concert photos

Tooky

I could really use some help on how to take good concert shots - low lighting, flash not allowed, and subjects moving. I tried to shoot some musicians last night - got a few good pics, but most have some blur. I'm sure they would have turned out better if I'd had my tripod but I wouldn't carry that around in a club. So, any advice out there?? Thanks!

claudermilk

What gear? Basically the fastest lens you can get (that means for zooms, $$$$ and f2.8, or primes & commonly f1.8, or $$$$ and f1.4 or f1.2). A DSLR with clean high ISO (advantage Canon here) helps a lot. Run in aperture-priority to force the lens to stay wide open. I usually stay in center-weighted mode to make sure my main subject is correctly exposed at the sacrifice of the edges of the frame. IMHO P&S need not apply, they just don't have the necessary capability.

wxwax

claudermilk basically summed it up.

You need the fastest glass you can afford, mounted on a body that gives you clean high ISO shots. Personally, I find f2.8 to be way too slow. I don't know Nikon's range. But in small clubs I can get close to the stage, so I mostly use prime lenses between 35 mm and 85mm, in the f1.2 to f1.8 range.

Then do whatever you need to do to get your shutter speed high enough to freeze the action.

Use your histogram regularly. And if you're lucky, your histogram will show you all three color channels. Small club lighting is wickedly bad and often heavily weighted toward one color. Beware. A combined histogram might look fine. But in fact, one of the color channels might be blown out. If it is, you've lost detail, never to see it again.

Shoot in RAW if you can. But the truth is that you can't mess around too much with a high ISO shot. Start increasing the exposure on the file, and you'll soon see ugly noise appearing. Best to get it right in camera.

Focus is also extremely difficult. If you're shooting with anything less than a full frame sensor, accurate manual focusing is hard - your viewfinder image is just too small. Dark clubs make it almost impossible. So you have to rely on autofocus. But autofocus likes bright, contrasty things, and might grab something bright that's near your subject, but isn't your subject. Like a cymbal instead of a drummer: drummers are hard, they're often in the dark and surrounded by highly reflective things. I use a single focus point, and try to be really careful about what it's aimed at.

Here's a gallery with some of my stuff, where I (slowly!) learned how to do this.

Tooky

Thank you so much for your comments/advice!! I really appreciate it. I was definitely using the wrong lens - I was using a 18-70mm f/3.5...and my camera is a Nikon D200. I will absorb your advice and try it again next week!

Dramatapix®

Tooky wrote:

Thank you so much for your comments/advice!! I really appreciate it. I was definitely using the wrong lens - I was using a 18-70mm f/3.5...and my camera is a Nikon D200. I will absorb your advice and try it again next week!

I've definitely had my best luck with my 1.4 50mm lens, but also have gotten some decent shots with my 2.8 lenses. One of the things that helps is to affiliate yourself with a paper or an online music site and then use that affiliation to secure photo credentials. By getting up close to the action you can use less expensive fixed lenses rather than zooms. Feel free to check out my music galleries at:

http://www.dramatapix.com/Music

Brett

sirsloop

IDK about Nikon... If I was shooting Canon it woudl be 20/30D + 50mm F1.4 lens + ISO 3200 + front row

Steve Cavigliano

Tooky,
Agree with all that has been posted so far. Speed is key. Your pics are probably blurred because the shutter speed was too low. Which is the main disadvantage of using "slow" lenses. By slow, under these conditions, I mean a lens with a max aperture above F2, or so. Even relatively "fast" F2.8 lenses may not cut it in really poor lighting.

I'd second, or third, the motion to get some faster glass and try for speeds close to 1/125. This should slow most motion. A little motion blur can be very kewl Speeds higher than 1/125 will pretty much "freeze" the action Unless there is dancing or other fast movement involved. The problem is, that in really poor lighting, you may have to use ISO1600 and you still may not be able to get 1/125 speeds. Let alone higher speeds.

Hey, that's the challenge of doing this type of shooting If it was easy and everyone could do it, the results wouldn't be anywhere near as precious to you.

BTW, there's a huge thread here regarding music/concert shots that may give you some tips and information you can apply to your shots.


Good luck, good shooting and welcome to Dgrin :-)

Steve

SloYerRoll

I'll jump in and say thanks to everyone as well for the info.
I used to do amateur band shots for a few friends bands before I had a clue or a good camera (or good shots).
This thread sheds allot of light on what I really need to be doing next time I go into a bar/band venue.
Shooting something like this and knowing your going to come out w/ good shots (mostly) must be an awesome feeling!

-Jon

thirdlife

Tooky wrote:

I could really use some help on how to take good concert shots - low lighting, flash not allowed, and subjects moving. I tried to shoot some musicians last night - got a few good pics, but most have some blur. I'm sure they would have turned out better if I'd had my tripod but I wouldn't carry that around in a club. So, any advice out there?? Thanks!

Fast lens (wide aperature) is going to be your best option.
I shoot with a Nikon 50mm 1.8F which works well at ISO 800.
I am also saving up for a 85mm 1.8F so I can get a bit more reach.

Another trick I found is following the lights. Usually the lighting dims and brightens thoughout a show. Take note when the light starts getting brighter and then shoot shoot shoot.

White balance can also be a challenge with the lights changing, but I think for this type of photography it is not as important.

Seefutlung

Along with fast lenses ... don't forget high ISO also ... This was shot at ISO 3200 without any noise reduction.

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