Shooting a concert - setup advice?

[Zeke]

G'day, I have the opportunity to shoot a music concert and have access to hire pretty much whatever I want (within reason)... It will be a pretty sizeable production, lighting rigs, etc

I want to grab stills of the band in action as well as some wide angle shots of the whole production from up back.

what glass should I grab to strap a 300D onto?

[cmM]

grab onto the fastest lens you can get, that's about all I can tell you.
Oh, and a monopod !!!

[kahfluie]

I shoot concerts with my sigma 70-200, f2.8, Canon 85mm F1.8 and 50mm F1.8. Get great shots. If you have full production stage lighting, they come out even better. I certainly would not use anything over an f2.8. And yes, a monopod will help.

[Olegis]

Bring your longest and fastest lenses, as the lighting is very difficult to shoot. Two days ago I shot a concert with my 70-200 f/2.8L and was forced to go to ISO1600 in order to maintain minimum shutter speed of 1/200sec at 200mm, f/2.8. I wish I had a longer lens, because from where I sat at the concert, I barely managed to grab full-body shots. If you're going to be close to the stage, then I guess that the 85mm f/1.8 will be sufficient, if not - get yourself a 70-200 f/2.8, it's sharp even wide-open. For wide-angle shots I think the 16-35 f/2.8L is the best, unless you want to experiment with 14mm f/2.8 prime (too wide in my opinion).
Since you'll be shooting at high ISO settings also, I suggest getting the last version of noise-removal software (I used the Noise Ninja and it worked great).

Here are some saplles (the rest of them can be found here (http://www.pbase.com/olegis/rita__live_in_caesaria&page=all) ):

http://www.pbase.com/image/30928783.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/30928791.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/30928796.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/30928806.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/30928827.jpg

[kahfluie]

Nice shots.... Interesting that you've used 1600. I've never had to go over 800... But absolutely get fast lenses. Here are a couple of samples:

http://photography.debbielou.com/coppermine/albums/concerts/Mike_Childers_031904/crw_1984_std.jpg

http://photography.debbielou.com/coppermine/albums/concerts/joywilliams_031904/crw_2000_std.jpg

http://photography.debbielou.com/coppermine/albums/concerts/ffh_091803/091803024_std.jpg

[Olegis]

Yep, your lighting seems much better than mine ...

[drisley]

All beautiful shots!!!!
Wow!
[broken record on]
But why is everybody bad mouthing ISO1600 so much.
I shoot it all the time, and mostly never nead to use my Noise Ninja, and the images are smoov as silk! Noise is barely noticable at 100% on my monitor, and not noticable at all on 8x10 prints.
Dont be afraid to use a high ISO.
Shoot Raw, slightly over expose, and perhaps use C1 Pro as it minimizes any noise.
[broken record off] :wink:

ISO1600, 100% Crop, C1 Pro, Noise Suppresson OFF
http://www.mts.net/~lftbrain/iso1600crop.jpg

[Mikelite80]

Well I think I can help here....as I do concert lighting for a living and shot it almost nightly.

With a fast lens, like my 70-200f2.8L, you will be suprised how fast you go...not high noon fast, but mid 100's. You'll notice big jumps in your light meter thing depending on who you are shooting. The star will be lit by two follow spots so generally there is enough light on them. As someone said over expose by a step or so, but as I'm actually shooting the lighting and not the star I like some of my shots underexposed by a step or so. It makes everything darker and just lets the beams of the lights come thru. I'd leave your whiteblance on auto as on stage there generally are several different color tempatures that could be considered white. Here are a couple I took, both hand held from about 200' feet away. It is hard cause I'm actually running the lights so I only have a few seconds to grab my camera and snap a few then back to work. These probally aren't the best but this is a busy time for us and I havn't had time to go thru the 3 gigs of picures sitting on my desktop.

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v293/mikelite80/IMG_2716.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v293/mikelite80/IMG_2707.jpg

Mike