[35mm 1.4] Shot a gig for the first time, a real test for camera and a learning experience for me.

  • Thread starter Thread starter mrk
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Out of curiosity, when you were doing this shoot did you find you had to wait for the performer to get back into a position you spotted earlier, or have you preset your exposure for different areas of the stage? The reason I ask is that I've done a fair bit of gig photography in the last 6 months, but annoyingly the lighting has been different each time I've been out and it changes through the event.

The music being played has affected the way I take photos too. Some short songs, high paced jumping around, quickly going to slower paced stuff. To be honest I'm still not 100% comfortable using manual and usually use aperture priority as I'm getting more time to get the shot I want that way. VERY occasionally in stable lighting I find I have the time to take some manual shots.

Also, I'd like to be on an area as large as the one you were in this shoot. It's a pain in the hoop trying to take photos in small pubs!

A good example of the lighting in events I've been at is that I've found that the limit ISO wise has been 5000 and can rarely drop below that due to lighting. I was annoyed at a recent event where a local paper photographer walked in with a flash that you're not allowed to use, flashing away to his hearts content.
 
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Paul11 said:
very impressive work
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booyaka said:
Nice - love #3
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Thanks :)

ElDude said:
Out of curiosity, when you were doing this shoot did you find you had to wait for the performer to get back into a position you spotted earlier, or have you preset your exposure for different areas of the stage? The reason I ask is that I've done a fair bit of gig photography in the last 6 months, but annoyingly the lighting has been different each time I've been out and it changes through the event.

The music being played has affected the way I take photos too. Some short songs, high paced jumping around, quickly going to slower paced stuff. To be honest I'm still not 100% comfortable using manual and usually use aperture priority as I'm getting more time to get the shot I want that way. VERY occasionally in stable lighting I find I have the time to take some manual shots.

Also, I'd like to be on an area as large as the one you were in this shoot. It's a pain in the hoop trying to take photos in small pubs!

A good example of the lighting in events I've been at is that I've found that the limit ISO wise has been 5000 and can rarely drop below that due to lighting. I was annoyed at a recent event where a local paper photographer walked in with a flash that you're not allowed to use, flashing away to his hearts content.
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I kind of got the idea about flash yeah, massive distraction to the performer(s)!
For this shoot though, I did a mix of both waiting for them to get back into a position I saw earlier and at the same time adapting to their movements. I had the entire length of the stage to walk around with that 4 foot barrier gap so this helped although I did feel it was small but it does seem that what I had was in fact actually good compared to what you get at other venues!

My ISO was fixed at 1000, I knew I could get silky images this way at f1.4 and just adjusted the shutter on the fly as I saw fit. The viewfinder light meter comes in handy in these situations and where the lighting changes too quickly a rough guess sufficed, some areas of OE are not a problem for the 5D3 because highlight recovery is quite impressive but the blue and red coloured spot lights used are a handful for any digital sensor really. Where these were too strong I opted to lose all colour and found a different type of ambience emerged which worked equally well.
 
Great set!
Shows what decent kit and talent can produce.
These put a bit smile on my face as you can see the atmosphere in the photos. The crowd shot says with the natural smiles on the faces.
 
mrk said:
Thanks :)



I kind of got the idea about flash yeah, massive distraction to the performer(s)!
For this shoot though, I did a mix of both waiting for them to get back into a position I saw earlier and at the same time adapting to their movements. I had the entire length of the stage to walk around with that 4 foot barrier gap so this helped although I did feel it was small but it does seem that what I had was in fact actually good compared to what you get at other venues!

My ISO was fixed at 1000, I knew I could get silky images this way at f1.4 and just adjusted the shutter on the fly as I saw fit. The viewfinder light meter comes in handy in these situations and where the lighting changes too quickly a rough guess sufficed, some areas of OE are not a problem for the 5D3 because highlight recovery is quite impressive but the blue and red coloured spot lights used are a handful for any digital sensor really. Where these were too strong I opted to lose all colour and found a different type of ambience emerged which worked equally well.
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Dunno if you've looked at my stuff on flickr, but the stuff I've done are the same two bands, about 5 or 6 times in total. The trouble with one is that they're a new band on the scene so only get small venues around here, and bigger ones in an area that's too far for me to go to, but the other band play most pub scenes, but due to town being a ghost town recently, the spacious venues aren't booking at the moment. This leaves me with literally about 2ft to work in, in one venue, about 10ft in a corridor alongside a small stage area which is again about 2ft wide. The other venue stopped booking all together, which was annoying as it was great as it was next to big windows and once I got the white balance sorted, was pretty decent. I'd love to go back now I've got the 5dmk3.

The major lighting issue I have, not having a flash aside, is purple/magenta/blue lighting being fired in strobe. My god that's ruined some photos for me, but I've recovered some after about 30 minutes of tweaking and others I've been forced to convert to B&W.

I do love doing it though. Each time I'm limiting myself to a different range so I can learn more about specific things. Last time I stuck within 5000ISO as it was low lighting (or dark as a swear word that would be filtered, to the layman!).

I'd give my right arm to have the option of taking photos in an event that had balanced lighting so I can control what I want to take, rather than try to take a photo by having to wait for things to change how I need them to be!

Still, I'd recommend it to anyone. It's frustrating and fun! The biggest downside is that you can't apply one style of processing to gig photography outside of a studio so processing takes a long time if you take a lot of photos! Also the biggest upside is that you don't use one style of processing :D
 
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ElDude said:
Dunno if you've looked at my stuff on flickr, but the stuff I've done are the same two bands, about 5 or 6 times in total. The trouble with one is that they're a new band on the scene so only get small venues around here, and bigger ones in an area that's too far for me to go to, but the other band play most pub scenes, but due to town being a ghost town recently, the spacious venues aren't booking at the moment. This leaves me with literally about 2ft to work in, in one venue, about 10ft in a corridor alongside a small stage area which is again about 2ft wide. The other venue stopped booking all together, which was annoying as it was great as it was next to big windows and once I got the white balance sorted, was pretty decent. I'd love to go back now I've got the 5dmk3.

The major lighting issue I have, not having a flash aside, is purple/magenta/blue lighting being fired in strobe. My god that's ruined some photos for me, but I've recovered some after about 30 minutes of tweaking and others I've been forced to convert to B&W.

I do love doing it though. Each time I'm limiting myself to a different range so I can learn more about specific things. Last time I stuck within 5000ISO as it was low lighting (or dark as a swear word that would be filtered, to the layman!).

I'd give my right arm to have the option of taking photos in an event that had balanced lighting so I can control what I want to take, rather than try to take a photo by having to wait for things to change how I need them to be!

Still, I'd recommend it to anyone. It's frustrating and fun! The biggest downside is that you can't apply one style of processing to gig photography outside of a studio so processing takes a long time if you take a lot of photos! Also the biggest upside is that you don't use one style of processing :D
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I have indeed seen those pictures and I can see what you mean by the size and light. Strobe lighting does seem to be a bit of a bummer for images but as you say, being forced to BW for some is really the only way to recover some of the feel and restore atmosphere - Unavoidable really for some shots.

I got lucky with this first gig, the venue is nice and they have the barrier which helps greatly, just a shame about the random lighting although this does really depend on the music being played as well I guess.

You are right though, it's a challenge and makes you see things differently and learn a new shooting style and yup, it is fun! Unlike weddings, it's a different bag altogether how you compose and shoot.

Rojin said:
Nice work, cracking set. I love the B&W's :)
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Thanks :) I know not everyone likes black and white, it seems to be considered a cop out method as opposed to using colour to others as well!
 
They are nice but some looks as though you have miss focus, eg no. 7.

4 & 16 are the strongest shots for me. 16 having more impact with the crowd although cutting off top of the guitar bugs me a little.

Have you thought about using IR assist on the flash ?
 
^^ I agree, some look to have missed focus or are in general soft.

I like 16 and 10.

Must be very hard to shoot in such conditions, constantly changing lighting, dark, cramped, etc.
 
Using #7 as an example his face was in-line with his arm (see the hair on the rim light on his right arm). I had spot AF on his teeth as that was the quickest hit area at that moment and fired a couple of shots but he was playing and moving at the same time (I believe they call it "Rockin' it" :p) and his face moved a bit and as I was using f1.4... It's not a major issue though as it's not too obvious and I had not applied any USM either.

IR assist would not be usable especially with servo AF activated on tap. It's also a big no no, shining a bright AF pattern on someone's face?!

Large version of 7:

A26A0427_2.jpg


D.P. said:
^^ I agree, some look to have missed focus or are in general soft.

I like 16 and 10.

Must be very hard to shoot in such conditions, constantly changing lighting, dark, cramped, etc.
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It felt like the 1st 2nd and 3rd wedding shoot all over again, new territory and still analysing everything to see how to get a shot. There simply is no way to wait and compose a shot, you have to take the shot or burst of shots when you see the chance otherwise hope it's a repeating motion that will happen again at the same part of the song in 30 seconds or something :p
 
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