First concert shoot

PushingTin · Sep 22, 2009

The band involved are friends of mine and asked if I didnt mind taking a few shots for them...

I had never tried concert photography before and absolutely loved it. Very challenging as it was dark and concert lighting!

Please crit and comments on my photo as I would love to do more concert photography (bug has bitten!)

musicaleCA · Sep 22, 2009

Using flash in the 4th image was a technical error. By using direct flash, you cast hard shadows on his face (the mic) and lower torso (keyboard), which is unappealing. Pay close attention to where shadows will fall when using flash.

I find the bright yellow light in the 5th image unappealing, because of it's placement relative to her. It may have been better to change perspective by running to the right a bit, and instead use her as a gobo and get a nice rim light out of it.

In the first, second, and seventh images, light fall-off from the flash is very fast, leading to uneven exposure of your subject (the head is darker than the legs). The draws our eyes in the wrong direction; it would be advisable to try to work with available light instead, or move yourself back further, and zoom in. This will reduce how quickly the light from your flash falls-off.

Lastly, gel your flash some colour of your choice and switch it up every so often so it's less obvious you used flash and instead looks like part of the show.

PushingTin · Sep 23, 2009

hmmm I never used flash at all.... This was all available concert lighting.

Was using a 50mm 1.8 prime at F1.8 for most part and bumped up ISO to about 1000 in order to get the shots.

Therefore no zooming either.

Also realised that a 1.4 would really come in handy for concerts.

dave196 · Sep 23, 2009

Its quite well done for concert photography.
Could I reccomend you changing your name from "chis" to "chris" in the 2nd photo.

PushingTin · Sep 23, 2009

Thanks Dave and good pick up - will have to change that

musicaleCA · Sep 23, 2009

PushingTin said:
hmmm I never used flash at all.... This was all available concert lighting.

Was using a 50mm 1.8 prime at F1.8 for most part and bumped up ISO to about 1000 in order to get the shots.

Therefore no zooming either.

Also realised that a 1.4 would really come in handy for concerts.

Eh wha??? Then where the heck is that light coming from? It was somewhere from your direction, that's for sure. :lmao: The fourth image just screams "bright light coming right from the camera". Does your camera have a pop-up, and are you certain it didn't activate during the concert somehow?

(I have mine taped down, just in case I accidentally hit the button. :lol:

)

Edit: I just looked at the EXIF data on that image and it confirms that no flash was fired. So where the heck is that light coming from? Someone help! I think I'm losing my mind. (Though you were shooting on Auto. Tsk tsk. In tough exposure conditions like concerts, manual is your friend.)

PushingTin · Sep 23, 2009

haha, no definately no flash nor pop-up flash used and I was only shooting aperture priority.

The lighting was really crappy, a few lights at the bottom of the stage pointing up and a few colourful lights (like that yellow one in the pic) that rotated around the stage at different intervals.

This is what made it so challenging for me, the lighting conditions! But was great fun none the less.

Thanks for commenting

boomer · Sep 23, 2009

Cool shots. I need to try to shoot a concert soon, it looks like fun

Musicale, It looks like the light is coming from the front/side near the bottom of the stage (i think you can see one of the can lights in the 1st, 5th and last photo) which happens to be where the shots were taken. Also, just my looking at the basic properties, it looks like he was using spot metering with aperture priority mode.

musicaleCA · Sep 23, 2009

Then my EXIF viewer must've done something really funky.

Ah well...

They need to get a new lighting tech. That light is awful. *shudders* No one looks good with a bright, hard light coming from right underneath them.