Thursday, September 29, 2011

Black and White Photography at Concerts with Canon EF 24 to 105 mm f4 L IS lens

Black and White Photography at Concerts with Canon EF 24 to 105 mm f4 L IS lens


Black and White photography is by far my favorite when compared to color photography. u really cant go wrong with B&W pics and when the exposure is bang on , the photos look the best and very dramatic.

I attended a gig in Bangalore called Impending Doom and wanted to experiment with my newly acquired Canon EF 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS USM glass. i had previously used the lens , extensively to cover a 3 day wedding ceremony and it perfectly complimented the Canon 580 exII speedlite. but this event was way way tougher to capture

some of the constraints of shooting i faced were
  • indoor event, so zero natural light
  • too many 'disco' lights like red, green, blue and strobe effects
  • constantly moving subjects and focusing was a problem as well
  • ISO had to keep changing due to various lights

for shooting in such extreme conditions, i simply did the following
  1. since the ambient light kept changing every 3 seconds and the disco lights didnt really help with the focusing, i kept the ISO on auto for most of the live performance shots. and the focusing on the 4L glass is pretty fast, even though it would have been a lot faster with the f 2.8 lens i managed to capture some really good shots. The 3 stop IS (Image Stabilization) was excellent in controlling image blur or camera shake as i clicked hand held and not using a tripod
  2. Shot using AV mode and let the camera decide the shutter speeds
  3. i also changed the focusing to AI focus since the subjects would be still at times and headbanging the rest of the times. so i needed an intelligent focusing.
  4. changed the drive to H continuous, to capture those "blink and u might miss it" shots

several advantages with the Canon EF 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS USM lens.
excellent quality and sharp images even at the max focal length
i managed to get some very good close up shots and the handy 105 mm zoom lets u get right in the middle of the action. and finally its an L series lens. high end, excellent build quality and an all round multi purpose lens



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