Shooting live concerts

January 6, 2006

Hi there guys,

I know it has been months since my last post, but I hope you are all well.

I might be shooting a live band later this month, although nothing has been confirmed yet. It will be the first time that I will be shooting a live band in a club (at night). It is very likely that I will be using a PD150

What should I do about lighting and exposure settings, etc? I really want to impress and get the best possible results.

I would also like to hear from other people who have done similar shoots, the problems they experienced and how they dealt with them.

Regards,

Andrea

Gordon Highland · January 6, 2006

Have at least one white light so you can set the color balance properly. one problem can be the saturation of those lights (especially reds) from the par cans. another is falloff, if the overall lighting level isn't ample and you're on one person, the rest can go black pretty fast. avoid gain, let it underexpose a little if you have to. take your shutter down to 1/30 for good sensitivity. on the PD-150 you could selectively use a slower shutter (like 1/8) from time to time for a neat motion blur effect. do not trust the flip-out LCD for exposure (and i turn its brightness all the way down on top of that), use your zebras. LCD is fine for framing.

depending on if you have to cover the show as a whole or if you're just making a promo -- coverage-wise, what i like to do is, with a single camera, change angles very very quickly one for each verse and chorus. that way, you can edit a :30 or :45 clip of a song together -- in sync -- and have it look like you had four or five cameras. know the arrangements of the songs as well as you possibly can in advance to predict who needs to be highlighted when.

sound-wise, get one feed directly from the house mixer, and use the camera mic on the other channel. house sound is usually severely lacking in bass, and you can dial in a bit more bass and room character by adding a little of the camera mic back in during the mix.

Chris Cooke · January 6, 2006

Can you bring your own lights? Do you have a small rental budget? If so, you could rent a small package consisting of 3 bars (4 lights per bar) of par cans, 3 socopex cables and a small 12 channel dimmer. Get some gels and be creative with chases and cues.

Erdwolf_TVL · January 6, 2006

Hi there guys,

I know it has been months since my last post, but I hope you are all well.

I might be shooting a live band later this month, although nothing has been confirmed yet. It will be the first time that I will be shooting a live band in a club (at night). It is very likely that I will be using a PD150

What should I do about lighting and exposure settings, etc? I really want to impress and get the best possible results.

I would also like to hear from other people who have done similar shoots, the problems they experienced and how they dealt with them.

Regards,

Andrea