Photography Update
I have been trying to figure out what to get Haleigh for Valentine's Day. I had also been trying to find ways to practice my photography before SXSW. Much of my previous concert photography was done with a point and shoot camera. I have moved up to an SLR which is a completely different ball game. Concert photography can be one of the most difficult forms of photography in that you are someplace that is dark, the lighting is constantly changing, you are often being jostled by the rest of the audience and the people you are photographing are not just moving around but often jumping around or dancing.
I found a way to solve both my problems. I came across an ad for a japanese rock group tour coming through San Antonio. Haleigh's favorite genre of music is jrock so I surprised her with the tickets as an early valentines day present and she was thrilled.
We headed to San Antonio fairly early in the day and headed downton. I looked around at the mall for a few minutes before walking over to the alamo so I could take some pics.
Near the alamo I happened upon this cowboy who was out walking his bison.
The concert was at Sam's Burger Joint. They serve up some great burgers and also have a large adjoining club where bands play.
The show was much more crowded than they expected. I had no chance of being up close so I put on my long lens and resigned to getting some distance shots.
I was able to get in a few decent shots and learned a lot in the process.
Concert photography takes a lot of balancing of shutter speed with aperture and iso speed. The shutter speed is how long the shutter lets light into the camera. In a low light situation you want to keep it open longer so that more light comes in which makes darker objects more visible. Unfortunately what you are photographing has to be completely still during the entire time the shutter is open or you will get motion blur in your shot. Aperature refers to how wide the shutter can open and in an effort to confuse people, the lower the number the wider the opening can be. The last item, ISO started out as how sensitive a particular film was to light. When digital came along they kept the same terminology and now it is a setting for how sensitive you want your camera's sensor to be. The more sensitive you make it though the more noise will be introduced into the pic. If you look at a picture and the dark areas have a lot of noise in them then it was most likely taken with a high iso.
Ideally for concert photography you want to be able to shoot at a shutter speed of less than 1/60th of a second and an aperature of 3 or less. The better the aperature on your lens the faster your shutter speed can be and once you get those set then you can go with the best possible iso to give you a well lit picture without too much noise.
It should also be a last resort to use a flash when doing concert photography. Many bands don't like it and it can make your pictures seem flat or washed out. On the plus side though it will let you lower your shutter speed and without introducing as much motion blur. If you do have to use a flash you should use a diffuser and if possible use a directional flash aimed to bounce off of a nearby wall or the ceiling.
The best aperature I could get with my lenses was a 4.5 which actually came out fairly well especially since shooting in raw format you can generally get a couple of extra f-stops in post processing with photoshop. I have however shopped around and found an inexpensive lens that can go down to a 1.5 aperature and will be picking that up before SXSW.
I shot the fist three fourths of the show without a flash but did bust out the flash with a diffuser for some of the final shots.
This picture of DJ SiSeN was taken at an aperature of f5 with a shutter speed of 1/20th of a second and an ISO of 800 and no flash.
This image is the lead singer of GPKism it was taken at f4.5 and 1/60th of a second at ISO 1600 also with no flash.
This was a dancer that was on stage with DJ SiSeN. It was taken at f5, 1/20th of a second and ISO 800. I used the flash for this shot with a diffuser. While I didn't pick up the stage lighting I do like how the lighting came out on this one. The diffuser made the shadows soft and didn't leave the image looking flat.
Some of the other items I was practicing with these shots were making sure that the pics didn't include microphones in front of faces and trying to capture something more than the average moment. This picture is the lead singer from the band "Blood" and I like the moment it captured.
I found a way to solve both my problems. I came across an ad for a japanese rock group tour coming through San Antonio. Haleigh's favorite genre of music is jrock so I surprised her with the tickets as an early valentines day present and she was thrilled.
We headed to San Antonio fairly early in the day and headed downton. I looked around at the mall for a few minutes before walking over to the alamo so I could take some pics.
Near the alamo I happened upon this cowboy who was out walking his bison.
The concert was at Sam's Burger Joint. They serve up some great burgers and also have a large adjoining club where bands play.
The show was much more crowded than they expected. I had no chance of being up close so I put on my long lens and resigned to getting some distance shots.
I was able to get in a few decent shots and learned a lot in the process.
Concert photography takes a lot of balancing of shutter speed with aperture and iso speed. The shutter speed is how long the shutter lets light into the camera. In a low light situation you want to keep it open longer so that more light comes in which makes darker objects more visible. Unfortunately what you are photographing has to be completely still during the entire time the shutter is open or you will get motion blur in your shot. Aperature refers to how wide the shutter can open and in an effort to confuse people, the lower the number the wider the opening can be. The last item, ISO started out as how sensitive a particular film was to light. When digital came along they kept the same terminology and now it is a setting for how sensitive you want your camera's sensor to be. The more sensitive you make it though the more noise will be introduced into the pic. If you look at a picture and the dark areas have a lot of noise in them then it was most likely taken with a high iso.
Ideally for concert photography you want to be able to shoot at a shutter speed of less than 1/60th of a second and an aperature of 3 or less. The better the aperature on your lens the faster your shutter speed can be and once you get those set then you can go with the best possible iso to give you a well lit picture without too much noise.
It should also be a last resort to use a flash when doing concert photography. Many bands don't like it and it can make your pictures seem flat or washed out. On the plus side though it will let you lower your shutter speed and without introducing as much motion blur. If you do have to use a flash you should use a diffuser and if possible use a directional flash aimed to bounce off of a nearby wall or the ceiling.
The best aperature I could get with my lenses was a 4.5 which actually came out fairly well especially since shooting in raw format you can generally get a couple of extra f-stops in post processing with photoshop. I have however shopped around and found an inexpensive lens that can go down to a 1.5 aperature and will be picking that up before SXSW.
I shot the fist three fourths of the show without a flash but did bust out the flash with a diffuser for some of the final shots.
This picture of DJ SiSeN was taken at an aperature of f5 with a shutter speed of 1/20th of a second and an ISO of 800 and no flash.
This image is the lead singer of GPKism it was taken at f4.5 and 1/60th of a second at ISO 1600 also with no flash.
This was a dancer that was on stage with DJ SiSeN. It was taken at f5, 1/20th of a second and ISO 800. I used the flash for this shot with a diffuser. While I didn't pick up the stage lighting I do like how the lighting came out on this one. The diffuser made the shadows soft and didn't leave the image looking flat.
Some of the other items I was practicing with these shots were making sure that the pics didn't include microphones in front of faces and trying to capture something more than the average moment. This picture is the lead singer from the band "Blood" and I like the moment it captured.