I thought it was about time I shared some knowledge about Live Gig camera settings

I take well over 50,000 live band shots a year – mostly in small clubs with inadequate lighting and 3 songs “no flash” rules.

If it helps anyone here are my default settings:

Canon 5Dmk2 TV mode somewhere between 60 and 125 depending on the style of the band – for metal its 125 for folk its 60 – lol.

Autofocus set to one shot – using the centre point for focus – watching the movement pattern of the performer – half clicking at a known point (nr mike stand for example) and then waiting patiently for them to return to that before the final release. On C1 and C2 (see below) flash (580exii) is set to focus assist but not fire. (This increases the focus speed dramatically and also raises your % of in focus shots).

Iso – between 800-3200 dependant on the lighting set up – normally end up on 2000

Lenses – 50mm f1.2, 85mm f1.2 24-70l f2.8 70-200L IS f2.8 I try and swop about a bit during the 3 songs to get variety and again much depends on the lighting that night.

I always set up the 3 custom c1/c2/c3 at the start of a show with an 800 iso setting as above, a 2000 iso setting as above and then on C3 a flash based setting at manual/60/iso800/f5.6/flash on, rear curtain sync which I use if all else fails and for crowd shots. Having all that set up on the custom settings frees your normal manual/av and TV buttons for a couple of other banker settings so that you are sure to get something.

I don’t claim to be an expert – but my shots regularly get picked up and used by local press etc and I’m getting there – the above settings came through trial and error over thousands of sets.

You can check out my results at www.adamreading.com have a look at the Music page – let me know what you think.

I’d be very interested in any pointers people have to share back with me to improve my work!