To photograph professional performances usually requires access and accreditation, which I am not going to cover in this Intel; but the techniques that apply to the pro situations also work with amateur productions like school plays, local amateur concerts, pubs, local theatre groups and the like. These are great places to capture wonderful images that will be appreciated by the performers and their parents, fans and the venues; and they are also top venues in which to hone your skills. If your ambition is to break into the music-photography field, these are also the places to begin building your portfolio. Don’t assume that you can photograph at all of these venues: that is only a general rule. Many pubs are happy to have you take pictures, and most local bands appreciate any photos they can get to build their own portfolios - but not all, and not as they begin to gain a reputation. You should always approach the manager of the venue and the band’s manager or publicists before you turn up at a gig with your camera. An offer to supply them with shots is sometimes enough to secure more than the OK to shoot on the night, you might get an opportunity to do some head shots, studio, portrait or other publicity shots... again, don’t count on it, but it is worth exploring.
The same is true for local dramatic groups, and even school play nights; more and more of these have secured the right to put on well known plays, but part of their permission includes that the school prohibits recording and photography. Last year one of my grandkids was appearing in the his school’s production of South Pacific; I wasn’t allowed to photograph it for my own use, let alone to give photos to family, other actors or even the school. Always check in advance.
Light - Wherever you shoot, count on two things: flash will not be allowed, and the light levels will be low. How low? probably similar to the light levels in a typical home lounge room at night. So turn off your flash and try shooting some dark objects by available light in your home. Expect to shoot at 400 ISO as a minimum. Why dark subjects? Because that will be where the worst grain or noise will show up.
Inspecting your prints (a screen will give you some idea, but 10x8 or A4 prints are a better test) will give you some idea of the kind of images you can expect at the better end of your scale. You will get a lot that are worse, because the light levels are not just low, they will be coloured, they will be harsh, they will be constantly changing and they will be a mixture of tungsten, halogen, neon and who knows what else!
Now if you are a film photographer, grain might not be a bad thing; you can use it to good advantage for atmosphere. If you shoot digital, you are going to have to think of ways to maximise the impact of the lighting and the drama of the scenes despite the noise.
Of course, lots of film is available that is faster than 400 ISO, and you should think hard about 1000 or even 1600 ISO emulsions, Any Canon DSLR from the 20D onward will give you good results at 800 ISO and acceptable results up to 3200, as will many other DSLRs made after 2007. If you have a digital compact you will have to live with noise, even though your ISO can be raised up to 800 and above, but your real problem will be that the noise reduction algorithms applied by the camera are likely to cost dearly in terms of lost detail and crispness.
Even at these high ISO settings, you are going to have trouble shooting at a high enough speed to stop motion on stage unless your lens is pretty fast - at least f/2.8. That’s pretty pricey glass. But do you need to spend a fortune on super-fast lenses, like a 50mm f1.0 or an 85mm f/1.2? No, not really. When they are at they are wide open, these apertures have a depth of field that is too shallow for concert and stage photography.
Depth of Field - If you get hold of a 200mm f2.8 lens that lets you fill the frame with a performer from head - to-waist, you are only going to have about 50mm (a couple of inches) to play with. If your subject is thoughtless enough to move back or lean forward just a bit, your shot is suddenly out of focus. And you can expect that to happen all the time at a concert, a play, a festival... movement is what you go for...well, mostly: I do remember Long John Baldry delivering “Walkin’ the Dog” and never moving anything but his lips for 3 minutes!
Yet, for the most part, musos are not going to just stand motionless at the mike and sing. Not entertainers, anyway. They'll toss their heads, sway their bodies, run around the stage and into the (even darker) audience, throw mike stands into the air and catch them (well, mostly). And that’s just the classical musicians; what the rockers get up to is nobodies’ business!!! And consider dancers, back up singers, people playing instruments...
Is Image stabilisation a better investment than super-fast lenses? Well it won’t hurt, that’s for sure, but IS is really at its best when you need to hand-hold at low speeds. For events and theatres what you want is some way to shoot at higher shutter speeds.
If you're going to get serious about this kind of photography you will eventually acquire something like a 70-200 f/2.8 (35mm equivalent). It’s long enough for good close-ups and background blur without being too close to the action, flexible enough for stage shots as well as individual performers, and the demand for this class of optic is high enough that many photo shops and hire companies will have one you can rent. However, the DSLR equivalent is roughly 50-130, which is quite modest and affordable enough to consider getting your own.
Carry only What You Must - Professional shoots are generally limited to just one set - sometimes just one or two songs before security moves you out of the area. Forget carrying a load of gear: you don’t waste time changing lenses in the semi-dark, bumping the other photographers sharing your time slot, missing the one shot that makes the shoot worthwhile in the process! The same principle applies to all theatre/event/gig shoots. Carry the minimum you can, get the maximum out of what you carry.
What is the minimum gear with the maximum flexibility? A fast normal lens (45 to 55 mm prime about f/2 of faster ) teamed with a fast film will handle a great deal if you can get close to the stage. Even if you can’t, lenses like this are sharp enough to allow big enlargements that can be cropped to give a telephoto-like effect with quite good detail.
A relatively economical next step up is a macro lens. That’s right: 90mm and even 200mm macro lenses with constant f/2.8 lenses will bring you very close to the action. The only downside is that auto-focus on macros may not be fast. However, manual focus is fast and snappy with these lenses, and is what you would be using with any lens under these conditions.
The combination of a fast 50mm and 90mm or 200mm lens will cover most small and average-sized shows. Now, if you can have each mounted on a separate body, the chance of you missing any crucial shots will be very small indeed.
By the time you have “outgrown” this basic combination, you should have a pretty clear idea of what you want to supplement (or replace) them with.
There are advantages to both primes and zooms - better optical quality with primes, flexibility in the zooms
Facing the Light - Whether you have to cope with a bright spot on the artist in an otherwise darkened room, or unpredictable, strobes competing with multi-coloured tungstens and lasers plus the spot hitting the lead singer, you need to be very sure what your camera is going to meter.
Turn off your clever 3D/ evaluative/ matrix metering systems: you can’t trust it here. Forget about centre-weighted metering, too. The thing to rely on is spot metering, and if it uses 5% or more of the image as its target, consider buying a separate, hand-held meter;
Spot metering gives you precise control over the area you want to expose correctly, but even then, you may need to add or subtract a stop or two before you get everything both accurate and consistent.
If you camera can shoot better than 3fps, consider setting it on burst mode and bracketing. The 3fps means you will get 1 exposure at the metered setting plus an exposure either side for safety. Faster bursts are better, of course (a lot can happen in that 1 second), but bracketing at slower fps rates are counter productive.
Shooting Modes - You might be OK in Program Mode, relying on exposure shift or compensation to control the camera. But given that you will also be using manual focus and that the light is so variable, in most cases you will be better off with either Aperture or Shutter Priority.
Aperture Priority where you set the aperture and the camera controls shutter speed works well in very dim light and overly bright light. In very dim conditions, shoot wide open and set a high enough ISO (or use fast enough film) to ensure shutter speeds can cope. In bright conditions, you might be tempted to close right down - if your depth of field becomes too great your background can become intrusive, so be careful and close down only enough to keep attention on the artist or part of the scene you are shooting while still blurring the background. You will rarely go lower than f5.6.
Shutter Priority where you specify the shutter speed and rely on the camera for the aperture. Take 1/125 as a starting point. If you can’t keep the shutter above that speed, you might as well go back to Aperture Priority and shoot wide open. Otherwise you can stay in Shutter Priority unless the depth of field increases to the point where you are getting unwanted objects in focus, or if stopping movement is more important in this situation: you can simulate shallow depth in the computer afterwards if you must.
With artists who just stand and deliver from one spot, 1/60 sec will get good images: the movement is more likely to come from you! That’s where image stabilisation comes in handy. Recall the “reciprocal rule" for hand held shots: don’t expect a sharp image if the shutter speed is not at least equal to 1 divided by the (effective) focal length. So, at 200mm (equivalent) you need to set 1/200; for 50mm lens you can get away with 1/50 etc.
More active performers should generally be manageable at 1/125 but you could find yourself needing up to 1/250 in some situations.
Manual Mode can be useful if the Director has decided to be kind to photographers by providing consistent lighting. Personally, I rarely shoot manual but never when lights and lasers and fire bursts are flashing all around the stage!
Not everybody has thousands of dollars worth of photo gear just designed for these tricky low light settings, with their colour, movement and confused action, but you can succeed with less specialised equipment. It takes time and practice to get it right even, if with perfect gear. It takes practice, luck (and a share of total disasters, too) but like all areas of photography...it’s worth the pain!
