Low light concert - Brazilian Choro music - Shot with 7D

8string

8string

Well-known member
Well, my 7D and Sigma 17-50 2.8 made the difference between getting a job shot or not. My HMC 150 could not handle how low the light in this church was, and the lighting guy refused to boost the lights. The opening establishing shot was the 150. I was left with a single 7D camera angle and some cutaways (which likely is going to make me go out and buy a T2i body to have as a B camera). For technical details, it was on a monopod, and I tried not to breath..(G). I think the ISO was likely 1200, maybe higher. These two long time buddies from Brazil have been traveling and teaching in the Pacific NW, and their incredible in sync performance was a true treat for them to get shot in HD. The bottom line, while this is not perfect, is that the customer was very very happy. To me that's the bottom line. Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/22820152
 
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Colors seem off. Did you white balance? If not you can always correct the white balance in post. I would suggest for something this dark a faster lens. A sigma 30mm 1.4 while more telephoto is still a pretty good distance to record someone with an excellent picture. The 50mm imo is way to telephoto for indoors. 30mm and lower is perfect. The ideal lens would be a 24mm 1.4 but that lens is insanely expensive.
 
Yes, I did white balance, but the lighting was so poor it was pathetic. The lighting was done to be dramatic, there was virtually no white light, just colored gels that I did not feel were right. To be clear, my HMC 150 did not capture this because the lighting was too low. If I didn't have the Canon, I would not have been able to record this. I personally think it captured the essense of the gig as the lighting made it feel. I have a few lenses, but I'm not likely to go buy another lens just for a dark shoot! I was shooting the 50 mm at 2.4 with this. The 30 mm would not have been the right lens, regardless of F stop. The 24 would have been twice as far away. Remember, this was a concert first and I was shooting that. It was not a music video. I think your recommendations are not quite in line with the reality of the shoot. Thanks anyway.
 
Any reason you can't get up and Move? A sigma 30mm or Even a Canon 50mm would have given you a nicer image than your current lens.

I know this is not a Music Video and have shot several performances which in fact were very more so chaotic than this with people jumping around and even off stage. The main advantage of using these dslrs are for having fast glass, if you think that's not important you need to do some research.


Learn to take a critique and step outside of your world and think why someone else might give you some suggestions :thumbsup:

ps. You mentioned you used a 2.8 lens for this shoot and then say you stopped it down to 2.4?
 
Typo on 2.4. Wasn't being critical of your thoughts just giving you background info. 2.8 seems plenty fast to me. I also have a faster 50mm but it was in the case & the one on the camera was fine. I did move around and shot some establishing shots, but the musicians actually preferred this simple view & wanted it up on YouTube fast. They wanted to focus on themselves rather than the venue. I'm now back at home & will likely reedit for my own use. Sometime moving around in a sit down gig gets both the listeners & musicians upset. I've been told that in order to shoot some gigs I have to be locked down on tripod or no shoot. When folks pay upwards of $20 they often don't appreciate someone moving around in their field of vision. I only posted to show that it saved my day having a DSLR over my trusty 150, which i was hoping would be the b camera, in case anyone wondered. Likely will buy a second t2i body for my b camera given this, or an af100. Anyway they r amazing musicians.
 
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Ok. Vision, I've updated the video, with more establishing shots, cutaways, editing, etc. would love your thoughts on it now.

new version is now listed on the original post.
 
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