Last weekend I did something a little out of the ordinary; I photographed a concert in Beloit at The People’s Church. The ApologetiX is a Christian parody band and they are very entertaining! They take hit songs from pop culture and sing them with a twist; they swap out the lyrics to sing about the gospel instead. They are exceptional musicians and they really put on a great show for everyone.
Concert photography definitely presents new challenges. The main difficulty was working with the constantly changing light. Not only was the light always moving and changing, but the color of the light was constantly changing as well. What I ended up doing was setting up a shot, pulling my eye from the viewfinder and following the spot lights, trying to time my shutter with the moment when the singer would actually be illuminated!
To shoot the concert I used my AF-S 50mm f/1.4G lens. I ramped up the ISO on my camera and worked with the existing stage lighting rather than adding a flash, that way I maintained the atmosphere of the concert in my shots. Fortunately, those spot lights are pretty bright, it’s just tricky snapping the shot at just the right moment.
