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[OM] RE: stage photography

Subject: [OM] RE: stage photography
From: Reuben Acciano <rubydoomsday@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 20:46:42 -0500 (EST)
Sorry I haven't wrtitten anything in so long ... been in lurker mode since I
became the editor of my own magazine - way too busy.

But I just had to comment on the whole stage photography thing as it's my
bread and butter, and something I'm doing professionally on a weekly basis.
I'm shooting the Offspring next week, Kiss next month. My typical stage rig
is one OM4Ti, an 85mm f2, a 24mm f2.8 and/or my 65-200 f4 or my Elicar 3x
converter with a 50mm 1.4. I also bring along my T20 - low weight good guide
for concert working distances - and F280 just in case the band are
movers/jumpers, though I do prefer to shoot the existing light.  The
standard always comes along as backup to the 85 (in case the photo pit is
smaller/closer than anticipated)- those beautiful late 50 1.4's have saved
my butt on more than one occasion. Prints so sharp you could cut yourself on
them.

I have used every film stock from 100 ASA with flash on every shot, to 3200
for super grain. Generally, I stick with Ilford XP2 super (for new
tech/minilab proof convenience) rated at 800, or Fuji Neopan (when I wanna
process negs myself) pushed a stop to 1600. The almost grainless C-41negs of
XP2 super make it almost matchless, in terms of versatility and quality -
massive blowups of almost 100 speed granularity from a film that yields negs
of perfect density when dialled to 800!!!! Incredible.   I'm hanging out to
try the Fuji multispeed tranny at 800 or Provia F 400 pushed a stop. Drool.

I find the most successful way to meter for ambient light is a single spot
(or two) off the band member's face/and or guitar and just leave it at that.
Ambient shots are almost always better because flash takes away the often
very effective mood created by stage lighting. Another way is to just
compensate for the black by using your default centre-weight and simply
underexposing by around two stops to run the blacks into true black.
Alternatively - if you happen to have a 4Ti or a 3Ti; in this case 4Ti's are
better because of their during-the- exposure shutter speed adjustment -
metre from the (usually black) background and shadow compensate, or (watch
your retinas here, kiddies) meter very quickly from a stage lightsource
(raycan or such) and highlight compensate - also both very effective. Use
your memory function and anticipate action; if someone gets up on the drum
riser you can be pretty sure they're gonna take a leap, so anticipate the
leaper's apogee and pan pan pan.

As far as flash goes, you can do TTL auto with -2 stops dialled in as
compensation - good for freezing action and setting f11-f16 hyperfocal to
guarantee sharpness in no-time-to-focus grab shots, or you can "fake"
rear-curtain sync with an F280 flash on a 4Ti by spot metering from an
appropriate reflectance subject with your flash OFF for the appropriate
AMBIENT exposure, then switching the camera to manual, set the correct
ambient settings on your camera body whilst leaving the F280 flash in super
FP mode - fairly cool, but (heresy I know) not as good as true rear-curtain
slow-sync, particularly the Nik*n system. I just can't get away from the
sheer quality and ease of use of fast Zuiko primes for stage stuff ...

Anyway - hope some of that was useful.

Now that I've got lots of high-tech toys in my office (Macs fair corpulent
with image editing/layout software), I should soon be able to Walk the Talk
- I'll post URL's for some of my band/concert and general photography as
soon as I 've got time to knock up a small galllery.

Cheers,
Reuben Acciano
Perth, Western Australia


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