.

 

I think you should be fairly secure with using the 40D following on from your 30D for the concert use.

 

WW

I like to use f2.8 or faster lenses. If I am close to the stage I use a Tamron 28-75 mm f2.8, and occasionally a

Canon 50 mm f1.4. If I am stuck in the audience, I use a Canon EF 100 mm f 2.8 macro or a Canon 200mm f2.8 L. I

also bring either an easily adjustable monopod or a lightweight tripod. As the stage might have a variety of

light sources and colors, I always shoot in RAW, so that I can adjust the color temperature in post-processing,

as well as the picture styles. I often shoot in bursts rather than in single shot mode. Don't forget to

experiment with shooting from different angles, and tilting the camera off from the horizontal or vertical. The

latter can give an especially dynamic feel to the image. Have fun!

http://www.photo.net/learn/concerts/mirarchi/concer_i

You say that you do a lot of concert photography, so I am sure you understand the lens requirements (fast!) and shooting in RAW as per the good advice above. The 40D allows you to set ISO, aperture and shutter speed just like any other digital camera so personally you should do fine with it as it isn't a major change from any other DSLR.

The 40d has 3 custom modes on the mode dial c1,2,3, set them up for the type of settings you generally use, for example C1, 3200iso, RAW, `Av` f2, AWB etc, C2 800 Iso,jpeg, `M` 1/30 fxx, etc for fill flash. This enables you to change the camera settings quickly for various shots. Watch the lighting, sometimes they are sync to music and brightest at certain levels, more often tho not so you have hit and miss. I`ll let others give more tips :)

William,

 

Unfortunately all I have right now are the EF50mmF1.8MkII & EF28mm to 135mm F3.5-5.6 lens.

 

But I think I will be good for this weekend since it will be a daytime festival. The festival ends at 7pm so it will still be light out.

 

I've taken a late evening/night show with the 28-135mm and it was a little tough. I need to get myself something else to add to my kit for that.

Yes, then as I mentioned I do not see much difference than when you used the 30D with those lenses: But chris jb has a point I didn`t think of: (Hi chris!) that functionality could come in handy.

 

Remember that the 28 to 135 is faster at the wide angle. The late evening sun often makes for a nice mix of tones with the stage lights, I hope the weather is fine for you.

 

It is interesting to me that you chose to spend money trading from a 30D to a 40D, rather than getting a faster / longer lens: I hope the 30D did not breakdown on you?

 

WW

thank you jos van ekelen

im a concert photographer also. im only using 17-55/2.8 IS on my 40D.

 

from whole stage to portait shots, this combo never lets me down.

Meter off moderate skin tones or some alternate object close to it in tone, and let everything else (and especially the lights) fall wherever they might. I've had fantastic results with this metering strategy. Great exposures and terrific for capturing the lighting effects.

 

Never meter with the lights in your viewfinder. As with metering outdoors in the sun, having any bright object shining into the lens will kill your exposure.

 

At brightly lit rock concerts (INXS, Gov't Mule, Genesis) I've shot with a 30D at moderate ISO with a 28-135 and 70-300 and have very good shots to show for it. Depends on what you're trying to capture as to what lens to use.

 

John

Hi,

 

I was shooting a little concert where basically there was not stage with the 40D and the Sigma 18-50 F2.8 and you can see all the pics in this gallery at this link:

http://giorgio-photos.com/wordpress/?page_id=34

 

And with the Canon 24-105 f4 IS at the gallery at this link:

http://giorgio-photos.com/wordpress/?page_id=50

 

I was using the camera in manual mode at 1600 ISO (few at 3200), thie ligting was very low.

I was using the Aperure at about f4 or f5.6 with a t of about 1/40 to 1/60 handhelded.

I was also using the flash at -2 just to don't wash away the original colors but open a bit the shadows.

 

Well, many pics was underexposed but everytnigh was in RAW so i was able to recover most of the pics. I have also used NoiseNinja to remove the noise from the pics.

 

Giorgio