live band photography

[gorlummeeguvnor]

I am looking for advice on how my daughter can best take photo's of live bands in late night pub settings. She is using a nikon D40 with the standard 18-55 lens. Using a flash is frowned upon although not entirely out of the question. Any tips, suggestions or ideas would be would be great.
Cheers.

[loydall]

Well - the basics - as high an ISO as you can use before noise becomes a problem (play around with ISO settings and find the highest you can go to with the quality still OK). And - as wide an aperture as you can get (especially if you're shooting close ups on faces). I don't know about that lens but I'd imagine it would open up to around f/4.

Then - your shutter speed is going to be the variable - once you've got your ISO and your aperture fixed, the shutter speed is going to dictate exposure. There's not going to be much light so expect longer shutter speeds to be slow and to get a few blurred photos but take loads and you should be ok.

Next thing - bit more complicated but not too difficult - if the pub has spot lights on the band and their faces are lit up more than the surroundings, use spot metering on the camera and take your exposure reading just of their faces - that way you might get a faster shutter speed and get a nice dark background but with their faces correctly exposed - for that proper "on stage" look.

If there's an area of the pub where you have a bit of space, use a tripod.

And - experiment with similar lighting set ups before the night - that way you should have your camera set up reasonably ok for the night.

Hope that helps.

[gorlummeeguvnor]

Thanks very much for the tips. I will try to get her to post one or two of the photos so perhaps you could take a look and give her some suggestions. Hope thats ok and thanks again

[loydall]

Yeah cool. Post away.

[WannaBe_80z]

Loydall pretty much covered everything you need to think about to get started.

Awaiting some shots!

[gorlummeeguvnor]

to post photos what is the best format - Jpeg?
thanks

[frex]

to post photos what is the best format - Jpeg?
thanks

jpg is fine...a good size is app 800x500 and a file size around 150 kb

[WannaBe_80z]

Yeah I resize mine for flickr to 750 wide of landscape and 450 wide of portrait. and square is always different but usually around 500-600 wide.

I'm going through my live stuff and I'll post some stuff I've done and see if that's what you're looking for and I can help explaining what I did for each shot.

[WannaBe_80z]

Here's my last gig I did a couple weeks ago. 40D with Tamron 17-50 and Canon 430EX.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbis...7623975913778/

and here is on of the very first shows I ever shot.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbis...7600026962842/

[TheEnigma]

OOh long time since I posted!

Nothing really to add, but the spot metering trick is a great idea.
The only thing I would add - if you do resort to using a flashgun, dont flash it right into the band - I usually bounce it off a wall depending on the situation and where I am.

Results can come out quite odd!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zuggzug...7623173868576/

[loydall]

Maybe she should gel the flash? If there are disco lights she could kinda pick any colour she wanted to gel with and it would probably look better than a bare flash. Even swap the gels around during the shooting to get a load of different colours.

[TheEnigma]

Maybe she should gel the flash? If there are disco lights she could kinda pick any colour she wanted to gel with and it would probably look better than a bare flash. Even swap the gels around during the shooting to get a load of different colours.

Very true!
Not something I have at the moment, looking for nice ones for my Sigma DG500

[loydall]

Not sure if this is too late for this thread but this might be useful: http://www.lightstalking.com/concert-photography-2

[gorlummeeguvnor]

cheers for all the input and sorry for the time its taken to get back. My daughter is a teenager and with the vagaries of musicians its taken rather longer than i anticipated to post the photos.
If you all fancy offering up some directed criticism, advice and comments that would be great . She/I am hoping for tips on photography but also tips on photoshoping .

[WannaBe_80z]

I went to a show over this past weekend that I will try to get some samples up from. I usually go to this same venue to shoot for a group of DJ's but only 1 of them was opening for the big name so I wasn't asked to shoot it so I didn't have all my usual gear with me. But on the way I was asked if I was going to shoot it just for some personal photos so I ended up shooting the whole show anyways...

I only had my 40D + Sigma 30 1.4 for 95% of the shots and a couple shots with the Tamron 17-50 but NO external flash so it was interesting. I shot a lot at ISO1600 and a few at 3200. I would LOVE a 5D so I wouldn't worry about 3200 as much and even use 6400 no problem for these types of shots.

PS: I know it may sound like a cop out but high iso shots that get that crappy noise and color crap all over the photos are best to convert to B&W. It makes it seem like a nice old B&W film with the noise and it adds more focus to the subject that the color variations might take away.

[loydall]

gorlummeeguvnor - those 2 shots are a good start. Maybe a little dark but that's always going to be an issue when shooting in low-light situations. Photoshop might be able to help there.

Shot #1, it looks like the focus is on the microphone rather than the singers face but the idea of the shot is nice.

Shot #2, That might, as wannaBe says, look good converted to black and white.

Good start!

[WannaBe_80z]

I opened them but totally forgot to even comment!

Photo #1 - Really nice shot but like Loydall said the microphone is obscuring the main subject you're trying to capture. That is a huge thing with live bands such as that with a full band with mics all over the stage. Always be aware of the stuff that may get in your way. If you can get to a show early try to scope out how the equipment is arranged and walk around and find what the best angles are for each member and perhaps an overall coverage shot. Then while the show is going on walk around to the pre-scouted spots.

#2 is the same thing as above. Just be aware of things in the way. If you just took a big side step to the right it would have moved that mic out of the subject on the rights face and then you would of got both unobscured.

Hope that helps. I'm moving tomorrow so hopefully Sunday I can sit down and edit something.

[gorlummeeguvnor]

thanks for the responses and input. That will give her something to think about. Also - to stop the grainy or noisy look to the photos how do you take photo's in dark areas without the iso being set to 800 or 1600?