Concert at ISO 12,800

NikonsandVstroms

F2.8 and dangerously low shutter speeds, it was at a dimly lit cafe but while not great for large prints I was shocked at the results the D700 pulled out in this environment.

rokklym

Concerts are tough to shoot and I think you did pretty good! You really captured the mood well. Its pretty amazing that the D700 at 12800 is similar to my E3 at 1600:cry

D'Buggs

I is impressed.

craig_d

Great pix, and you seem to have made the most of the unavoidable noise with your B&W conversions and contrast/WB choices that give the images the impression of something discovered in a 40-year-old copy of Rolling Stone (especially with that guitarist who looks vaguely like Jerry Garcia!). Good job!

divamum

Just.... wow.

GREAT series, and you turned the "flaws" to your advantage in a big way!

cletus

Thanks. In the past two months I've gone from being perfectly happy with my D70 to wanting a D90 then to wanting a D300s. After seeing your pics I realize I need a D700. Now all I need to do is explain to my wife and daughter that Christmas has been canceled because daddy needs a new camera


Nice pics by the way!

bloomphotog

Not to bad! A few of them just look like old film. Nice job...always better to freeze the shot and have some noise, opposed to a blurry yet clean shot.

NikonsandVstroms

Thanks guys, concert photography is what really got me passionate about this art form in the beginning (and to think I was going to be a 3D modeler ). I used to go to shows once a week with the old D50 and more importantly my N70 with Fuji 1600 color and Kodak TMax 3200! Even back in 2005 shooting film would get lots of stares and comments. The interesting thing last night was that these bands were in the same scene as the ones I was doing photos of, yet somehow our paths never crossed.

Back to the photos I was shocked with how many keepers I got out of it, and I can't say that enough. The D700 is a scary tool and now with the D3s these high ISO's are becoming really usable. And thanks for the compliments with the processing, originally I was going to do all B&W but that first image demanded to be in color so I decided to just have fun and let the images decide their crops/processing.

I am just coming back from another show featuring 2 of those bands and the lighting was ok, nothing great so I was at 6400 most of the time, but when people were out of the light (the stage was no where near fully lit basically just pockets of light) I bumped it back to 12,800 knowing that it can still produce a quality image.

And cletus yes, you need a D700, you need it now

I had more noise at ISO 1600 on my D50 than the D700 @ 12,800 plus with more resolution you can even crop at that ISO! The other thing that is nice is I get to bring out my old MF concert lens!

I think that is enough gushing over the D700, time to do some processing and hopefully un-scatter my brain

NikonsandVstroms

I just finished tonight's photos

The ISO's were not as extreme much of the time and the lighting definitely let me go for more photos in my regular style for concerts.

JohnBiggs

Wish you numbered them. I really like #7 out of the second set.