I got up close when I photographed Fatal Taunt a few months back. I used the kit lense on my Nikon D70 which is a 18 - 70mm and the cameras own flash.
You can check out the images on their myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endid=86686079
Click 'pics' under their logo in the profile, and it's the Andover pictures.
Weapon of choice: Nikon D70
Cannibalized, I'm a little late to the clambake, and I've not done a LOT of concert shooting, but check out my galleries here:
http://www.hikariphoto.com/proofsets/metal/
http://www.hikariphoto.com/proofsets/esteban-carlos/
The first gallery is a heavy metal concert I shot as a favor for a friend who is a promoter. The second was a hired event; the artists are Esteban (the guitar player) and R. Carlos Nakai (the native American flute player), fairly big names. I'm not name-dropping; I had no idea who was performing when I was hired for that job and it scared the hell out of me when I found out. Esteban's quite a nice guy though.
For me, a HUGE part of concert shooting is the ambiance. Using flash in my opinion eliminates the ambient light, flattens everything out, and casts nasty shadows behind whoever is in front. The light falloff from a direct flash -- it's not pretty. Not to mention you run the risk of distracting (and thereby pissing off) the performers, which makes you unpopular at best. Unless you can get in and preset your speedlights on remote controls or something, where they will evenly light the stage and the performers, you're not going to get particularly good results with a flash, on or off a bracket. FWIW, I do not and will never use a bracket. Big, bulky, clumsy, heavy, and they don't move the light off the camera enough to make a difference. But then I've been learning flash photography from the best in the business, so I've picked up a few techniques here and there. Also, contrary to what someone else said, the flash combined with the long lens actually increases your chance of red-eye. I threw away SO many wedding reception images before I figured that one out.
Anyway... in concert photography, especially if you are the "preferred" photographer and have the run of the venue, you have two best friends for good concert photography. First is high ISO (Nikon shooters will finally have a tolerable ISO above 800 in November). If you consistently nail your exposure, you can get away with as high as your camera will go. All of my metal concert shots are ISO 3200, and that place was a CAVE. It was painted black on the inside, flat black that absorbed every particle/wave of light except direct flash, and there was nothing to bounce off of. The Esteban/Nakai concert was outside, in the mountains of Arizona, and again, there was nothing to bounce light off of.
Your second best friend is a good high-quality monopod. It needn't be expensive: a solid Manfrotto won't cost you more than about $60. The monopod will allow you to shoot 2-3 stops below what you would normally be at. I was getting 1/20-1/60 second in the heavy metal concert, and up to about 1/160 at the Esteban/Nakai one, at f/2.8 on my 70-200 L (non-IS). The monopod also takes up a LOT less real estate than a tripod, is much more mobile, and can double as a weapon if needed -- mine got me out of an Anti-American riot in South Korea many years ago.
At any rate, the short answer is you shouldn't need the flash. Get yourself a monopod, jack up your ISO, nail your exposure, and go play. It's great fun, and since they won't know you're shooting until you show them your pictures, you'll make some friends.
Oh yeah, one more thing -- keep in mind that these pics in those galleries are straight out of the camera... I didn't have time to edit them before turning them around.
Thank you. I'm going to have to give this a try sometime. My first investment needs to be a zoom lens though. I need to get one anyhow.
And I do have speedlights now so I'd like to also play with using it with a low shutterspeed so i can still get ambient light or maybe even on rear curtain sync. Although I haven't seen a band play since I wrote this question. Maybe I shouldn't be worrying about it... BUT! My favorite band is playing in a few weeks. I hope they allow cameras!
Originally Posted by Hikariphoto
.Cannibalized.
Aha. It seems your primary concern is getting good even lighting in low-light conditions, even if it is too dark. First things first, I'd assume that your on-camera flash is not strong enough to do a good job when it's diffused, or even if it isn't. Second, you can get a good old manual flash for very cheap, compared to more expensive Speedlites, etc.
Now the question is, where will you be shooting, and should you even use flash in the first place. Some places or bands will not let you use flash at all, so flash will not be an option. Other times flash will be plain inappropriate (as has been mentioned). You need to check ahead of time.
Do you have a spotmeter? This is usually the best way to ensure accurate exposures. If not, I recommend center-weighted, but with you premetering to get a sense of the range the exposure should be in. Then when you meter again you have a reference to see if your meter is totally under or overexposing your subject.
Then, you have to figure out how to give the proper exposure with your flash to not blow out your subject. If you have a manual flash you just have to use the guide number or one of the power settings, or if you have a speedlite you have to control the power output. Either way, you should place the tones properly but allowing for the right fill-in from the house lights. In order to do this you first have to figure out how you want the subject to be rendered. There are essentially 4 components to this: ISO, aperture, flash strength, shutter speed. A high ISO will do well to slow down motion, but it might not always be enough. If you want to capture the scene more or less as it appears, though, you will need an ISO high enough to render the background more or less within the proper tonal range. If your aperture is not wide enough or your ISO is not high enough, the only way to show the house light illumination is to use a very long shutter time. This will allow a lot of motion, and the only way to make that useable is usually to use a flash to stop motion with trails induced by the house lights. If you rely too much on flash alone, for example you have f/8 1/125s you will have a subject totally illuminated by flash, and you will hardly be able to tell what the stage looked like in reality. However, if your ISO is high enough and your aperture wide enough, you can use your flash as fill-flash without needing ridiculously long shutter times, placing the background lights at maybe 2 zones darker than what they appear and using the flash to bring the subject to proper illumination without trails. Of course if you want longer trails then increase the flash power and stop down the aperture, or go with a lower ISO. Everything is tied together, you see.
In general I find that, although zooms can be comfortable, prime lenses are usually faster and lighter. Try to go with lenses that are f/2.8 if they are for anything closeup and f/1.4 - f/2 if they are for wider shots. For closeups at f/1.4 you are looking at long, fast lenses that will eat a hole in your pocket and leave you with next to zero depth of field. Focusing that quickly with f/1.4 on 200mm will be a nightmare, let alone only seeing the eyes in focus. By the way, manual focus will probably be faster and more useful than trying to rely on autofocus in such low-light settings. I have to say I use a manual film camera and for concert photography I think it's as equal an edge as with digital except for the immediate feedback. And be sure to diffuse your flash, or else your shadows will be extremely harsh and unnatural. I have one gallery from a concert here.
I hope this much information was not confusing. Feel free to ask any questions.
I never use flashlight at concerts and I am doing it for many years now. And many bands hate flashlight because they don't see what they doing. Especcially guitar and bass players. At many festivals and bigger venues they don't aloud to use flash. Most of the concert photographers use lenses with 1.4, 1.8 or 2.8 diagfragma . I have two lenses Sigma 28-70 F2.8 and Sigma Apo 70-200 F2.8.
Yesterday for example I was in a venue and the light was not so good. I had my shutterspeed between 1/60 and 1/80. and iso 1250 with Nikon. I didn't want to set my Iso at 1600. I don't know why, maybe I must try it once.
Get as close as you can. If the band is hiring you, try getting backstage or the front row.
I agree with this, obviously the closer the better, and backstage allows for some amazing views of them playing out to the crowd.
This is good information from people as I will be doing more band shots later in the year, thanks for all the info!
Weapon of choice: Nikon D70
So when do we get to see some pictures?
Don't be afraid to pump up the ISO as needed. A little noise is easier to accept than no focus or bad motion artifacts. Wide apertures are fine if you don't mind no depth of field and slow shutters can be OK if the subjects hold still but neither of those situations can be relied upon.
Both below are ISO3200 (Canon 30D)
1/10 f/4 24-105 @ 60mm
1/80 f/2.8 50mm (before it got fully dark)
Prediction: In a very few years we will have sensors capable of excellent quality at ISO 12800 and we will laugh about the troubles we had back in '07.
Doug Smith
http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit
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