Yay it's mid term break, and I was sinful enough to go out to shoot. Should have been revising for mid term tests, but the lure of a concert shoot was just too much. Quite last minute notification (but i was guilty for not bothering to ask around). Just picked up the cam and go! More after the break.
The singer was by the name of Elva (whom i heard wrongly as ah hua the day b4). Just 1 singer. Easy target i thought. But upon arrival i realised that there was no arrangement for me to go within the barricades. This meant that i've to crowd around with amatuers wielding compact cameras, and enthusiasts banging their Gary Fong diffusers around thinking that they-should-display-it-since-they-bought-it. Crap. The worse part was the fact that i've to handle front row spectators as there were times when i had to block their view just to get the shot. Maybe the organisers thought Friday Weekly wasn't a paper with enough publicity, or I was too young to know how to dodge video cams. Whatever.
Well, after the first few songs i found myself without much space to move, so i ended up camping one spot with more variety of light changes. Despite the considerably less mobility, I found that i've returned with more keepers this round, mainly due to 3 reasons.
Firstly, i had a better feel of the metering having been to Max Pavilion before. A good point to base your exposure off would be the main projector screen behind. Just manual meter that screen, and adjust your compensation from there. Shouldn't vary much (unless they decide to pull stunts and use candle-light). I shot RAW this time round since i have more computing power now, and quickly realised i don't have enough mem space. Well, 160+ pictures is still more than enough.
Secondly, the AF settings were more appropriate. 21pt Dynamic for tele shots, 51pt dynamic for wide. Important to set AF lock-on to long. I set it to short the last time round which resulted in it focusing on the background immediately should the subject leave the AF pt. Don't bother with 3D tracking since the colours change so wildly it would be thrown off. I only had less than 10 OOF pics, of which half were handshake as i attempted to pull some motion blur stunts.
Thirdly, I had the luxury to shoot throughout the session. Only 5 songs in total, but with enough breaks in between to check my pics and correct my mistakes.
So much for now. I saw adverts for a few more concerts coming up in Oct to Dec, and hopefully when we get the chance to shoot again, these info would be somewhat useful.
Woots.. my first concert shoot! One of the most adrenaline pumping 10 mins behind a camera, other than shooting a missile launch of course. Read on to find out more...
Concert photography is demanding, both for the photog and the camera. I was fortunate enough to get to shoot such a major performance to have a taste of this genre of photography, described aptly as "low light, fast action photography".
I did my research way before the shoot, reading up on who's Sodagreen, watch fanclub made videos, read up on the tips to take note, as well as any specific photographic tips i could apply. I've never been to any such performance, as i never found any reason to, until this assignment came =D I stumbled upon ISHOOTSHOWS.COM, founded by an amazing concert photographer Todd Owyoung. I love his photographs... simply adore them. He is naturally a D3 shooter (well, it is THE camera to turn to in such situations) but he did shoot many nice pics with less than stella gear. From his pictures i learnt to identify what are the key points to look out for... basically expression and lighting.
Talking about the lighting... It is a different world. Spotlights were transient, wildly saturated and varying in both direction and intensity. At one moment they even switched off all the lights, having the lead singer lit only with a torch. Dance actions were fast and difficult to anticipate. I was glad i did not take up any such assignments earlier... i just don't have the skill and equipment to cope before this.
But hey, now i have some serious stuff to play with. I came in armed with a borrowed 70-200VR, my trusty 17-50 tamron and at the heart of the system: a D300 beefed up with 8AAs to give me the majestic 8FPS, faster mirror blackout and faster AF. The only limitation now is my hands, eyes and experience.
The usual rule applies: Only the first 3 songs can be photographed. That means less than 10 minutes to get that picture for the paper. The first few moments started off with hardly any light, and the performers strolled in and took up their positions before the lights came on. Crap... no opportunities to take them as a group, given the big lobangs between them.
The tempo picked up immediately, flashing lights and dancing men. Made a wild guess on the exposure and it turned out pretty accurate: ISO1600, f2.8, 1/250. Had to shoot RAW as i needed the flexibility with the WB. Throttled up the release mode and watch the shutter fly, occasionally checking for focus/exposure errors.
One thing nobody could teach you is how to move during the shoot. U have to dodge other photographers and videographers, and watch out for wires, steps and stuff in the dark. Having light gear and strong legs help here, as you can regain your balance easier even if you trip. (yeah i almost fell once, tripped against some hidden firecracker tube). Move with the beat, feel the music, and spam during climaxes. At least that's wad i did.
Before i knew it, my first card filled up. Holy... now i'm down to 1 mag of 2GB. Had to sacrifice and shoot in Jpeg now. The AWB was pretty accurate when the spotlight was on, so i took the gamble. Alright, 3 songs up, and i was dragged out of the pit by those MIBs.
I can't really appreciate the music though, so although i was given a free seat i left early. Expo is far, and going home late is just looking for trouble. I left after the 5th song.
While reviewing the pictures, I found that i had far more close-up shots than necessary. Should have used that tamron more. Spent much more time processing the 15mb RAWs on an old laptop with only 512mb of ram. Wth... i'll really look forward to the next concert assignment, doesn't matter who's singing.
Yay it's mid term break, and I was sinful enough to go out to shoot. Should have been revising for mid term tests, but the lure of a concert shoot was just too much. Quite last minute notification (but i was guilty for not bothering to ask around). Just picked up the cam and go! More after the break.
The singer was by the name of Elva (whom i heard wrongly as ah hua the day b4). Just 1 singer. Easy target i thought. But upon arrival i realised that there was no arrangement for me to go within the barricades. This meant that i've to crowd around with amatuers wielding compact cameras, and enthusiasts banging their Gary Fong diffusers around thinking that they-should-display-it-since-they-bought-it. Crap. The worse part was the fact that i've to handle front row spectators as there were times when i had to block their view just to get the shot. Maybe the organisers thought Friday Weekly wasn't a paper with enough publicity, or I was too young to know how to dodge video cams. Whatever.
Firstly, i had a better feel of the metering having been to Max Pavilion before. A good point to base your exposure off would be the main projector screen behind. Just manual meter that screen, and adjust your compensation from there. Shouldn't vary much (unless they decide to pull stunts and use candle-light). I shot RAW this time round since i have more computing power now, and quickly realised i don't have enough mem space. Well, 160+ pictures is still more than enough.
Secondly, the AF settings were more appropriate. 21pt Dynamic for tele shots, 51pt dynamic for wide. Important to set AF lock-on to long. I set it to short the last time round which resulted in it focusing on the background immediately should the subject leave the AF pt. Don't bother with 3D tracking since the colours change so wildly it would be thrown off. I only had less than 10 OOF pics, of which half were handshake as i attempted to pull some motion blur stunts.
Thirdly, I had the luxury to shoot throughout the session. Only 5 songs in total, but with enough breaks in between to check my pics and correct my mistakes.
