Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Stage Mixed Lighting

Talk to the band. I'm going talk to everybody here, we're going to feel it out. We're gonna let you play a song, then probably stop so I can quickly analyze some images just and you're going to your thing, mike is going to do his thing everybody have their ear plugs in get your plugs or where it's at I've got mine, I'm going to put them in, so we're going to focus on the shooting aspect here. People at home just enjoy and watch and tomorrow is when we're going to analyze the results fully analyzed what we did hear what I did, right? What I did wrong. So what I've done to get everything ready over here? I've taken my lenses and taking the lens hoods off put them on so it's right side up, taking the lens caps off still owed everything up in my bag. This is exactly what I would do it a show, I stood him up, put him here, I'm starting with the you know what? I'm probably start with a fourteen to twenty four because I want to get that wide shot out of the way. First, I'm gonna have to guess...

not guess the settings we know, basically a general starting point of where the setting should be, and from there I'm going to feel what I should do. Settings wise you guys going to get to see it coming up on the screen I hope and that and that's that's what's going to happen so I'm going to put my ear plugs in start to go pro up and then we're gonna we're gonna call the show sound good sounds great and jared just to let you know because we wanted to get the audio right for the band we don't have any mikes for the the students here, so if you do want questions from him just all we need you to do is restate their question after they ask it got it? Anything else I need to say let's do it but let's let's do it that's what you have to say money for that one may be a little bit I can't hear you know my ear plugs I can wait e way just one way wait, wait oh, wait wait okay, let me uh you're awesome. Well, that was good. Yeah, there were some things that went on there that were interesting. Uh you want to hear what they were or should I just not tell you? Um so larry you know, I remember larry the lyrics from uh from, uh, sir mix a lot posse on broadway because because larry is the white guy um yeah, it was really say exactly so what I did there is a started with the fourteen to twenty four because I wanted to get wide shots of leslie here playing and focusing on getting the entire band in the shot. Steven reminded me of that before, is that it's important not to forget everybody else in a band? You want to show the whole scene? It's great mike's doing an awesome job on the lights, so we get to see all of the light in a scene that were there. And by the way, I want to reiterate that I didn't tell mike what to do with these lights. All I said was do what you normally do at a show, we will do a song where we do a complete red wash, which is something that I know people have trouble with it home, what we're going to do it to feel, to feel it out, but I saw the fourteen to twenty four that's one of those times where I don't mind the mike stand in the front kind of being in the way I don't mind because part of the wider shot it's part of that entire photo story, so I had this plus leslie was off to the side, so she wasn't eating the microphone stand at all that was cool. We had that then I had a focus in on larry who is in the shadow area it's darks what did I do? You didn't see him popping up on the screen, but I bumped my eyes so up a little I didn't go to high I think I went to sixty four hundred but being that larry is playing bass and they don't usually move around too much other than you know this, I slowed my shutter speed down to about one twenty fifth or two hundred stated to eight state of the same I esso and focused on just slowing my both my eyes a little bit but focused on slowing down that shutter speed because I knew that he doesn't bounce around as much as leslie here and I was able to get awesome shots of him that are going to be great and he's going to like him and they go on his facebook page then I came over here hold on sydney we had sydney and the lights were very tough to work with because I had I had a wait till the bright lights turned off because they would have caused too much flair in my lens and I noticed that I shot some so I can show you but I was able to get some shots of her and then when I noticed that it was coming to the end of the song I missed something because leslie was standing over here going like this or just getting ready to end the song, which is a great vertical shot any time you have some kind of hand motion, she did it earlier in the song about thirty or forty seconds, and I saw that she did, and then she also did dancing like this, which opens up the entire body. The face is clear. You get great shots right there. Um, yeah, that would that was that was cool at I'm sorry I didn't get in on the drummer yet, but I will folk, yes, on that, I have three songs generally to do that, but right now, also, when when you slow down leslie and you came up to the mike, that was really good because she slowed down and gave me time to get a nice horizontal, and I haven't even broken out to seventeen to two hundred keep in mind, you break out of seventy two, two hundred, you're limiting the type of shots you can take because it's much harder to wield that thing around to get it. So make sure you get your shots first. If you get through that first song, you've already gone through two lenses and you know that you've owned that wide angle, don't overdo it. Try to focus in on getting something interesting, especially if you're going to shoot a banned more than once. If you shot a band before no, the shots that you've gotten before and then don't overdo the same stuff, try to focus on something different. So it adds to your portfolio and it's just different stuff that you could put online. Leslie, any feedback for may at all? From what I from seeing me in that did you even see me? I did not. And I think one thing that you would mention, uh, you know, the vertical booze than I did after you see fans, you know, you were talking about how fans do the same thing over and over again, you notice I did the same thing at that same point in every single course you could start to predict what bands are going to do, what the singer is going to do, all singers have go to moves, and you can tell that move is going to come back, and we do have some photographers who have done a really good job of being like that's the point in the song where she stands still and they're right there, so and I think when you realize you're like, oh, that's where she's got that she's doing the one thing she keeps saying the one and putting her finger up in the air it's like there's your shot and it doesn't get in the way it all but it certainly makes for a lovely shot you know it's gives a chance for everyone to enjoy and it helps tell the story and another thing is with the ipad I plugs holy god, could you imagine putting I plugs in? He wouldn't be shooting blind with the earplugs one of the reasons you wear them is one your ears are extremely important you don't want to go deaf two I think much better when I can hear myself think because I'm not being overwhelmed and bombarded these block twenty five decibels they bring the levels down twenty five b b but everything sounds amazing the audio sounds great it just I enjoy the show that way I'll go to every concert with your plugs that's just how I am because I'm sensitive ten percent more ten percent more oh geez ten percent more sensitive than most people when it comes to hearing it's made that up mike mike you good chance why don't we, uh, break into a hit me with some of that red wash and then and then I guess halfway through let's let's kind of make it lower light that sound good all right let me get my ear plugs in are you guys good? Yeah, we may have lost our our monitors up here but we're just going toe oh, there we go do and yet the drum monitor's gone can I say something before you go? I have half in your plug in another thing I want to mention to you guys sometimes when the light is lower the best lens toe have on when you start lowering the light is a wider angle lens it seems to draw in more light so when you're shooting with a tighter lens, you kind of not getting as much light in there just cause you're now wearing what you're trying to shoot. So a lot of times when there's not a lot of light try to get those wider shots because you have a better chance of getting something usable that way makes sense stephen you do you do that all the time, don't you? Yeah, when stephen shoots, he goes around funny things when I met steve and I met him in the photo pit uh and he had very similar styles of shooting and he shoots with cannon and I shoot with nikon, but I've also shot cannon in the pit because it doesn't matter what you shoot are you guys were working on the monitors, all right? I'll give you a second to work on the monitors but yeah, I've been really it's just it's just yet ross anything and the questions out there question from maya what if they have rave lights or anything with like a lot of lasers? Is that dangerous for the camera? Yeah, well, you don't want lasers going right into the camera raving those so djs are very difficult to photograph they're one they're boring, they stand around unless you're shooting dead mouse he has ah mouse head on and it's still boring but rapers you're going to have to anticipate when that strobe is going off it's like they're giving you a big flash to work with if they have the strobe going off all the time then you're going toe then you're going to work with that. So so that's that question cool who love it let's see a couple questions? Yeah about that I mean they want to see me use this so I'm going to do it there that's we love you for it there's no reason not to we were just worried about that tether I'm going to save it told maybe the third song because I want to shoot this stuff the way do we have a mike over here? No no mike so just well, just repeat because yelled out to make a good question is do I feel comfortable pushing this to sixty four hundred s so I do this camera can handle it I even pushed, like, back in the day the d thirty three sorry, the d three thousand pushed it to sixteen hundred with this lens and was able to get results. Now I say get results or not, they may not be the best results in the world, this thirty five one eight I'm going to use this or, you know what? Throw me the kit lends whatever, we'll put it on just to do it just to see what the results can be if I can make it work, I could make it work that's where shooting wider at eighteen millimeters going to come into play because that's going to be three point five at that case, these, you know, slow we're focusing focus isn't a smaller viewfinder, it's much harder, but it's a challenge, so we're going to do it. I'm gonna put this down to the side because I want to shoot that we're ready to go. My plan of attack, lower light situation here, I've got the twenty four to seventy on it, I'm gonna work with the red washing, see what happens there and next song coming up, we'll do the challenge of using the basic entry level camera just so you guys can see it, what we got we good, wait, wait keep going yeah I want you to keep going I want to keep shooting is that all right? All right keep shooting yeah let's let's do it I'm just gonna keep going wait wait that way wait, I think this can wait outside you got you got you got you yeah, the story goes we don't get to wait in a house you know that you've got to wait wait wait don't to wait it out you know that you've got to get a reaction way wait, wait, wait, wait don't wait. You know that got me oh, wait you want to keep going on about out ofthe thank you challenge accepted though that stuff's fun because it wasn't planned to break this out. This is like a six hundred bucks set up with the kit lands and oh, I'm going to show you guys it's uh just I mean, this is just similar I mean, just one shot we got the exposure I could see it's going to be noisy, ok, I don't care this the kit lends I'm shooting in world would hold up for that camera over there. Okay? And just so people know we will be able to see some of these I hope tomorrow when we're doing editing and post process way will analyze the crap out of these tomorrow especially the kit lenses for the people want to know? How do we do this? How do we do this with the basics of basics of gear? What? We just did it with the basics of basics of gear thirty five one point eight I mean, this is like a toy in my hands and you're guessing folks, you know, you're not guessing focus so much you have to the dot is so much smaller, but I don't know if you noticed at home or you guys here if they had the camera on me at all, but there were times where I was looking at my info screen. I wanted to make sure that I was on raul because I didn't set this that stephen pulled this out of the bag. It wasn't set for shooting in here, but I knew what my settings were on the d for s and then I knew. Ok, uh eighteen that I got the thirty five millimeter on here. I'll stay at two point eight because that's the best chance I have. I turn this on for the first time when they were already playing, so I had a quickly get in there. I made sure that my focus a f c it was on continuous focus I double checked I chipped a little bit anybody chipping means you're looking at the picture to see that you've got what you needed. I have no problem whatsoever with you taking a look to make sure take a look it's in a book it's reading rainbow yeah, I don't have a problem with you taking a look at all don't take everybody don't take a picture then look then take a picture and then look, you have to trust in what you're doing own your settings you got it, you said it so I checked on that stuff I did that leslie came into play and that was with the love mike that was low light, right? Yeah, that was mike doing low light and it was at sixty four hundred, but I made it work with this and I'm very happy I can go home now. Just kidding. We're not going home now. Questions in the room at all. Like stephen, we did have a lot of people who noticed the chipping, and so I'm really glad that you that you addressed it because they were like, hey, wait! I thought he said not to do that did I say not to do that steven factcheck today, but you know what I've said and let me let me preface it is if you want to check it, I have no problem with you taking a look at your pictures what I'd say is don't take a picture and then look and then take another picture and then look, does that make more sense? I didn't think that was and what I noticed the first couple shots I took were out of focus. I have to think, why are they out of focus? And the first thing I'm going to check on my lens? There's that limit err on the side that says five meters there's there's the full focus or half of the focus of the lens I've had that happen, where you take it out of the bag and the switch goes to the other thing and that's right, the switch was switched over, uh, where shouldn't be? So that could have been an issue, but all of these things you're figuring out as you're shooting, you have to be creative. Yes, they're playing and you're missing some songs, you're changing lenses and you may miss some songs I use one body in. The pit I know a lot of people shoot with two but I like to shoot with one so the lens I realized that there might be an issue also was very hard to shoot with seventy two hundred in the lower light that's what I said earlier that we may not get good results with that because it's harder especially with somebody moving around this fast with as little light as we have it may not be possible to freeze her with that longer lens stephen shooting a slower shutter speed write so v r is not the only thing v r is going to help you with in here eyes keeping you still at the slower shutter speeds but remember leslie jumps around a lot of good that everybody else is moving around a lot v r is not rvr where I asked will not keep your subjects still so the misconception is that v r and I ask will help you freeze motion no matter what not the case because it's going to keep the background nice and stable but not you. What was the second part of the question the question was do you recommend a certain way to hold the camera the way toe basically make sure you're building in your old in your own image stabilization yeah I'm all about talking you know you talk like that we're not talking the other way so don't get any misconceptions like this you see me and look, I don't have a vertical grip on this thing when you're shooting vertical, I'm not a fan of this vertical. If you don't have a vertical shutter release, I seem to go over. I put my hand on it. My other hand goes underneath, tuck my elbows in because this is stable and I do this. There is no live you shooting at all with the dsr, in my opinion, there's almost no opportunity. There are rare opportunities. The sony's have rotate herbal screens there if you want to sit there and you want to do this and you can see your image that's happening for a little bit, I would try a shot or two if you need to with that there you could do it, but you can't shoot in the pit with live you and that's. What I have to say about that, russ? Yes question from shared ground, he says you did not attempt to capture leslie jumping up off the ground and freeze the action in the air. Was that just you weren't ready for or is that something that you I just didn't have the gear for? Why didn't even buy it don't even see it, I didn't know when that happened. If I knew she was going to go into a jump and that comes with shooting and an artist more often you may know it I would have attempted it weaken attempted and she'll make her jump seventeen times you know but we can we can try it it just it with a show you're going to miss shots you're going to be focusing on what you're focusing on and sometimes things happen you have to be good there was a couple times where you saw me run across the front because I was going for a certain angle I spent a lot of time trying to line up those cans up there when I say cans I mean the lights that are bright in the back with the back of leslie's head so that I wasn't getting lens flare or usually when light comes into the lens you're going to lose some kind of contrast so I didn't want to have that so I used the bodies there to block it plus it gives me a nice contrast that I'm looking for I just sounded like I'm from philly noise, noise, noise contrast another question actually relate to what you just said while thirty three and live concert with other photos in the pit for wouldn't have the freedom to move around like he is now yeah so or you would you want talk about moving around with other bodies? Yeah, I mean sometimes you know there's five ten depending festival shows you may have forty people in there and you may not have the ability to move too much. Yes, I had more freedom to move here because nobody else is here shooting with me. Do you want to put pylons down? We can put pylons down that I have to work around that's fine, but we work out a report. Usually in a venue like this, I'm going to say that you have three or four at most people showing up to be in the pit at the smaller venues you work around each other and you own you get your spot, you move, you rotate there's a lot of times you spend rotating, you just have to be cognizant of where other people are it's just it's going to be different for every single show I usually get where I need to be for a show anyway and that's not just because I pushed my way to where I need to be. I get there before the other people on my own my first spot so that I can get the shots that I need right off the bat so that I can focus on shooting because I already know I got my killer wide angle. I got my killer medium and already got a killer tightened the first song when I owned the best spot there and then I get a move on steven knows this when we go into big festival shows you have tio big radio shows as well you have to get to your spot early or you're s so well love it a lot of people are asking questions about glasses you actually and I wear glasses so do you wanna talk about shooting with glasses no because I don't wear okay I'm blind I just got new glasses by the way I can't see too good with them there to clear I don't know what's going on but I cannot shoot with glasses I started photography without glasses and I know some people need to use them because that's just how it is you use glasses when you shoot the concern there is well you could you could fog up the lens is a little bit because it could get hot in here the best way that I don't really have much to say about how to shoot with it because I've never I've never done it I like to put my eyes so far up into this view finder that I see everything that I need to see and with glasses that doesn't work for me so I really don't have work arounds to be honest with you because I haven't had luck shooting with them just because I seem like I miss certain things something you can do you can work with the die after that may help you not wear glasses. My vision is not sharp. To begin with, I rely heavily on auto focus, the focus point. I rely heavily on the gear to help me out, but that's, just because of the limitations that I have that most people don't know that I don't see very well, but I've been ableto push through that since I started. So I love that and something that will last just for me. Do you have any thoughts on glasses on the performers? In the sense of, like, reflections off them? Do you have any problems with that? And any work arounds? Uh, I haven't seen too many. I mean, who wears a rivers? Cuomo? Would he where he would wear glasses? Yes, most of the time, they probably are using the non reflective lenses. Mostly I would think I haven't run into too many people wearing that l m f o he used to wear his faith glasses, so they didn't have any things in it. I haven't honestly run into too many situations we've got larry well, blair's, the white guy, I don't, I don't see I mean there's really not a big deal, and this is a rock and roll show. Soto have reflections coming from the lights in his face that's part of it it's not a portrait in the studio where you have to get that perfectly correct this moment this is rock and or roll love it let's keep don okay, uh questions while we're here, you're happy now that I did that right broke out that lens and camera that's great! Do I ever go into the pit looking to shoot black and white? What? We're shooting wrong so no, I don't go into the pit going oh, I'm going to shoot everything black and white even if you set the camera monochrome if you shoot roll, you still have the colored data. This all it all comes in post it's just it's a feeling and we'll talk about this tomorrow when I'm editing, when we decide what is color and what is black and white certain things just feel better to me in black and white or they feel better in color it just it runs the gamut. I can't decide what is going to be what? But if the lighting is going to be horrible and this is the thing when you push your I s o if the lights are terrible, where you're at and it's one single thing the way you can save it, black and white usually makes it happen