Low ISO speed

I've just arrived back in my home port of Kirkcudbright aboard my boat Moonshadow. Almost the first thing I did was reach for my little Canon G9 and take a picture. It was late afternoon and the light had that special brilliance. It was shining full belt onto the scallop fishing boats standing high and dry in the mud alongside the harbour wall at low water. The resulting picture would have been better if the water had been totally smooth in order to give perfect reflections. Unfortunately there was just a hint of a breeze and this has ruffled the surface of the water a little, breaking the reflections.

But never mind, I like the deep colours that have been accentuated by the front light and the contrast of the greens, blue and rusty reds.

Like I've said before - boating and photography are the perfect combination.

I set the G9 on aperture priority at f7.1. This gave me a shutter speed of 1/200sec at ISO 80 - remember, it's always best to use the slowest ISO possible for best quality. There was plenty of light, so ISO 80 was ideal. I used centre-weighted metering mode. The exposure compensation was set to minus 1/3 and the white balance on AWB. I was zoomed in to give me an equivalent focal length of around 85mm.

Aperture Value - correction

I'm sorry - yesterday I got it wrong.

When talking about the way I set the exposure for the live gig, I incorrectly said that I set the camera on Shutter Priority (TV) mode, then set a wide aperture and let the camera decide on the shutter speed. This, of course, is dribble.

I meant to say - set a wide aperture using AV (Aperture Priority) mode and let the camera decide on a suitable shutter speed.

Thanks to Alwyn for drawing my attention to this silly mistake. I have now corrected the wording of yesterday's post.

There, confession over - I feel better now.

Photographing live gigs - part 2

I arrived at the theatre early, well before the start of the show so that I could check out shooting positions and angles. The stage had very limited access to the wings and as the best shots are often taken from the side of the stage, this would make things quite difficult.

The only way to get into this position would be from the front of the stage, so the band had to be happy for me to move up there between songs. Access to the back of the stage, where I could shoot from behind the band, was easy and I checked out all my routes from one position to another while all the house lights were on. I had put a small torch in my pocket so that I would not be stumbling around in the dark when I went back stage during the performance – it would be very dark there then.

I even managed to gain access to a small lighting gantry above the audience from where I could use a telephoto lens for frontal close-ups of the band. During the show, I dodged from one position to the next, and often back again.

As I was on the move and adapting to the different light conditions and positions of the performers, I left my bulky camera bag safely locked in a dressing room and operated with two camera bodies and two lenses.

With the stage lights constantly changing intensity direction and colours, you may find it useful to use the Aperture Value (AV) exposure mode. Remember, this is more correctly called the Aperture Priority (AP) mode. Just set a wide aperture and let the camera decide on the shutter speed. However, I prefer to use the basic M (Manual) mode whenever possible, so that I can change the exposure myself as the lights change. It is also more reliable if shooting directly into bright stage spots – a situation that can confuse any automatic metering mode.

ISO
I set my ISO to 800 with the certain knowledge that I would need the fastest shutter speed possible to stop any action. This would result is some loss of quality, but that was a price worth paying.

EXPOSURES
Most of the shots were taken at between 1/60sec and 1/125sec at f2.8 or f4. Of course these shutter speeds are pretty slow for stopping action, and there were some failures when I pressed the button as the subjects moved, so it was important to take lots of pictures so that these could be discarded. The camera’s LCD illuminator is invaluable when checking settings in the dark in the dark.

WHITE BALANCE
You will never win completely when the stage lights are changing from bright blue to deep red. I simply set AWB (Auto White Balance) and let it happen. Any adjustments I made later in Photoshop.

LENSES
The most useful lens proved to be the 17-35mm f2.8. With this I could get really close from the side of the stage and include the stage lighting in the shot for dramatic effect. For the long shots from the lighting gantry I used a 70-200mm f2.8 zoom. I don’t often bother with lens hoods, but in these conditions, with lights shining into the lens at an angle, I made sure I had a hood fitted to avoid flare

Top photograph
Doug Carroll may not be as famous as Mark Knopler, but he is one of the most gifted guitar players in the UK. I wanted to get a picture that really summed up his total immersion in his music when he played solo. I liked his natural pose with the spotlights shining down on him through the stage smoke. Stage lighting is mostly from front and back of the performers, so if you are photographing a band from the wings you will not be shooting directly into the light

Lower photograph
From the lighting gantry just above the audience I was able to use a telephoto lens and get reasonable close-up shots of the band. The light behind Mary was flashing on and off and changing colour so there was an element of luck involved in getting a good facial expression with the right light backlight




TIP
Earplugs are essential for photographers working directly in front of a powerful sound system. It’s LOUD. Over the years, I've covered dozens of rock bands' live gigs - from the Rolling Stone’s, Rod Stewart, Freddie Mercury. I hate to admit this, but I've covered The Beatles as well – and my hearing has never been the same.

If you want to know more about Doug, Mary and the The Mary Barclay Band - or buy their music - go to...
http://www.sensationalmarybarclayband.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sensationalmarybarclayband

Aperture Value

Carl posted a comment yesterday about Ken Terry's beautiful wildlife pictures.

Ken said that he used ISO 1000 and an aperture of f5.0 in AV mode as the light was changing so quickly. Sometimes the shutter speed was 1/500 and sometimes 1/4000.

Carl commented:
...really enjoyed this. But trying to work out what AV is, in relation to rapidly changing light?

'AV' - Aperture Value - is an automatic exposure mode in which you set the aperture you want and the camera decides on the correct shutter speed to match it. This can be very useful in rapidly changing light conditions like those Ken experienced when he was photographing the red kites and the red squirrels. In these conditions it can be difficult, if not impossible, to constantly adjust the exposure manually. In other words, you just cannot keep up with the fast changing light levels by correcting the exposure yourself in the Manual ('M') mode. When shooting a fast-moving subject like a bird in flight, operating the camera quickly is vitally important, so setting the exposure mode to an automatic setting can be a boon and one less thing to bother about.

So in Ken's case, he set f5.0 in 'AV' mode. When the sun went behind cloud and the light level dropped, the camera chose a shutter speed 1/500sec. When the sun came out and light level went up, the camera chose a shutter speed of 1/4000sec.

Some time ago I posted a photograph of Freddie Mercury. Click the link below. I used 'AV' exposure mode for this because the stage lights in the studio where the photograph was taken were constantly going on and off, with light levels going up and down. It would have been impossible to keep up with the exposure manually in 'M' mode, so I set something like f2.8 in 'AV' mode and let the camera sort out the shutter speed.

Just one tip here... Aperture Value (AV) used to me known as Aperture Priority (AP), far more sensible and descriptive. Until some fool decided to change it.
http://philipdunn.blogspot.com/search?q=mercury

Question about manual exposure

Another former student of mine, John Hamshaw, emailed me with the following question about my article on using Manual Mode exposure settings...

May I ask a question about your M is magic blog article no 1? You give the example of the two basket pics, where you say that you manually set the aperture to 5.6 and manually set the speed to 1/30th sec. This gives a reading on the exposure scale that the pic will be underexposed (obviously by the camera's built in meter), and you therefore correct it manually to 1/8th sec to set the scale reading to '0'. Isn't this the same as setting the camera to Aperture priority, set at 5.6, and when half pressing the shutter release, the same camera reading/meter will set the camera automatically to 1/8th sec?

(No doubt you will think this is a dumb question and what on earth has JH learnt from me in two courses??...but if it isn't and you want to use this question on the blog please do so)

Best wishes, John

Thanks John,
No, those courses were not wasted - I know what beautiful photographs you take.
The only dumb question is the one that is never asked.
Yes, in effect, what you say is correct. BUT... when you are using an automatic exposure mode such as Aperture Priority, unless you use the Auto Exposure Lock (AEL) function, every time you make an adjustment to the your framing of your composition the chances are that the exposure will change as the metrering system reads from a different area of the subject.

This is precisely why I cannot be bothered with auto settings.

I want to take my reading from the area of the subject I choose and for that exposure not to change when I re-frame the picture. Yes, I can do that by locking the exposure - but that seems to defeat the object for me.