Shutter to Think: Big hair and a leopard-print exposure

We’re going to get a bit geeky here, so bear with me.

It was suggested from a reader and former colleague that I perhaps talk about camera settings for some of my images.

The most challenging is when you’re faced with lighting conditions that are changing constantly.

Take the recent show of 1980s throwback band Hairbangers Ball at Tampico Days.

After getting past the choking hazard caused by a thick fog of Aqua Net, your next quest is to capture a well-exposed image that stops the action and looks good too.

Now, this last part was relatively easy – given that we had denim, spandex and a menagerie of animal prints adorning the subjects.

Exposure and stop-action are a different challenge. The band members routinely dipped in and out, moving from light to shadow.

To stop the action, you need shutter speed. But to use a higher shutter speed, you need light. On this occasion, the light was harsh and coming from two stands that throw highlights and shadows to and fro. It’s also outdoors, so there’s no reflected light to fill in some of the dark spot.

That’s when you need to lean on lots of luck and a little experience.

The camera wants everything you see through your viewfinder to be the same neutral tone – true even if you have a hair-swinging bassists wearing a leopard-print shirt who is lit with some stage lights against the blackness of a late summer Tampico night.

There’s a lot more night than there is bassist, so our camera wants our musical friend to come out washed-out and overexposed. Now, surely any musician worth his guitar pick will tell you exposure is good, but that’s an entirely different kind of exposure altogether.

I have a pocket device that helps, but this tool isn’t perfect. To grab an image of a stage performer, lit by studio lighting, set your exposure for the face. It’s at that point the tone your device wants the picture to look like. Any small adjustments can be made from there.

For those interested the specs on this image are 1/125 @ f/2.8, 2500 ISO.

– Alex T. Paschal, follow me on Instagram @svmphotogs or message me at apaschal@shawmedia.com.