Field Report - Sony Alpha A7II - Concert Photography

The Sony Alpha A7II has been an incredible addition to my collection of cameras. While there is a lot of buzz going around with the A7RII, and rightfully so, I just don’t think I can manage dealing with files that have more than 24 megapixels.  My fellow Canon shooting friend, who happens to be a recent Sony convert, would definitely benefit with all the improvements made to the autofocusing system especially when adapting Canon glass. As much as I would like to comment on all of the A7RII’s improvements, I have absolutely zero field time with it, but I do with the A7II.

The wonderful Jenny Kidd as Alice of the Diamond Mad T Party Band - Testing out gear here is not only entertaining but also educational =)

Photography Tip #4 - The exposure triangle for available light photography

Ashley Morgan, one of the new Alices to grace the MTP
ISO 1000, f/2.8 at 1/320th second

For several years, I was the photographer who relied on the automatic modes to help me properly expose an image. Scratch that, I relied solely on Aperture Priority mode for all shooting conditions. It wasn't until I decided to get serious about sports and concert photography did I realize I was severely limiting my ability capture decent photos. In a previous post, I discussed how important it was to have the appropriate shutter speed to stop motion. There are multiple ways to properly expose an image and depending on your shooting conditions certain settings are more appropriate than others. In this post, I want to help you use a base line reading from your automatic modes to get you to the settings necessary to capture the image you need in Manual mode.

The wonderful Dani Kerry as Alice - shot at ISO 1000,
f/4, 1/250th second 

The exposure triangle consists of 3 separate and controllable features in your camera: Shutter Speed, ISO, and Aperture. The chart below breaks down each individual component of the triangle by one stop. Strangely, I believe wikipedia describes a stop in the most appropriate way: "stops are...unit[s] used to quantify ratios of light or exposure, with each added stop meaning a factor of two, and each subtracted stop meaning a factor of one-half". Each jump to right in the chart below means you gather twice as much light, while a move to the left means you gather half as much light. 

Shutter Speed

1/4000th

1/2000th

1/1000th

1/500th

1/250th

1/125th

1/60th

1/30th

1/15th

1/8th

Freezes motion & gathers less light -----------------------> Introduces motion/blur & gathers more light 

ISO (sensitivity of camera sensor to light)

100

200

400

800

1600

3200

6400

12800

25600

51200

Clean images & gathers less light ----------------------------------> Grainier images & gathers more light

Aperture

f/32

f/22

f/16

f/11

f/8

f/5.6

f/4

f/2.8

f/2

f/1.4

Greater depth of field & gathers less light  -------------> Shallower depth of field & gathers more light