Recording concert experience and sharing skills with SLR

Now the shooting technology is very advanced. In most cases, automatic mode is enough for everyone to take at least one photo under normal exposure. However, the lighting of the concert is ever-changing, so if you want to take wonderful photos in automatic mode, you can only ask for help.

Equipment: SLR is king

It's not that other cameras can't shoot concerts, but the chances of successfully shooting high-quality photos are not high. Yes, you need a SLR. Even for beginners, the focal length of the lens depends on the front and back position of your seat. Of course, you can sit as far away as possible. This time, I am sitting in the eighth row, and the lens in my hand is the only Guo Xuwei (F4L is 70-200mm). The photos taken are good enough. It would be better if I had a stronger telephoto lens.

I used 5D Mark II+Guo Xuwei for the whole concert. At this distance, Dabai (100-400mm) should be able to get a better angle of view, which can shorten the distance of the protagonist, while Xiaobai (70-200mm F2.8) can capture fast movements more easily with a larger aperture. When shooting a concert, I suggest using a telephoto zoom lens instead of a fixed focus lens, because generally speaking, as an audience, you can only sit in the same position and can't walk around at will. Zoom lens can give you more freedom of composition in a limited range. Besides, please don't use the flash, it's useless.

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Camera setting: varying with constant.

The following are my settings for the concert:

1. Aperture prerequisites

Open the maximum aperture. I used Guo Xuwei to carry F4 all the way. If it's better for Xiao Bai, I'll drive F2.8 all the way. Don't worry about depth of field. (Reference: Full film framing machine, 200mm, F2.8, depth of field 4 1cm, distance target 10m)

Spot photometry

That's the point. The contrast between light and shade of the concert is so great that other metering modes are not applicable. Using the button metering mode, the metering point is aimed at the protagonist's head, and exposure value will be correct. If you use other more average metering, most of the protagonists will be overexposed.

3.ISO 800

I use Guo Xuwei aperture F4 and ISO800 to get the safety shutter. Don't think that the concert will use high ISO. It is enough for the singer to be illuminated by the spotlight. И 800-16000 is enough. If you use a mirror with a large aperture, you can consider using a lower ISO. But everyone uses a different mirror and sits in a different position, so the aperture value and focal length are different. So be careful not to set the shutter too low. If necessary, we can adjust ISO to get a safer shutter. Fortunately, the current SLR cameras, ISO 1600 or even 3200 images are not inferior. Remember, you'd rather have a higher ISO than a loose picture.

4. White balance of sunlight

There is no point in using automatic white balance in concerts. The function of white balance is to correct the ambient light and remove the color cast, but the concert is only a colorful place. Forced correction not only makes the overall color weird, but also loses the atmosphere that lighting engineers originally wanted to create. The advantage of white balance with sunlight is that it can maintain the atmosphere of the scene, and the color temperature of spotlights comes from sunlight, so white balance with sunlight is just right.

Shoot in RAW format

Increase the post-production space, this need not be explained.

These are the settings of my camera. These settings have even been used all the time, and they have not been changed halfway. Of course, photography should be flexible. You can refer to the above settings and make adjustments according to your own equipment characteristics.

Walk up a flight of stairs

No matter what kind of photos, the most basic requirements are clear and sharp, and the theme is prominent (referring to the requirements of most high-level photos, but there are exceptions in everything). The above settings are designed to make it easier for you to meet these basic requirements, but what else can you do to take photos on the next level?

1. composition after cutting

Is there a post-production method that is extremely simple, but the effect is immediate, but it is looked down upon by many people? Stop. Modern SLR cameras have tens of thousands of pixels and more than 20 million pixels, and their optical quality is also quite excellent, which gives photographers a lot of phase cutting space. Of course, we hope that the film will be released after the live shooting, but the singer of the concert will not just stand and compose music for you slowly. Maybe the beauty of the composition was not carefully considered at the moment when the shutter was pressed, or the telephoto lens may not be far enough. In addition to the protagonist, there are many "meaningless" things in the photo, which can be "re-composed" by cutting the phase. Editing is the use of composition techniques. Read more masterpieces and learn the main points of the composition.

Capture the moment

The biggest difference between professional photographers and ordinary people is that photographers can capture wonderful pictures. This skill can be natural intuition, but most of it is acquired through experience. This ability enables photographers to know when "interesting" things will happen. This kind of predictive ability is particularly important for street photographers, as well as for concerts: can you capture the wonderful moments of the concert? I just discussed the equipment, settings and other relatively easy things. Next, we should train our tentacles and shoot wonderful moments. In fact, my heart is very contradictory, because if you want to concentrate on shooting, it is difficult to devote yourself to the singer's wonderful singing skills, and it is difficult to kill two birds with one stone. Of course, for professional photographers and non-fans who charge fees, there is no such problem.