Whether or not it’s centered round historical past, comedy, music, classic Americana, motoring or militaria, there’s a competition for each attainable curiosity – except your curiosity is one thing weird like frog racing. Thoughts you, having stated that, a fast Google search reveals that there are even occasions for that…
Anyway, the problem I set myself was to go to a classic truthful and seize the occasion with only one lens.
Now, when you go together with a primary lens then you definitely’re solely making life arduous for your self – so I am speaking a couple of zoom lens of some kind. Ideally one with a semblance of a large angle, but in addition some first rate attain for these topics which might be additional away. So I settled on a commonplace zoom, my Nikon AF-S 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR. This is the way it went…
Capturing an occasion with a single lens
1) Historic autos
Search for previous autos with fascinating historical past – this canteen van dates from 1936 and was transformed to a tea van, as utilized by the Girls’s Voluntary Service throughout the Blitz in WWII. It’s one in every of solely two surviving examples. I used an f/8 aperture at 24mm. Specializing in the entrance finish of the automobile created sufficient depth of area for all the topic to be in focus.
2) Music undercover
Even when it’s not a music competition, there’s sure to be a band enjoying someplace. Right here the problem was framing, because it was unimaginable to get instantly in entrance of the stage, whereas guaranteeing the shutter pace was quick sufficient to keep away from digicam shake, given the low mild ranges. I aimed for as clear a composition as attainable, elevated the ISO as wanted (ISO400), and set the aperture huge open (f/5).
3) Solo singers
Right here, my compositional limitations have been exacerbated as a result of the singer was additional away. With just one determine, I rotated the digicam into portrait orientation. The sunshine was terrible, so I wanted to dial in ISO640 to get a 1/800 sec publicity at f/4.5. Shot proper on the telephoto finish (85mm) with a little bit of cropping. The singer is positioned so she’s going through into the shot.
4) Colourful portraits
The issue with capturing portraits with a multi-purpose lens is that it doesn’t have a really huge most aperture, so you could do two issues. Firstly, stand way back to attainable and use the lens on the most telephoto attain (85mm right here). The second is to get the topic to face away from distracting backgrounds – this woman was in her tent, so I requested to {photograph} her outdoors it.
5) Objects of curiosity
This stand was run by a few re-enactors, however they have been busy once I wafted by. On their stand was a searchlight and a primary AA gun. The background was utterly cluttered and there was no manner of avoiding it. I used a most aperture of f/4.2 at 42mm, specializing in the gun and searchlight in flip, however it nonetheless meant there was an excessive amount of distracting background element on each pictures for my style.
The decision
My commonplace zoom was advantageous for the wide-angle pictures of autos, and nearly okay for the music pictures, however it wouldn’t have been for a full-scale music competition, as I might have wanted extra attain.
The principle drawback with portraits was that as quickly as I zoomed towards the telephoto finish, the aperture narrowed additional all the way down to f/4.5. This required a good quantity of cautious framing and didn’t present a pleasant bokeh impact within the background.
Nonetheless, when you’ve solely acquired a regular equipment lens, don’t let that put you off getting on the market and capturing some occasions your self. Working with limitations will certainly make you a greater photographer in the long term.
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If you are going to take one lens to a competition, all of it is determined by how distant every little thing goes to be. For a music occasion, you will want an honest telephoto zoom, but when all you are capturing is vehicles, then a wide-angle lens is a greater concept. An honest backpack in your valuable gear is important, it doesn’t matter what occasion you go to.