First Concert Shoot

NEPats37

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I'm shooting my first concert in about a week and was wondering if you all had some tips. Here is a little info, I will probally be using my Nikon with just the standard lens. I'm choosing this because it goes down to a 1.8 f-stop. I also have a Canon A-1 but I dont really want to use this because I only have 2 zoom lenses. The minimum f-stop is 3.5.

What I need to know is what film speed you recommend. I'm thinking 800 but maybe faster. It will be pretty dark during the concert with the acception of a few spotlights on the stage.

I will most likely be on stage, seeing as I am not using a zoom lens how close can I get before I make it weird?

What angles should I take the pictures at. Also what view points can I use?(behind band,side,etc.)

Any other pointers you can give me will be great.

Just Added: I am a moron and loaded 400 speed film in both my cameras yesterday and just realized it. So I may have to use a flash,which sucks. I have a basic sunpak flash. What can i do to make the pictures look good even with a flash. There are pretty high ceilings so bouncing is out. I heard a trick with a index card....whats that all about?
 
Try and get off the stage too and shoot from the front. You don't want photos of only the back of the people. If it is a small concert it should not be hard to creap around the front, just keep your head down not to obstruct the view. Larger concert halls have a fenced off section with about 1m from the stage to allow photographers to move around.

One thing you should consider is going there the day before to suss out the lighting properly with a camera. The concert may be as dark as you say, but then again I have also seen some concert photos where the perfect exposure was 1/350 at f5.6 with a 50mm lens at ISO200. The lighting is not something you can just guess beforehand, especially if you will be using film and can't change your iso on the fly.

The index card trick invovles pointing the flash at the roof, and taking a blank creditcard shaped card and rubberbanding it to the flash. The majority of the light bounces off the ceiling and the flash card reflects some of it forward. Not the best way to do it but often gives satisfactory results. But check above for why you may not need it :)
 
The concert may be as dark as you say, but then again I have also seen some concert photos where the perfect exposure was 1/350 at f5.6 with a 50mm lens at ISO200.

Yeah, the stage lighting can be harsh...we went to a Styx concert (yeah, STYX) a month ago, and photos taken with our cell phones were overexposed on some shots.
 
Whatever you do do not use flash. The artists hate this and the flash ruins shots like this. To confirm an index card can be strapped to the flash to bounce the light towards the subject (flash pointing straight up) It's used for putting a catchlight in the eye. But I repeat don't use flash.

f1.8 will give a very shallow depth of field if you are close to your subject.
 
i want to try a few shots using "slow sync flash" the only thing i dont understand about this technique is....lets say for example my flash exposure calculator says ,"iso 400,4f-stop,9 feet away" and lets also say i want to shutter open for about 1/30th of a second in order to get the look of motion. should i put the aperture to 5.6 instead of 4 to compensate for the longer shutter opening and avoid over exposure? or is it required to keep it as the calculator says to achieve the proper look?
 
Does your camera have aperture priority mode? Use that. It will expose for the scene (might be 1/15th @ f4 ISO400).

Does your flash have a distance scale? If so just make sure your flash is in range.

All you need to do is press the shutter. The flash will expose the subject at the end of the exposure.
 
yea it has aperture priority mode. so what do i do just set the aperture to what it says on my flash? then just let the camera pick the shutter speed? any other advice on this effect?
just tried what u said and it is going to use 125th a second no matter what when it senses a flash. im going to have to use manual mode. should i close the aperture a little to compensate for the shutter being open longer (1/30th instead of 1/125th?)
 
I don't understand why you keep bring up the flash.
In most concerts you'd get booted for that!!!!!!!
I've heard of severe injuries being causes at dance festivals because someone shot off a flash and the dancers went down.
It's a very mean trick in my opinion.
Leave the flash at home and take the advice of all the great people here who've been doing this sort of thing for years.

Just my two cents. :)
 
I don't understand why you keep bring up the flash.
In most concerts you'd get booted for that!!!!!!!
I've heard of severe injuries being causes at dance festivals because someone shot off a flash and the dancers went down.
It's a very mean trick in my opinion.
Leave the flash at home and take the advice of all the great people here who've been doing this sort of thing for years.

Just my two cents. :)

its a small concert, i know the band members personally and they all said flash is ok. im going to be bouncing the flash and using a flash card. but thanks
 
I'd leave the flash at home. You'll most likely lose any atmosphere using it.

if you cannot do without, set camera to Av and shoot with the flash set to a stop below your camera's meter.
 

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