Canon Concert and Product Photography Questions

[chris_pavlacka]

<p>After playing with photography for a while as a hobby, I apparently have become decent enough at it that I'm getting offers to work for pay (namely, doing concert photography and photographing food). So, I have a few questions.<br>

First, late this month, I'm going to be photographing a dinner (mainly, the courses themselves, although some shots of the group of twenty, I'm sure). My setup right now includes the following lenses: 20-35L, Zeiss 50 1.4 (contax, with adapter), FD 50 1.4 (with adapter without glass, for macro), 85 1.8, 70-200 4 non-IS. Which of these lenses will serve me best for photographing food?<br>

Second, for concert photography: right now I'm using my 85mm. It seems to work quite well - large aperture, focuses silly quick, et cetera. Is there going to be an advantage to switching to a 135L? I've never used one, but I know it's a highly respected lens. <br>

Finally, I'm using a 5D. I would like opinions on what the better camera for what I'm doing is: the 5D, or the 1DmkII. I'm leaning towards my 5D due to low light performance, but is there something to be said about the autofocus performance on the 1D?<br>

cheers</p>

[jack_nordine]

<p>You may wish to check out this photo net article on concert photography and the Canon 100mm 2.0.<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/100-2">http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/100-2</a></p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>Hi Chris,</p>

<p>I am currently doing a lot of food photography, set places, individual plates and close ups, far and away the lens I use most is my 50mm f1.4, I use it a lot with a 12mm extension tube too, gives the currently popular very shallow selective DOF images my clients want. I do most of it with a 1D. The rest I do with (don't laugh it is an amazing camera) a G10.</p>

<p>But without knowing your location I wouldn't hazard a guess for the full table.</p>

<p>Concert photography, well I have got in to a few arguments on that one, but I would say if you are finding yourself short then the 135 would be a good move up, though I use a 70-200 2.8 IS. I think the AF is faster on the zoom and the IS certainly helped me get shots I couldn't have done without it. http://www.photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00Q4A5 Covers a lot of the standard gig lens arguments/discussions :-)</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>Here is a shot with the 50 mm and a 12mm tube</p><div></div>

[chris_pavlacka]

<p>Scott - what kind of lighting are you using on that shot?</p>

 

[scott_ferris]

<p>First rule of food photography, shaded daylight. If I can't use that due to time issues (ie the sun went down) then I have three 4ft led panels, they give a very pink light but even auto white balance can sort it out. But this one, and most of mine are daylight. Too easy I know so don't tell everybody :-)</p>

<p>Hope this helps, Scott.</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001451.html</p>

<p>http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/04/my_food_photogr.html</p>

<p>These both say the same thing about lighting, I take my stuff outside, but they are both settting up next to windows with a reflector, my outside area is under a large white canvas canopy that helps the light a lot.</p>

[vancouverphotographer]

<p>I'd agree with the above that if you are feeling that the 85mm is too short, then go for the 135mm - I don't own one but always hear it's a great lens. The 70-200mm f2.8 was my lens of choice for concerts for the longest time but that was when I generally was shooting from the audience ... these days I shoot a lot of local concerts for which I have a pass and now the 70-200mm though nice because of the zooming ability, has become a bit cumbersome with it's size and at times, it's not fast enough at a reasonable ISO so I use the 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8 a lot.</p>

[jwilli4834]

<p>From the audience with my 70-200 was the way to go...</p><div></div>

[Spearhead]

<p>Where are you shooting from at concerts? I usually shoot with either a 35mm or a 50mm on a 1.3 body but I won't shoot without a media pass. Audience shots look like audience shots. In order to get eye level shots, I stand on stage, on steps, or on amps. I'm sometimes closer to the musicians than they are to each other. Today I shot a show with the 24-70, but I know the venue is better lit than some and I could get away with a zoom, I also used flash. A longer lens will look like you snuck a camera in.<br>

<em><br /> </em><br>

<img src="http://www.spirer.com/delbombers2009/slides/357P1475.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /><br>

<br /> <em>Scarlett Fever 3, Copyright 2009 Jeff Spirer</em></p>

 

[chris_pavlacka]

<p>I'm shooting for a local producer: I have access pretty much wherever I want. The main venue is a smallish bar/concert venue. I have access to the front of the stage (and now, the stage itself). This was a shot from the venue with the 85mm, a small amount of cropping:<br>

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/3293081520_1e8156befb.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></p>

[Spearhead]

<p>If you have access anywhere, why are you shooting with a long lens? Usually, getting up close means you don't have to deal with the audience and a lot of other distractions. I'd clone out the light in that one.</p>

[giorgio_guglielmino]

<p>Hi!,<br>

I was shooting this singing contest few weeks ago with a 70-200 f4 IS from the audience (quite far from the stage), almost all the shoots are made from 1/60 to 1/80 at f4 or f5.6.<br>

<a href="http://giorgio-photos.com/wordpress/?page_id=1556">http://giorgio-photos.com/wordpress/?page_id=1556</a><br>

I also used for few shoots a Sigma 18-50 2.8 lens.<br>

My body was a 40D so consider the 1.6 crop factor</p>

<p>Giorgio</p>

[giorgio_guglielmino]

<p>I'm sorry, I forgot to add that the Iso use was from 800 to 1600, all the shoots was taken in RAW and converted to jpg using Lightroom. A little of Noise Reduction was applied were necessary.<br />Giorgio</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>With close access an 85 or 135 or a 70-200 should easily get you uncropped images like this without being intrusive. I am a huge IS fan though so the only lens I have in that range with IS is the 70-200 2.8 IS, it gets easy to predict when the artist is stopped to enable the use of a slightly slower shutter speed to allow for the slower lens and whilst most people will recommend a wider lens this is the style of live music image I like.</p><div></div>

[tim gray]

<p>Concerts: Depending on the access and the venue size, a 28mm and a 50mm are good. Or a 35 and a 50. I shot a lot with a 28 and a 50, but this was in small clubs up to venues of about 3000, from the front of the stage. A longer lens would help for tighter shots - an 85, 100, or 135. The 100 is probably the money lens in terms of a good focal length, affordable, and good quality. The 135 is very nice, but could be a bit tight sometimes in a small club.</p>

<p>Depending on the types of shots wanted, I might go a little wider. There's a ton of concert photography of a tight head shot singing into a mic. Which can be great, especially if its a big star. Sometimes a bit of context can be nice too though.</p>

<p>50mm:<br /> <a title="The Hold Steady 07 by ezwal, on Flickr" href=" title="The Hold Steady 07 by ezwal, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1177/1098453882_2ab68956cc.jpg" alt="The Hold Steady 07" width="500" height="333" /> </a></p>