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Concert/Gig/Low Light Photography
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Relatively new to the world of digital photography. Have a 550d with the stock 18-55 but would like to take pictures of a few local bands and the likes and was wondering what sort of equipment I would need to invest in and any tips for shooting.
From my research the 50mm 1.8 Mark II is a good starting place? Would this be a good choice for small darkly lit local gigs, pub gigs usually suffer from much darker conditions than usual concerts so not sure if theres even another route I would need to consider?
Looking for a lens at the minute as opposed to getting a flash (in addition to the frowned upon nature at gigs)Any advice would be great
A 50mm is always a very good lens to have. So if you can get one anyhow. The 50mm and bumping up the iso somewhat (I don’t
know how the 550d handles increased iso) will help greatly.Other than that you’d probably be taking about spending quite a bit of money getting say a 70-200 f2.8 type lens.
Make sure you post up some results :)
I think what is more important here ( previous post is right though you should/everyone should have the 50mm in their bag…) is setting the camera up right..
I do this a lot for theatre productions and while I do use the 50 and 85 wide open it’s nit essential
firstly you’ll want it set to manual and spot metering… spotlit lighting and matrix metering are not good bedfellows…
expose for a performers face and lock that in in manual…
try a narrow aperture to begin with to minmise focus errors…
also if you want more than one person in focus f1.2 is no use to you…you’ll need a reasonably fast shutter speed to freeze movement… although as you progress you may want blurred movement… ESP metalheads and the classic headbanging/sweat waterfall shot
as a for example I did a shoot yesterday entirely at f5.6 1/250s 640iso
finally turn OFF any auto adjust in your editing program if shooting raw as this WILL ruin your shots…!!
enjoy…
Excellent information!
The spot metering tip sounds great, not something I would have figured out myself at all.Ordered the 50mm last night so when it arrives and I get experimenting with a few of these techniques I will upload the results to see how im faring. Thought I would start off at the lower end of the price spectrum and see how seriously I want to take it before spending the big bucks on an even better lens.
you’re dead right, and the canon 50 f/1.8 is probably the best value lens there is…. the image quality you’ll get will blow nearly every zoom lens out of the water!!
finally don’t be worried… gig and sports photography are great once you have your exposure right as the lighting rarely changes much. This is why Manual is your friend… also don’t forget to turn off auto iso (although this may happen automatically once you switch it to M!…. actually just checked on my better half’s and it doesn’t)
if you’ve any questions just ask… happy to help
So you just have to concentrate on focus and framing and the dramatic lighting at gigs always makes for great pics!!
Excellent! Lens just arrived this morning, so will hopefully get to give it a test run at the weekend at a gig. Im sure il have plenty of questions after the first outing. You can only read up on so much and then the rest is all down to experimentation I guess.
Thanks for all the help, will report back with a few snaps :D
First outing last night and now again tonight. Loved it. Great experience altogether. Was hard enough getting to grips with the dark shooting and focusing on the right places with such a wide aperture. Have a few photos up but will be during the week before I get sorted through em. Heres some examples anyway, any advice greatly appreciated
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