 Victoria |
Shooting Bands in Low Light Hello, I actually have several questions. Any and all help is much appreciated. When shooting live bands on a stage in low light (aside from the colored lights) without flash, what would be the best way to meter? Also, does anyone know a technique for trailing a subject? What I mean is--say the lead singer is running across the stage and I want to leave a trail of him, behind him, but yet keep him in good focus. Do you know what I'm saying? Is this possible in a low light situation? I know about panning, but that just blurs the background, right? Thanks in advance for all your help. This is my first time to this site and wish I had found this site a long long time ago. I've learned a lot just reading through some of the posts here. This is the best site on photography that I've come across. Thanks so much!
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tom Vincent |
Metering at gigs is a bit tricky, you've generally got a black background and quite brightly (hopefully!) lit people. This can lead to faces being overexposed. I generally just use evaluative metering on my Canon. I've tried partial metering, but things move fast at a gig, and it's difficult to get the central spot in the right location for every shot. Use a bit of common sense: if you're trying to pick out a single brightly lit face in a sea of black, underexpose by a stop or so. The effect you mention with the panning is really only achievable with a flash, and then one that has a rear (or second) curtain sync function. This is where the flash fires just before the shutter closes, rather than just as it opens. What you would do is to set the shutter to 1/10-1/2 second (metering as normal) and then pan with the singer. At the end of the exposure they will be lit up, and so will be nice and clear, if a little ghosted, and will have left a trail behind. Also, all the lights will leave trails too, which is nice. There's no real way of achieving something similar without a flash, unless you exposed the same frame twice: once with a long shutter speed panning, and again with a short one. In both cases you'd have to underexpose by 1 stop to properly expose the final image. Hope this helps, good luck,
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Victoria |
Hi Tom! Thanks so much for your quick response. I am a bit confused though. I do have a flash. Well first let me tell you what equipment I will be using - Canon AE1P 50mm lens and a off brand (Nikura) 75-200mm lens and a Rebel 2000 with 28-80mm lens. I have just a simple Sunpak Auto 355af flash. But I hadn't intended on using it because I want to capture the colored lighting. However I do not have a problem with using a flash for the effect I'm trying to get. Ok now, the part I'm confused about, when you said something about the flash having a curtain sync. I'm pretty sure my flash doesn't have that. Is there any other way to produce the effect with the flash I do have? Like if I had an off camera cord? Thanks again for all your help. :o)
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tom Vincent |
Having said that, people don't move in straight lines like cars do, so the whole backwards forwards thing is less apparent. Have a go with your flash and see what happens, to give you an idea of the effect I've got a couple of images here. As you said, it's a good idea to avoid using the flash if you want to capture the lighting.
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||||||||||||||||||||
