Chapter 6 ✦Real World Applications 117

Concert
Photography
Doing concert photography can be both
frustrating and rewarding. Sometimes to get
“the” shot, you have to get in and fight a
crowd, blowing your eardrums out in the
process and getting drinks spilled all over
your gear. Of course, if you’re the type of
person who likes to get into the fray, this is
great fun.
I strongly suggest that you
invest in good ear plugs if you
plan to do much of this type of
photography.
At larger venues, photographers usually are
granted a spot up front from which to shoot,
but usually these spots are reserved for pros
on assignment and getting a media pass for
these events can be next to impossible. A lot
of large venues won’t let the fans bring cam-
eras in, but if you are allowed, bring a tele-
photo lens to get close-up shots without
having to get close-up.
Some photographers are staunchly against
using flash at concerts preferring to shoot
with the available light. I for one prefer to
use some flash as I find that sometimes the
stage lights can over-saturate the performer
resulting in the loss of detail. Another down-
side to shooting with available light is the
high ISO settings you need to use in order
to get a shutter speed fast enough to stop
action. Typically you need to shoot any-
where from ISO 800 to 1600 resulting in
noisy images and loss of image detail.
When photographing a band or performer,
you’re usually in a low-light situation.
Although the stage lights are bright, they’re
often not as bright as you need. Even when
using a Speedlight, getting a fast lens in
order to capture as much light as possible is
best.
Lenses with faster apertures, lenses that are
f/2.8 or wider, also focus faster in low-light
than do slower lens or lenses that are f/3.5
or smaller. When you use a faster lens, your
flash can fire at a lower power, thereby
lengthening your battery life. I also recom-
mend setting your camera at or near ISO
400. This setting also helps keep the battery
consumption down while not producing an
overly noisy image.
Some venues or performers do
not allow flash photography at
all. In this situation, just use the
fastest lens available and try to
use the lowest ISO you can
while still maintaining a fast
enough shutter speed.
Note
Tip
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