By Ian Magnuson
As the photographer of the Prospector, I will be posting photos about every week and explaining exactly how I captured the photograph for the aspiring photographer.
(Note) I will try to water down the technical aspects, but this blog is directed towards people who have a basic understanding of cameras and how to compose a picture.
‘Eat a Slice’
This photograph was taken with a 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6
Photo Stats: Shutter speed of 1/80 sec, F-Stop of f/5.0, ISO speed of 2500 and no flash.
The Camera: I shot this photo with my Nikon D7000.
The Lens: When I went to the Dial Up tour performance for Olan Rogers at the House of Blues, I knew I needed a lens that could capture the moment, but was close enough to get his emotion during his act.
Pre-Shooting: Being a fan of Olan Rogers, I knew how I wanted the photo to look; a close up of him as he said “eat a slice” as he was telling his story of when he went to Chuck E. Cheese when he was younger.
Light: Light is like one of those formulas in math that you must master early because it is the basis of the next fifteen chapters…
When shooting a live show, you want to capture the moment, whether you are doing that with the silhouettes of the observers or with the stage lights. I, in this case, used the stage lights. This is something you can not fully control, but with the right aperture value, ISO speed and shutter length, it will look like you set up the lights.
Shooting: When shooting, you want to look for the perfect angle that is both original and tells the full story. You should make sure the subject is completely in the photo.
Shoot often, but shoot smart.
Shooting a live show is something that you really can not compare to just one thing. It is similar to shooting sports in that many times, you have a very short time frame to take a good photo. It is like shooting in a studio because of all the crazy lighting you have on the subject, but it separates itself from studio shooting because you have no control over the lights. And finally, it is like shooting something with no prior knowledge of it. I say this last thing because with live shows, you don’t know where the performer is going. With football, you know the quarterback is going to throw the ball or run towards the touchdown. But a performer could decide to walk into the audience, sit down, jump up, etc.
Post Shooting: all I needed to do was a little cropping and color balance to make the black more black. Everything else was good.
Keep calm, and eat a slice!