Hey all, so I'm shooting my first concert at the end of the month, no one huge it's a guy who went to my high school and asked me to take photos. I have to check out the venue first off but wanted some advice. I usually do sports and portraits so this is a little different for me. Should I use a speedlight..? I don't have HSS so that's a downside of if I should use one. My gear is listed below. thanks for any help!
7d mkii
canon 20-35mm L
70-200mm L f4
50mm STM 1.8
YN 560 iii speedlight
Hi
forget the flash, it will disturb the artists and the public and ot will mess with the stage light.
the goal will be to get the image as real as it was live.
use dark clothing, the photographer must be "invisible" its very distracting for the public to have someone passing in front of the stage using some colored clothing...
Try to get the feeling of the stage, dont go ther to make portraits of the artist, make same open images that get the rest of the stage or the audiance.
enjoy the music
;-)
Hi Harrison! It's a good idea to check the venue out upfront or show up a bit earlier to take a few shots in order to figure out your settings. In any case you'll be shooting at quite high ISO so keep your aperture as low as possible. Regarding the flash - don't use it. It's distracting for the band/artist and the "concert mood" of the photos will be completely ruined (unless you use the flash as a kicker light, not main one). Don't be afraid to push that ISO or/and go low shutter speeds. I haven't shot the 7D before, but I believe it's quite good when it comes to ISO performance. I hope this was useful :)
Best of luck and feel welcome to share the results!
Thanks for the tips guys! I'll
definitely post some photos it's at the end of May so I'll post around then. When you say use the flash as a kicker do you mean have the flash off camera set somewhere or what do you mean by doing that? thanks!
Exactly. You can try setting on a stand somewhere in the back of the stage and remotely trigger it. However, before doing that make sure the artists don't mind it and use it only for a few shots, not the entire show.
I may try that I had no idea people do this. thanks for the tip!
How did you go at the gig Harrison?
It went okay, it was a very small
venue with awful different colored lights (assuming that most concerts have colored lights though) I think it was good for me though so next time I can go in there with a different view and more creativity. The client was happy with the way they turned out but i was not totally satisfied with them. I went with no flash at all so just the ambient light available and very high ISO. Thanks for asking!