This quick tip will ‘share some light’ on exposure settings when shooting a concert… or really anything that has a spotlight. Photographer David Bergman tells us his experience firsthand – “I shoot a lot of concerts and fans ask me all the time what exposure settings they should use with their camera to get the best shots. I can’t give you specific numbers because every situation is different but I’ll give you some tips to help you get to the right place. If you simply put your camera on an auto mode at a concert the odds are your subject is going to be way too bright.”
“Why does this happen? In most cases there’s a spotlight on the subject and the face is lit up properly but everything around them might be really dark making your camera brighten up the whole image to try to compensate. This is true whether it’s a big concert or even if it’s your kids high school play. The thing to realize is that even though the production lighting might be changing color and brightness constantly, the spotlight is a very consistent source of light. It’s always creating the same exact exposure on the subject, so you simply need to figure out what that exposure is and then lock it in on manual mode.”
“There are a number of ways to figure out that exposure, but the easiest way is to just start somewhere and adjust as necessary until you get it right. Most of the time you’ll want your ISO pretty high and your aperture open as wide as your lens will allow. Then play around with your shutter speed until you get the lead singers face so it’s just right. This works even if you’re using a point-and-shoot camera, the only difference between that and a DSLR is that you usually can get away with higher ISO’s and wider apertures on the big cameras, so you’ll wind up with slower shutter speeds on your point-and-shoot, and more of your shots will have motion blur, some of them will still be usable, but a few of them won’t be.”
*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with David on Instagram and Twitter @DavidBergman. LATEST UPDATE: David opened up new IGTV episodes where you can ask him questions live! find out more at http://www.AskDavidBergman.com
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Watch the full episode with David Bergman and Adorama TV: