Festival season had begun! With Lowlands, Pinkpop and Mysteryland coming up, British photographer and Canon ambassador Paul Underhill shared five tips for capturing your favorite festival moments.
Paul Underhill has more than twenty years of experience photographing festivals around the world and has served as the official photographer for events including Glastonbury and Mysteryland. He explains how to capture the best moments in a photograph, for example by choosing a unique perspective. He also discusses how to play with light and dark, colors and emotions, and which camera is best suited to the job.
Play with Light and Dark
It is wonderful that festivals last all day and sometimes even several days, but that immediately presents a challenge. You may have to work with sunshine, bright blue skies and clouds as well as twilight, dark skies and powerful lights. During the day, focus on the festival’s unique features; in the evening, move into the crowd to take photographs.
Tip: Use automatic flash during the day to brighten your photograph and prevent deep shadows. Photographing in the dark is difficult, so let your camera do the heavy lifting. Use automatic settings; the right shutter speed and ISO values will give you the best result.
Photograph Colors and the Crowd
The middle of the crowd is the best place to capture the festival atmosphere. It also puts you in the perfect position when, for example, colorful streamers are launched from the stage. Keep your camera ready because moments like these pass quickly. Make the most of the zoom and try shooting from several angles.
Tip: Use a wide-angle lens to create atmospheric photographs filled with color. It lets you capture the crowd in detail. Apply a retro filter to give the image even more atmosphere.
Tell Stories with Video
Besides photographing the performers, you can make beautiful videos at festivals. There is something magical about filming people while they are relaxed and enjoying the music and the acts onstage.
Tip: Turn on stabilization in advance so you can dance along to the music while filming. Make your video more creative by experimenting with playback speed. Using a still image in your video? Zoom in to bring your favorite act or performer closer.
Capture the Festival Lights
The most spectacular images are often made during the festival finale, when the light show begins and vivid colors stand out against the dark sky. Fireworks and laser shows create a wonderful effect in photographs, so make sure you are there.
photo: © Paul Underhill
Tip: Use the ‘short burst’ shutter setting to capture the light. This often creates fantastic patterns. You can also set the camera to fireworks mode to photograph the explosions in the sky. Remember to point your camera at the crowd during the light show as well. When the people are illuminated, you can get the most beautiful shots.
Watch the Details
Look carefully around you, because detail photographs are especially interesting at festivals. Try taking a photograph upward from ground level, or choose another perspective and capture ‘hidden treasures.’ There are endless opportunities for beautiful detail shots like these.
Tip: Draw inspiration from the design of the festival grounds. Set your camera to macro mode and capture the festival’s beautiful colors, light and setting down to the smallest details.
About the PowerShot SX710 HS
This powerful, compact pocket-size superzoom camera was presented as a way to make beautiful festival photographs and videos to share with others. A 30x zoom lens and advanced features help capture memorable moments in detail. Because the camera is so compact, the PowerShot SX710 HS is easy to take anywhere. It was promoted as an ideal companion for festival season.
Get closer to the action and create impressive, detailed images with the zoom. It can produce sharp, detailed photographs and even video in low light. The intelligent Optical Image Stabilizer adapts to each situation. With a 20.3-megapixel sensor and Canon’s powerful DIGIC 6 processor, it can create vivid, sharp and clear images in a wide range of conditions. Even in the dark, it captures the atmosphere with clear colors and little noise without using flash.
Simply press the record button to capture smooth, high-quality Full HD video (60p/30p). Advanced noise reduction also helps produce striking footage in low light, while a 5-axis Dynamic Image Stabilizer keeps the image steady even when you are dancing at the festival.
