Best ISO/Av/Tv for Concerts

TZZDC

What does everyone else that shoots concerts tend to shoot with to get more keepers? I'm shooting with a 1D Mark II N + 70-200 f/2.8L IS or 24-70 f/2.8L and I'm usually forced to 1600 ISO 2.8 in Av and anywhere from 1/20th sec to 1/250th sec. Basically its not making as many keepers as I'd like and aside from shooting hand held or monopod I've almost found that bumping the EV to -2 or -3 sometimes lets me shoot the 1/125th - 1/200th range or stop down to f/3.5 or heck even ISO 800. I've never been able to figure out why the -2 or -3 work..

I just wanted to know what everyone else shoots with and its definitely not like I have a lot of light.

OsirisPhoto

OK, I've never shot a concert.. but have shot low-light indoors. Just out of bed after first nightshift, so i apologise in advance if I'm missing something here, but what's wrong with shooting ISO 1600? You get more noise, but nothing that should be a deal breaker on a Canon

You use an 'L' lens (one with IS).. so optical quality shouldn't be an issue

Underexposing is just a way of telling the camera "hey, I know you think I need all that light.. but I'll do without it" so lets you increase the shutter speed.

Is it image quality or specifically camera shake that's the problem?

1/250s should be quick enough at 200mm, and 1/20s might do for shorter focal lengths if your hand-holding is well practised.

BeachBill

The problem is that you are letting the camera decide how to shoot the scene while in Av or Tv mode, and the camera is going to get it wrong. You need to be shooting in manual mode.

TZZDC

Thank you for the advice I know I should be using manual more often and I get lazy controling DOF or shutter speed since I'd rather be focused on the action and what I'm capturing then second guessing what combo of shutter speed and aperture I've programmed in when the actions changing.

I might give it a shot in this up coming concert I have on the 31st

cletus

TZZDC wrote:

... I've almost found that bumping the EV to -2 or -3 sometimes lets me shoot the 1/125th - 1/200th range or stop down to f/3.5 or heck even ISO 800. I've never been able to figure out why the -2 or -3 work..

I just wanted to know what everyone else shoots with and its definitely not like I have a lot of light.

If I had to make a guess: Most concerts are going to have lots of very, very dark background with small pools of light on the performers. All that dark background tricks the meter into over exposing the whole shot. When you dial in -2 to -3 stops of exposure you're compensating for the meter's tendency to over expose.

You might put the meter into spot mode and try to meter off the performers.

Here is an old concert pic. Nikon F5, 80-200 f/2.8, TMAX 3200 @ ISO-3200. IIRC I used aperture priority and spot metering.

i_worship_the_King

I shot the symphony in Av, ISO800, aperture wide open (and me wishing wider), 1/25ish, on occasion -.7 compensation (I use the ringed metering).

The best glass I had was f3.5, so if you're shooting f2.8 you should be able to get some good shots. However, we have the worst lighting in the WORLD on the MU stage - it's meant to be focused on spots around the floor to draw attention to theatre performances - for the orchestra all it did was create spots with more & less light - bad for me...

Best of luck!

HiSPL

I don't meter anything in camera when shooting a concert. The lighting at a concert has such a huge dynamic range that it is impossible to capture it all with digital or film.

The best technique I have found is this;

Shoot manual and at the widest aperture you can (f2.8 in your case). ISO 1600 is fine on Canon gear and is getting better on Nikon too. Take a shot and view the histogram looking for blowouts on your subject. Adjust your shutter speed to avoid blowouts and then shoot away. This usually yields about a 1/125th at f4 for me.





HTH!

wxwax

Lighting can vary an awful lot from club to club. It can also be heavy in one channel and negligible in the others. Just make sure you're not overexposing a color channel.


ISO 1600
1/125
f2.0


ISO 1600
1/100
f2.0


ISO 1250
1/125
f1.8

ccpickre

I may be a new guy, but concerts have been something I have thrown myself into, because someday I would love for the Rolling Stone to hunt me down and beg me to shoot for them

Anyway, I started using my XTi for all my concerts. Had a 17-50 2.8 and a 70-200 2.8. I RARELY use 1600 anymore, but when I didn't know any better about RAW, I tended to rely on 1600. Now I shoot 800, and only use 1600 for sports.

I shoot the widest possible aperture, and shoot between 1/400 and 1/200 (I try to avoid going below 1/200, but sometimes you can get away with it, unless it's a REALLY rocking concert). 1/20 on the small lens may easy to handhold, but if you shoot some of the concerts I have, 1/20 will NEVER get a good shot.

I haven't had a chance to try my 40D with a concert yet, but I have 2 or 3 concerts this week alone on campus. All the photos below are just a plain Rebel XTi.

Here are some from my first concert. Unfortunately they're a little over exposed (partly because it was my first concert, and partly because I didn't understand Photoshop much yet).










I'm sure I could go back and reedit them, but I'm too tired.

Here are a few from the Jazz Fest in Indy this past summer (again, my photoshop skills were lax)





And here's one from Little 500 that I really liked