In the first part of this series, I covered my basic four-step approach to determining exposure and also mentioned that I don't rely on in-camera light meters.
My four-step method is an excellent foundation for determining exposure in concert lighting. With practice, you can achieve accurate exposure even as light levels shift, without needing constant review and adjustment. Once you've mastered setting a baseline exposure, as explained in the previous article, you're ready to take your skills to the next level.
In this second installment, I'll share some other techniques that I use in addition to this feedback method.
These three approaches to metering and exposure for concert photography are designed to boost efficiency. With three-song limits becoming the norm, the more time you spend looking through the viewfinder rather than at the LCD, the better.
Please notice:
In addition, dealing with the least number of variables possible will help you with the next technique: memorization.
Facilitate
When I shoot, I strive to keep my exposure settings consistent across different lighting setups. More options don’t always lead to better decisions, and simplifying my approach allows me to focus on the shot itself rather than unnecessary adjustments. The fewer settings you need to adjust, the faster and more efficiently you can work.
By minimizing the amount of information you need to manage and narrowing your options, you achieve a level of simplicity while still retaining the flexibility of manual control.
Memorize
Just as music follows patterns, the design of concert lighting does as well. A lighting technician often revisits the same lighting scheme multiple times throughout a set, sometimes even several times within a single song.
One effective technique for improving your metering workflow in the stage pit is to develop the habit of memorizing the exposure settings.
As lighting settings repeat, having already memorized the exposure for a specific scheme will save you time and allow you to focus on capturing awesome photos rather than getting bogged down by a bunch camera settings.
Anticipate
Believe it or not, your eyes and brain can serve as highly capable and responsive judges of ambient light. Training them can significantly enhance your ability to achieve more accurate and consistent light metering.
In fact, the first step to internalizing light levels is something you’re likely already practicing in the stage pit and even before the show begins: Guessing!
The estimated of the lamount of light is already part of your feedback loop - so make it count and enhance your skills in making those estimations more and more accurate.
Final note
The goal of using these techniques is to reduce the steps between envisioning the shot and capturing it and allowing you to achieve optimal exposure with minimal effort - in a nutshell, this enables you to work as efficiently as possible. By combining all these tricks, you'll be able to adjust exposure on the fly and keeping the post-processing workload to a smal level.
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