24pA @ night/concert lighting

S

s-audio

Active member
I will be shooting a outdoor concert at night time and I was planing to use 24pa.
My concern is low light levels. Any concerns I should have? Or any tips that might make this go smoother? The lighting system is usually pretty nice but I still have some questions.

When I set my exposer, should I be riding it as the lighting changes? It would seem to me that it would have to be slight changes so it won't be noticeable when watching the video later. This might be tough because I can't predict the changes.

Or should I just get a good overall exposer and let the lights do there thing, except where it absolutely needs changing.

I'm going to go with the preset of 32k as suggested elsewhere on the forum for the white ballance.

Any help would be great!

Thanks. Ron
 
You just have to check it visualy, If it goes from dusk to night then you might have some exposure changes, Or if your lights change, but all it takes watching it. As far as the white ballance, 32 k should work as long as the lights are tungston, If they are some kind of arc lights or flos you might want to white ballance. shoudn't be that big a deal.
 
Hey Ron,

Here is a question that I have a bit of experience with! I am one of the privileged few to have the huge honor of shooting concerts at the world renowned Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado. Obviously I love my job!

We shoot mainly for the big screen, so that the patrons in the back can see some close up action. We have a small control room underneath the front-of-house mix position. There is a small switcher, a few monitors, and some record decks. We use three cameras: a Sony studio camera on a tripod next to the main audio mixer, (at about row 16-20) and two handheld Canon XL1S cameras down in front of the stage.

We always use the preset 32K white balance after dark. With colored tungsten lighting, this just makes sense. The lighting varies wildly from one show to the next, and it is constantly changing on any given night. We always use all manual settings. We constantly ride the iris. Yeah, it can be tough, but it's a must. The zebra patterns are set at 95 and we use them to iris accordingly. One second the stage will be dark, then the next second the stage will be so bright it could hurt your eyes! Shutter speeds tend to stay at the default (off/60) settings except for special effects.

Sometimes the lighting is too dark for video. If that happens, we usually try to reason with the lighting technician. They will usually respond well if we explain to them what it is that we are trying to accomplish. This doesn't always work though. If the lighting just isn't working, we do the best that we can with what we have.

If you can shoot the show with two or three cameras, it will increase your odds of being able to put together a nice package in post. Good luck, and if you have any more questions, I’ll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
 
Thanks guys.
Some great info. I shot last night and I'll be shooting again tonight. The lighting guy is very easy to work with so I'll try to have him leave some light between songs.

One thing a had a little problem with was focus while zoomed all the way. The tripod cam out front had to be pretty far away due to a small pond in front of the stage!

It came out very good, Video and sound wise but there were lots of dragon flies in the shot due to the water.......
I guess is go with what ya got.

thanks again for helping me out.

Ron
 
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