Best lense to use for live music events

[Elkhornsun]

Two very different kinds of shots at live concerts, closeups of the performers and broad event photos of the stage and the audience. For the first my choice with your camera would be a Sigma 50-150mm f2.8 zoom. For the second type of picture a 17-55mm f2.8 zoom or a 30mm to 35mm prime lens. The Sigma 30mm f1.4 is a stellar lens with fast low light autofocus and capable of producing razor sharp images.

[alanrharris53]

Originally Posted by weareallmadhere

I have a canon 500d.
Does anyone know the best lens to get for live music events?!?!!!
and the best setting to have it on.
As the default lens I got with the camera just doesnt work out for me.

Hi, this is my first post on here so I will try not to upset anyone too much

I shoot concerts quite a bit but don't claim to be a pro. So feel free to ignore or disagree with what I am about to say. Here is what I have learnt so far...

As others have said there is really no right answer to the choice of lens (no e) as it depends on many factors including:-

• Your personal style and what sort of shots you prefer. Personally I prefer failry close ups but your approach may be different.
• The avialable light in the venue
• How far you will be from the stage.
• How good your camera is at handling high ISO and how good you are at processing to remove noise caused by high ISO.
• Etc

So as others have said a fast lens is preferred. Also a lens with IS will help you uses slower shutter speeds. I have used 50mm 1.8 - often called the nifty fifty, which is small, cheap, light and gives good quality images. But I have found this very limiting for my style. I did try my 60mm f2.8 macro lens once but that was not real advantage over the 50mm. I prefer to use the Sigma 24-70 f2.8 if fairly close to the stage (maybe up to three rows back). I have used a fairly slow lens - The 70-300 4-5.6 USM IS (see here for review http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/20...report--review cost around £380) quite a lot when further away from the stage, the IS helps to comensate for the slow speed to some extent - although of course movement becomes a problem at slower shutter speeds. I have just bought a Canon 135 f2 which I haven't used yet. Think it will be good in larger venues though wehn a bit futher away from the stage. The 85 f1.8 is also on my wish list.

As to settings:-

• Always shoot in RAW
• Do not use flash unless you have been given specific permission by the band -apart from the photographic reasons it is also annoying to the band and the other paying punters.
• Don't shoot during very quiet bits of the music, again the noise of the shutter may annoy other people.
• Switch off the auto display function so that the back of the camera doesn't light up every time you take a shot to show you what you have just taken.
• Shoot at the highest ISO you can get away with. I usually use ISO 800 or 1600 but have been as high as 3200 (the latter with not very good results genrally unless you convet to B&W where the grain/noise isn't so important.
• I shoot in shutter speed mode and set to the slowest time I think I can get away with - usually 1/30th sec, sometimes slower if there is no choice or faster if the light is good. But a lot of pro concert photographers recommend aperture priority and setting the lens wide open. Try both and see what suits you best.
• Shoot in bursts of 4-8 shots. The lights tend to be changing quickly so taking bursts gives you variety of shots, and if you are shooting at slow shutter speeds it gives the best change of getting a sharp image without movement blur.
• Use the auto focus in servo mode so that it tracks the focus - gives sharper shots when performers (or you) are moving a lot.
• Check the exposure with the graphs not just by looking at the picture. Sometimes on the camera display photos look OK even though they are in reality nearly totally black when you down load them. If it is too dark up the ISO or lower the shutter speed even more.
• Take a lot of shots - and take more than one memory card to make sure you don't run out of space. The hit rate of usable/good images is likely to be low so play the odds.

As I said I don't claim to be a pro but there are examples of my shots here on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-ph...93088375/show/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-ph...7623880208592/
and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-ph...7607385576214/ as well as elsewhere in my photestream.

[miketoll]

An excellent reply thanks. What metering mode do you use? Spot, Partial, Centre Weighted or Evaluative? The contrast is often enormous so do any of the metering modes work better than the others and if so when?

[alanrharris53]

Thanks.

I use single spot focusing (often centre spot but do change it on the go to try to focus on the eyes of the performer as much as is possible). OK I know that's not answering the question but your question triggered that thought!

I normally use centre weighted metering, as you say the contrast is usually large so none works that well. That is why shooting a lot of frames helps, if the lights are changing all the time then quite often you get one of a series with a reasoanble exposure, and working in RAW means you have some leaway.

It also pays to keep an eye on the lights - red lights are a killer a lot of the time so wait until the lighting changes to something else. But there are some bands that seem to only use red. Sometimes in looks OK but if you try to push it in RAW it gets very noisy.