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How To: Shoot Live Music Better Than the Next Guy – Pt.II

This next portion of  ”How To: Shoot Live Music Better Than the Next Guy” is for the photographer who is a little ahead of the curve when it comes to equipment and manual know-how. Today I’m going to discuss full-frame sensor DSLRs vs. cropped-sensor DSLRs and the pros and cons of each – because, believe it or not, but both types have serious advantages.

 There are a wide range of cropped-sensor cameras, but only a handful of full-frame sensor cameras. A full-frame sensor is a digital sensor that’s the same size as the film plane on a 35mm negative, where a cropped-sensor is smaller than 35mm. What does that mean exactly? Well, with a full-frame sensor camera, all the lenses from my film camera look exactly the way they did when I shot film; on a cropped-sensor camera however, the focal length effectively changes, because the surface area of the sensor is smaller than what the lens is used to fitting over.

In other words, any lens I used on my film camera is going to give me more zoom on my cropped-sensor DSLR. This is a cropped-sensor digital camera’s biggest advantage. The down side is my film camera wide-angle lenses won’t be wide-angle anymore; they’ll be closer to mid-range focal lengths. That’s terrible for wide-angle photography like landscapes and architecture, but great news for any tele-photo lens I put on my DSLR, as a telephoto lens will now give me more zoom!  If you have a cropped-sensor DSLR like I do, how do you figure out what the new focal length will be on  your digital camera when using older lenses? Well, that depends on who makes the camera. It breaks down like this: if you shoot a Nikon, Sony or Pentax cropped-sensor DSLR, multiply your older lens’ focal length by 1.5 x. If you shoot Canon, multiply your older lenses by 1.6x. If you’re shooting a Micro Four-Thirds camera, then multiply it by 2x. So, my old film-camera wide-angle 28-90mm lens will be closer to a 36-105mm lens on my Nikon D7000. The advantage really shows when I put my old 75-300mm telephoto lens on there….it becomes a whopping 95mm-450mm zoom lens!  This is why many sports and wildlife photographers still shoot cropped-sensor DSLRs – so they can get better reach from their lenses.

Now, the advantages of a full-frame sensor DSLR will be more noticeable in low-light photography, such as live music and  evening weddings. A full-frame sensor has significantly larger pixels, which provides cleaner images when shooting at higher ISO settings (a  MUST for low-light photography)! Full-frame sensors work this way because the individual pixels are larger and therefore gather more information (color, light, detail) than a cropped-sensor. Keep in mind, 1 megapixel = 1 million pixels. If you have a full-frame sensor camera, you have A LOT of big pixels. That is also why full-frame sensor cameras have less noise at 3200 ISO than a cropped-sensor camera at the same ISO setting.

So, when shopping for your next DSLR and you’re stuck between which one to buy, full-frame sensor or cropped-sensor camera….ask yourself which is more important: better zoom or cleaner images in the dark? That’s the main deciding factor, especially when it comes to live music. Either way you go, you’re getting amazing quality. Still not sure which is better for you? Call and ask our sales staff. If you tell them what you want to shoot, they’ll tell you which to go with. In the meantime, Happy Hunting!

How To: Shoot Live Music Better Than the Next Guy – Pt.I

Today I want to lend a hand to all the live music photographers across this great city. I know you’re out there, because live music is what draws most of the shutterbugs to Austin (me included). For those of you just getting started or for those who are ready to go beyond the “auto” mode on your camera, this article is for you as I will list all the necessities for how to get the best shot in a poorly-lit venue, despite whatever gear you have.

For starters, I usually shoot in the “TV” or “S” mode on my camera. This is a half-manual mode where I choose the shutter speed and ISO, and the camera picks the F-stop for me, depending on what kind of lens I’m using. The advantage of this mode is that there is one less setting for me to worry about! All I pick is my shutter speed (which I usually start around 1/160th of a second) and my ISO (which I start around 800) – the camera sets my aperture. Now, these are just starting points for test shooting…I often have to raise both my shutter speed and ISO in order to freeze the musicians’ action in just the way I like – BUT it keeps down the number of camera settings I have to think about while shooting –  helping me keep my eye and my mind on the show at hand.  

Now let’s talk about gear. First of all, despite whatever your buddies told you, your camera of choice is not the most important piece of the photographic puzzle…lenses are. I highly recommend that you go out and purchase a lens that has an aperture of f/2.8 or less. A low F-stop range lets in a lot more light than the kit lens that came with your camera. Picking out one of these lenses can be tricky if your budget is limited…a wide-angle zoom that opens to f/2.8 can cost you up to $2,000 or more if you buy the Canon, Nikon or Sony brands. Sigma and Tamron both make excellent wide-angle zoom lenses that are far cheaper than the parent brands, but still give you marvelous quality. These are often less than half the cost of Nikon or Canon’s wide-angle zooms, but they perform just as well. The reason Nikon, Sony and Canon’s versions cost so much is that they are the sharpest wide-angle lenses you’ll find, but unless you’re shooting weddings for a living, sharpness isn’t everything.

Your other option is to find a prime lens, like the world-renown “nifty fifty” that both Canon and Nikon make. Prime lenses usually open up wider than f/2.8, which is GREAT for live music. They are also usually sharper than a wide-angle lens, as they have fewer working parts – and therefore cost less AND at the same time, are made with  higher quality glass for ultimate sharpness. What a deal!!

Now, if you’re truly limited by your budget and you’re stuck using the kit lens that came with you DSLR don’t get discouraged, because lenses aren’t everything (but they sure do make the near-impossible possible!). The main thing you’ll need to know is how to adjust the ISO on your camera. ISO determine’s how sensitive your camera is to light, and every DSLR allows you to adjust your ISO as it gets darker and darker. In a poorly-lit venue, I recommend you start at an ISO of 800….but know ahead of time that’s just a starting point! In really dark situations, 800 ISO may not be sensitive enough. You may have to raise that ISO number to compensate for a lack of stage lighting, and any DSLR will allow you to do that. In fact, most DSLRs nowadays will allow you to go as high as an ISO of 3200…that is very sensitive indeed, allowing you to take much faster pictures in darker situations. Now, with manual photography, everything is about trade-offs. Be sure to remember that as you raise your camera’s ISO, your images will become grainier and grainier, losing clarity and sharpness throughout the whole image. If that graininess bothers you, then it’s time to invest in one of the low-light lenses mentioned above, and if you need help picking the right one out, call us here at Precision Camera, and our sales staff will point you in the right direction. We even sell used lenses for DSLRs.

Have more questions about low-light shooting? Whether it’s live music, night-time weddings, or something equally challenging, just come in and talk to our sales staff. They’re all quite knowledgeable and LOVE everything photographic. If you’re set up on gear, feel free to email me with further questions. You can reach me at jharrison@precision-camera.com. Until then…keep shooting and Happy Hunting!

 

Macro Monday

Top of the morning, to you all. Welcome back to another edition of Macro Monday. Did you catch what last week’s submission was?  ….it was tea bags.  Two of them to be exact. I had to keep the brand name out of frame, otherwise it would have been far too easy. Shall we proceed to the next submission? Take a long hard look and tell me what you’re looking at. And please, be as specific as possible.

Macro Monday

Welcome back to the hum-and-drum of the work week. I trust your weekend was as fruitful as mine, as I set out with my camera on both Saturday and Sunday to get some shooting done. Only a couple of keepers, but that’s how it goes: not every image can be a winner. Speaking of winners, last week’s submission was……a saw-tooth hanger on a picture frame. Did you get it? Was it too hard? Saw-tooth hanger would have won, or just hanger. Try to keep your minds open as I’m working to include everyday items so as to expand your horizons and encourage you to take a second look at the world around you. As for this week’s submission – can you tell me what you’re looking at?

What’s in Your Gear Bag?

Good morning ladies and gents! Today I start a new ongoing series called “What’s in Your Gear Bag?” where I ask professionals and up-n-comers alike what it is they keep in their camera bag that they can’t live without. This is intended to help you choose the extra gear necessary for you to complete your job – whether it’s weddings, ballroom galas, red carpet, commercial work – you name it.

It’s only fair that I start us off…I’m not the best, but I shoot a fair amount of freelance work and have a number of commercial projects under my belt. It took me several years to find the perfect two bags for my kind of work (that’s right – you heard me correctly…two camera bags), but now that I found them, its unlikely that I’ll buy another again. My primary bag is for small event shooting. It’s a shoulder bag big enough for my DSLR and main lens (usually my Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8) and another lens, usually my Nikon 85mm f/1.8 D series. The other lens I take sometimes is the Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 – that’s the old one…the one before image stabilization. With the 85mm in tow, it leaves me just enough room to fit my Nissin 866 flash, which so far is equivalent to Nikon’s SB-900. If I take my flash, I always take my portable softbox with it. I RARELY shoot that flash without a softbox. And I keep an off-camera extension cord for the flash. The softbox and off-camera extension cord are almost permanently attached to my flash. I do 90% of my flash photography with those two accessories. 

 

 

As for the nick-nacks I keep in my bag, the lil’ guys that help me get the job done, I have the ML-L3 wireless remote, as well as the MC-DC2 shutter release cable if I’m doing astro photography (pictures of the night sky). I also keep several lens cleaning cloths, lens pens and clean wipes in my bag at all times, and even usually sport one on a little clip on my belt loop so I always have the means of cleaning my glass.

Finally, I always take my battery charger with me, as well as at least one extra DSLR battery (usually two), and plenty of  long-lasting non-rechargeable AA batteries for my Nissin 866, and most importantly of all: EXTRA MEMORY CARDS!!!! None of the other equipment matters without the memory cards to capture it.

And that’s just in my shoulder bag….let me spotlight a couple other photographers’ gear bags over the next couple months, and then maybe I’ll tell you what I keep in my backpack for weddings and bigger events. Keep shooting and keep checking in with us as I share what’s in the gear bags of our local pros. In the meantime: Happy Hunting!