Thursday, November 29, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Concert photography basics : When to use flash
When shooting in low light environments like a small club or venue it is very tempting to use a flash to compensate for the lack of light. You might wonder if this is an acceptable practice. The quick answer is sometimes, but I'll get to that in a bit. Before using flash to shoot a band I recommend understanding your cameras low light abilities when not using flash. Get a fast lens with an f-stop of 2.8 or lower. I like prime (non-zoom) lenses because they are super fast at f1.8, and sometimes f1.4. The lower this number is, the more light it will let in to your camera and that is what you want.
The next step is to learn how to use your cameras manual settings. Typically in a dark club I will crank up the iso (sensor sensitivity) to the highest setting I need to get a good exposure with the aperture wide open (lowest f-stop), while setting the shutter speed to freeze the motion as much as possible. 1/50th of a second is the absolute lowest I would typically go, but if there is enough light I would do closer to 1/125th of a second, especially for shooting drummers. This is not always possible in low light environments while maintaining a proper exposure. Your aperture is already wide open letting in as much light as possible and the only other way to get more light in to the exposure is to turn up your iso, which can only go so high and still maintain good image quality. I typically set my iso pretty high at 6400 on my full frame camera, but your acceptable iso setting is going to be less on a cropped sensor camera. If I can get a good shutter speed of 1/80th of a second or higher and the subject is still overexposed then I turn the iso down to achieve proper exposure.
Are you still with me? Understanding how aperture (f-stop), shutter speed, and iso (sensor sensitivity) work together is a lot to wrap your head around at first, but it's worth it. In addition to all three of these setting's ability to control the amount of light in the exposure, they each have their own unique side effect.
Aperture (f-stop) controls depth of field, which is the depth of the image that is in focus. The more open the aperture (lower f-stop), the more light will be in the exposure, and the more shallow the depth of the focus. Shooting in low light with the aperture wide open requires particular attention to focus because with this shallow of a depth of field part of the image will be in focus and part will not.
Next is shutter speed. It's side effect is freezing motion. The faster the shutter speed the less light is in the exposure, and the more the motion will be frozen. That one is pretty straightforward and brings us to the last setting.
Iso (sensor sensitivity). The higher the iso setting, the more light is in the exposure, and the more noise (graininess) is in the image.
Now, after understanding all of that, is the time to contemplate using a flash. A justifiable reason to use flash would be inadequate lighting to get a good exposure, while using a fast lens and fully understanding what your camera is capable of. Another good reason would be if you have a certain effect in mind. Using a slower shutter speed to blur the subjects motion to show movement and then flashing at the end of the exposure to freeze the subject is a common flash effect. Also if a stage has heavy backlighting, or you're shooting in to the lights from behind the stage, you may want to use flash as a fill to expose the front of the subject.
If you are going to flash a band you want to have some type of rapport with them. Most local bands in need of exposure (no pun intended) won't care if they are flashed. The more successful the band is, the more they start to care about flash. Bigger bands have typically worked with talented photographers and have plenty of great pictures of their live performances. They have been on the road and suffered the amateur photographer flashing them with their camera's built in flash in almost every city they perform in, which brings me to my next bit of advice.
Don't use your camera's built in flash!!!!!!!!! The only reason I can think of to use your camera's built in flash is if the photo is completely utilitarian. When attempting to take a good photo you need to be aware that you are photographing shadows as well. This is what makes a subject appear three dimensional. Shooting with an on camera flash eliminates almost all shadow and makes the subject appear flat. I hand hold a small flash connected to my camera's hot hoe with a sync cord if I'm flashing. If you do use a flash mounted in your camera's hot shoe, use the type that can be pivoted up to bounce the flash off of the ceiling at your subject. http://strobist.blogspot.com is a great resource for everything flash if you want to learn more!
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