Light Trails in Concert Photography featuring Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Bevar Sea

ISO: 400
Exposure: 2.5 sec
Aperture: 5.6

I recently attended a concert in Bengalooru , India on the 31st of March 2012 with 4 top bands dishing out music from death metal to stoner doom and old school.  The bands that performed that night were

• Shepherd (Doom from Bangalore)
• Dhwesha (old school death metal from Bangalore)
• Albatross ( Horror metal band from Mumbai)
• Bevar Sea (Beer soaked stoner doom from Bangalore)

and to my luck , this would be the first gig in India to be covered using the Canon EOS 5D Mark III.

i decided to get creative with the pics here as the venue was really small and crammed. there was no stage for the musicians and the audience was 2 feet away from the band. to make things worse, most photographers who turned up to cover the event were pretty much disappointed coz the lighting was abysmal.

i had taken a few shots on the 50 mm f 1.2 L prime lens but i needed a wider angle with the shots and so decided to use the 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS USM lens. 

in all these shots, the flash was fired using the external speedlite 580 EX II. 

• select Av mode Aperture priority
• narrow down the aperture between f 4 to f 5.6 or even narrower
• focus on the subject and take a shot
• Flash is fired and at such narrow apertures , exposure is longer. during this time just move the camera in any direction, clock wise or horizontal to form patterns .
• review the pic on the LCD screen and try different shots

The flash focus falls on the subject while the long exposure sucks in any available light and hence the cool light trails appear. 

whats needed to get light trails in concerts?

• its good to get close to the band or members, prime lens or even medium zoom lens are a must
• there has to be a good source of ambient light, however dim it might be the results are quite good.
• drinking lotsa beer also helps , so after u have taken a pic and when the long exposure kicks in, move the camera like its on fire !

some more pics from the gig....unfortunately i have done these creative pics with the final band that played that night BEVAR SEA. and i totally loved the end result. The cool thing about this is u dont need a fancy ass camera like the 5D mark III. even a decent point and shoot with aperture controls can do the trick as long as u can get to narrow down the aperture and fire a flash.