FOTOTOURMONTREAL an >FI3200/ bLOG: It was hot that night

Orgone and their front man guitarist Sergio Rios put on quite a show on one very hot July night in the 2012 edition of the MTL Jazz Fest. Their main stage gig, my close position to the stage combined to my 300mm lens and some terrific charisma from Mr. Rios was the perfect set up to capture the action - Eric

In today's Blog i will expose a few pointers about how we do what we do during event shoots.

The massive popularity of the MTL international jazz fest. makes getting press passes practically impossible, unless you are a major media outlet, or unless the artists themselves hire you for the capturing of the moment.

Hence, to get significant images you need to come in prepared with appropriate gear and early enough to get good position near the stage. With the 50 000 + crowds every night in front of the main stage you will also need a great dose of patience and faith that nothing or no one will elbow someone else's beer onto your precious gear. Technically, you will need knowledge.

The foremost element you will need to master is your lens and camera's auto-focus feature. This precision instrument and your handling of it will determine how many good shots you will muster. You must make sure the feature is set to lock on tracking or single shot lock on with no tracking (i prefer the later) Let your machine do the focusing while you look for the moods, good light and best framing. Not tracking will suit the experienced shooter best as you can decide where, when and what you focus on before you release. If you never calibrated your lens' auto-focus you should

http://focuspyramid.com/

Next most important feature you must regard in these types of conditions is your ISO settings. You want a fast enough shutter speed to avoid movement blur. Your ISO will therefore have to be 2600 at least, to 4000 possibly. Don't shoot under 1/100th of a second unless you are the pro of hand held and panning. The white balance should be at auto as stage light shows and night conditions do not correspond for elaborate white balance settings.

Finally, focal and aperture settings will determine what style and mood your images will present.

But remember, no matter how good you control your camera you can not capture much mood if you don't feel the moment and release at the right moment, that can't be taught ; only talent and experience can guide you to the promised images