Canon 70-200mm F4

HybridUK

HybridUK

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Chris
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Evening all,

I'm going to be taking some shots of a school production very shortly and was wondering if a 70-200mm F4L non-IS would do the trick, or will it be too slow? I have a nifty fifty to fall back on if i really need it. The photos will only be taken during the dress rehersals due to copyright laws. :-/

Any tips for concert photography would be great too.
 
You might struggle to get hand holdable speeds with the none IS version as although concerts are sometimes well lit, it still isnt really great light for getting decent shots (or so I have found). I used my 70-200 F4 IS for the dress rehersal of the local panto a few weeks ago and I was still having to using 1600ISO to get any decent shutter speeds, still got a few shots of blurred people who were moving faster than I could cope with though :(

If you can get close enough I would think you might get some great shots with the nifty, but you might struggle with the 70-200 unless it is really bright or you can use a tripod.
 
Just what i was thinking actually. I don't mind shooting at ISO1600 as long as they provide decentish 6x4 prints without toooooo much noise. I'll take my tripod along aswell just incase. My main role in this is the sound and another colleague on the lights. Hopefully he'll be able to get the lights up nicely for some of the shots.

Many thanks for the very quick reply btw :)
 
I think you'll struggle with the 70-200. If it's a dress rehearsal, you may get them to "freeze" whilst you take the picture. A better approach would be be to stage the pictures. Although a tripod will help stop shake it won't do away with subject movement if you're down to a 1/25 or so. Also if they picture is staged you can be on the stage area which will give a better shot , rather than from the "stalls"
 
True, very true.

What would be the best method of metering when it comes to stage lighting?
 
You probably don't want to use Evaluative as it will probably get the exposure wrong.Ideally I'd go for an incident light reading taken under the lighting for each shot. (Maybe not going to happen though).

It depends on what camera you have and what metering modes are available. Most Canon's support Partial metering which may be better. I would also check the cameras histogram rather than trust totally on the camera meter. If you've the software shoot RAW and post process the images. This is more forgiving when it comes to exposure compensation than jpeg's ever will. Also as you are working on the technical side, try and get a few practice sessions in. Get a few of your mates to "pose" for you so you can get some idea as to what you need to do to get good exposures

Have fun
 
Go for 1600 iso and shoot away. I did and got some lovely shots of my daughters dance school revue. It's a great lens and it will cope.. no problem.:)
 
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