Little Gig lens

[HOPE-C]

Hi, friends of mine are doing a little outside concert soon, it's very amateur but there will be a stage (dont know what it will look like..) and some lighting..

When the show begins there will still be sunlight...

My question is : (I will shoot with 40d) I currently have a 70-200 f2.8 is this going to be fast enaugh? is it too big?

I was thinking of buying a 50 1.8 since I will be close.

And also, what settings should I use? (I never done any concert before)
ISO?
shutter speed?
etc

Thank you.

[DDCSD]

The 70-200 may be fast enough, but you'll never know until you start shooting, so I would have a fast prime available.

ISO: Probably 1600 or 3200 (again you won't know until you get there and start shooting)

Shutter Speed: The faster the better. It really depends on how much they move around. I've gotten pretty sharp shots at 1/30s and had a lot of blurry shots at 1/250s.

If the lighting is consistent, I would use manual and likely be wide open with the highest shutter speed I can get while to get as close to correct exposure as possible. If the lighting is sporadic, I usually shoot AV mode, wide open and -1EC (depends on what the subjects are wearing).

[puzzle]

Thanks DD for this useful bit of advice to shoot in AV with -1EC, I just wish I had read that in time for last Friday's concert shoot. I had a lot of trouble chasing the lights for the correct exposure which resulted in a lot of frustration and TBH a rather embarasing set of shots from the night :/
But on the plus side, things can only get better from here!

[DDCSD]

It takes a lot of practice, and the smaller shows are the most difficult.


Just don't get too down on yourself. With as poor of lighting as you're going to run into in concert shooting, you're going to have a less than stellar keeper-rate. With practice you'll learn how to time your shots andt hat peak action isn't always best for concert photos. :)

Another thing you can do is have the camera in manual and time your shots for when a certain set of lights come on. You'll notice a pattern to many shows (the same set of lights coming on during chorus lines). You need to be patient, and its tough to not shoot when you know the light isn't there, but your keeper rate will go up. You just won't get "every shot".

That's not always a bad thing though. That kills a lot of people, trying to get every shot instead of concentrating on getting good shots (lower overall number, but better number of good shots).

[HOPE-C]

Thanks alot Derek!

[dutchin]

take the 50 1.8 and do some legwork! haha, im having a ball with mine at the moment at gigs. so simple and fun to use.