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1. Can/should I bring a camera? Generally, no if you don't have a permission or know for a fact that neither artist nor venue have any objections to taking pictures. (A side note - from my experience, Radiohead do not have anything against being photographed). There is much noizze concerning the (im)moral aspect of shooting without permission, and opinions range from 'absolute mauvais ton' to 'do anything that won't kill people around you'. I chose the middle ground. Go for it if the following four conditions are true:
In other words, don't step on anyone's toes, know a little bit about photography, and don't lock your precioussssss in a cupboard. Now then, if you feel you absolutely must take photos, come prepared. The following will hopefully be of some help. 2. What kind of camera do I need? Most automated cameras (disposables, film point-and-shoots, digital on auto settings) will not do a very good job. They are designed for real life, which concerts are not. Take one that will allow you to adjust settings manually. There really is no preference as to film or digital, - take your pick. In my opinion, digital wins because even the smallest one will have manual settings, and you can have instant feedback which is invaluable for correcting mistakes on the go. Of course, SLR (either film or digital) beats point-and-shoot, but its size can be a huge trade-off if you don't have permission to shoot. When choosing a non-SLR camera, check if it has any manual controls (suppression of flash and some sort of 'action' mode will be helpful) and try to find out lens' specifications. Maximum aperture must not be higher than f3.5 on the short end of zoom, or else it will be difficult to use in concert setting. Most current models of SLRs have everything you need to do good in concert setting, so lenses should be your main concern. We will talk about it a bit later. 2.1. What make/model should I get? I don't know. Sorry! *pulls hat over face* Canon and Nikon are good at both film and digital realms. They are also the makers of two competing prosumer DSLRs - Nikon D100 and Canon 10D. (I'm an owner and afficionado of the latter.) Also, Canon has recently released a little monster of a non-SLR, PowerShot Pro, and has a slew of cheaper cameras that are well suited to amateur concert work. Sony must be doing something right, if even my outdated DSC-S85 could produce this at its second lowest resolution. Do take a look at their new 808 wunder. Olympus' 50 series are worth mentioning. Best head over to Digital Photography Review. browse to your heart's content and feel free to email me with any questions. If you want an inconspicuous-looking film point-and-shoot, get a Yashica T4 or similar little camera with fixed lens. It doesn't look brilliant, but I promise, you are in for a nice surprise! 3. What settings? For those who don't care for dull theory and don't want to bother with manual settings, here is a short fool-proofing list:
If you're more comfortable with theory and are willing to tweak manual settings, read on! (Or, if shutter speed and aperture aren't much of a mystery to you, scroll down to see if SLR specific advice would be of use.) 3.1. What settings? (take two) To get a a properly exposed picture, the camera needs a certain amount of light to reach film or sensor. This amount is metered by camera automatically (oh and it can lie to you too!).
So why don't we just let the camera decide on a combination of those? 'Cause there is a scary monsta and its name is motion blur. If the shutter doesn't click fast enough, the movement that camera will 'see' while shutter is open will be all recorded on film or sensor. If you move your hands even slightly while shutter is open, that will also affect the image. There is a minimal shutter speed that will keep you safe from camera shake (about 1/90sec), and likely you will need to go faster to freeze artist's movement. For moderate movement, 1/125 is usually enough. The most convenient way to go about it is to shoot in shutter priority mode (usually S on the dial, though Canon snobbily uses Tv which means 'time value'). You set the shutter speed (1/125 is a good place to start) and camera decides on aperture automatically. If, however, your subject is Thom Yorke doing 'Idioteque', you're best off with shutter speed set at about 1/250 or higher. Anything slower, and pictures will be blurred. Exposing Thom doing Idioteque dance for 1 second will result in a formless blob of a picture (you would get the same by superimposing all 24 frames of 1 second's worth of video). It's amazing how fast (some) people can move! If camera tells you that using 1/250 or faster shutter speed will result in underexposure, fret not. Underexposed picture can be salvaged (to an extent) in printing or in Photoshop, but nothing in the whole wide world will restore a motion-blurred image. 4. Flash? Absolute, decisive no. Built-in flash has very limited range of action. It will not help light the artist but is sure to annoy. Turn off. Forget that you have it. 5. What film/ISO? Lower ISO gradations require more light to get a proper exposure, but yield better image quality. Likewise, higher numbers require less light (that means we can keep the blur monsta away!) but will produce more grain/noise. This holds true for both film and digital cameras. Recommendations for film cameras: Avoid anything that isn't Fuji or Kodak. My choice is Fuji NPZ 800; Kodak Portra 800 does a lovely job as well. If you're in a hurry/on a budget, just get some Fuji Superia 800, it's a cheap but decent film available most everywhere. These films produce great colours, very tight grain and possess great exposure latitude, especially on the underside. It doesn't make much sense to use colour ISO1600 films - there will be a LOT of noise, and underexposed ISO800 corrected at printing will be just as good. (If you feel there is desperately little light for the 800 film and you can manually change ISO rating, switch to ISO 1600 and shoot like nothing happened. This is equivalent to underexposing 1 stop). If you're in the mood for experimenting, try black and white ISO3200 film (Kodak TMax, Ilford). These are very fast films that can make for stylish contrasty photos. Tips for ISO settings on digital cameras: Always set ISO manually. Auto setting will likely confuse the camera, and there's already more than enough - movement, high-contrast lighting - to make it go insane. Use 800 if you can. Settle with 400 in case your camera can't go higher or if the 800 setting produces prohibitive amounts of noise. 5. What about 'white balance' setting on my digital camera? Don't worry too much about it. Choices are often between 'daylight' and 'tungsten' or 'indoors' and 'outdoors'. This refers to light's colour temperature. It is measured in Kelvins; the bluer the light, the higher its colour temperature. 'Daylight' ('outdoors') option will remove bluish cast from photos taken in the daylight or under very intensive electric lights. 'Tungsten' ('indoors') option will compensate for yellow cast in pictures taken under low-intensity artificial lights (such as household lightbulbs). Almost any concert will present you with a mixture of 'hot' and 'cold' lights, so it can be quite tricky to choose a correct setting. You can, of course, switch to 'daylight' during a blue-lit song, or to 'tungsten' when the light is primarily yellow. Generic settings are not as extreme as difference between bright concert gels, so pictures will not be affected too much. 6. Which metering mode to use? Because usually the most important part of the picture is human face, the goal is to get the skin tones right. Camera has a spot meter? Lucky! Use it; be careful however, remember that it measures off very small area (2-3% of viewfinder), not a pinhole. When metering off singer's cheek or neck, take care not to snatch a bit of hair or clothing, or the reading will be thrown off. No spot meter? Use evaluative. Modern cameras use multi-zone silicon-cell systems that are fairly smart. There will be mistakes, but overall results are impressive. 7. How to compensate exposure for correct skin tones? If you are not using a spot meter, you might have to adjust exposure to get the skin tones right. Amount of adjustment needed can be camera dependent - and, strangely enough, artist outfit-dependent. Fair-skinned musician wearing light (not white) clothing, or dark-skinned one wearing dark clothing pose no problem, just go by what camera tells you. If neither is the case, use the following formulae:
8. What lenses should I get? F-numbers-wise: the faster the better. Don't settle for anything slower than f2.8 (though even that might pose problems). F1.8 will work just fine. F1.4 is good to have in heinously low-lit situations, but generally its absence won't kill you. Focal length-wise: primes (lenses with fixed focal length) give excellent optical quality. If you want versatility of zoom, prepare to spend considerable amount of money for good fast one. Depending on camera model, it may mean anything from $300 to upwards of $1500. AVOID zooms that come in kits like a plague. Anything from 50mm to 105mm will be quite comfortable for concert work. Longer lens might pose a problem in case you are close to the stage and cannot move back to get wider shot. Get a 24-70 zoom if you'd like a more 'wide-angle' look to your pictures, or 70-200 for a reasonable compromise between mid-range and close-up shots. 9. How to go about overriding film ISO settings? As I have already mentioned, this is but a convenient way to consistently underexpose film. In a pinch, go for it. Many films are behaving very well when pushed one stop, Fuji being most impressive. Rating NPZ or Superia at 1600 and processing them normally will cause some loss of detail and will also lower overall color temperature, but correction at time of printing or in Photoshop will give you beautiful, warm, saturated pictures. Black and white film can be pushed in processing, which makes rating it manually more of a creative approach than a last resort. Experiment! 10. Which focusing mode to use? It may seem like a redundant piece of advice, but do not use multi-point focusing at concerts. TURN IT OFF. Modern SLRs can have up to 35 focusing zones, but you will only need ONE point (the center one is usually the most convenient). Chances are that you will be shooting wide open or nearly wide open, - that means depth of field will be measured in measly inches. If you let the camera choose the focusing point, it will latch onto whatever it finds first. It will likely be a microphone stand or guitar neck. Or you will chance upon Thom Yorke's classic pose and focus will lock on hands. In either case the face will be hopelessly out of focus. Didn't find what you were looking for? Have comments? Want to argue? Click on a little while envelope below to email me. Takk! |
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