Doing a gig tonight!!!! HELP!

DJMorgan

DJMorgan

Messages
1,105
Name
Daniel
Edit My Images
No
What settings should i have it on so i dont get crap images, iv noticed any i take in dark light, e.g I went to a gig tonight, it was kinda dark but i got a lot of blur images, ANYWAY! Doing my gf`s final gig and i want the pics to come out good, but im new with my Nikon D3000, So any idea what i should have it on? :cuckoo:
 
No experience of gig photography but assuming it will be dark, and assuming flash would not be practical or allowed....

They key think you'll need to focus on is shutter speed, the faster it is the less likely you will get blur from people moving or you moving the camera.

If you have an IS lens and can use a monopod \ tripod this will reduce your likelyhood of camera shake. However it won't help you if your shutter speed is still too slow to cature moving people.

To up your shutter speed you can:

1) Up the ISO on your camera eg up to 800 or 1600 instead of 100/200. This will creat more noise in your image, but a sharp noisy image is better than a clean blurred image.
2) Use as low an F number as you can in AV mode (this will depend on the lens you use). I assume you'd be wanting f1.4-f2.8 dependant on light. If your fastest lens is f3.5-4.5 for example at it's fastest you may struggle....

Good luck!

Al
 
I wrote a guide for shooting concerts a few months ago, feel free to take a read through it and hopefully it'll be useful :) Clicky

akr said:
If you have an IS lens and can use a monopod \ tripod this will reduce your likelyhood of camera shake.
Click to expand...

Using a tri/monopod at a concert is fairly poor etiquette tbh, I'd never use one.
 
Gig photography is something that takes a lot of practice to get right! So this will be pretty shoddy advice, and you probably won't get astonishing pictures, but hopefully it'll be better than nothing.

Attach fastest lens you own.
Switch to aperture priority.
Set aperture to f/2.8 (or smaller, but watch your depth of field!)
Ramp up the ISO (and prepare for some noisy images)
If the camera is trying to make the exposures what they'd be in daylight, play around with exposure compensation until it stops trying to take 30 second long exposures :D
Convert the whole lot to black and white, and tell everyone the noise was 'artistic' :D

Ideally, get some practice in. No amount of advice will ever really match the experience. If not, my quick and nasty guide should help a little, but doesn't cover the finer points. You may also want to try spot metering, which should help get a better exposure in the lighting nightmare that is a gig!

Good luck :thumbs:

Chris

Edit: Or ignore me, and read the much better, and far more thorough guide in the above post :rolleyes: :lol:
 
the_doctor199 said:
Using a tri/monopod at a concert is fairly poor etiquette tbh, I'd never use one.
Click to expand...

I'll happily be corrected, as I said no experience myself :)

Out of interest why? I was assuming (again perhaps incorrectly) that you'd get an area to settle down in and as such it might be useful?
 
You will need to use your widest aperture and a high ISO. Not sure what sort of noise you get with a D3000, but it's probably not as good as say the D700 or D3S (?)..Sorry photocopier user! You don't say what lens you are using/if a tripod is being used etc.
Shutter speed...try 1/125 and basically learn from experience. A fast standared zoom is probably best or perhaps a 50mm prime with a wide ap (quite cheap for both canon and nikon)
 
Wrote this while..... watching Cracker, so took me a while, Look at the other posts above, may give better advice. ;-)
 
akr said:
Out of interest why? I was assuming (again perhaps incorrectly) that you'd get an area to settle down in and as such it might be useful?
Click to expand...

At a bigger concert, you'll be in the photo pit (The bit security stand, between the stage and the crowd), it can get quite packed in there, many photographers trying to get the shot in a tight area, a pod just wouldn't be practical.

For a smaller gig, same kind of thing really, except you don't have a barrier, it'd just get in the way of the audience.
 
the_doctor199 said:
At a bigger concert, you'll be in the photo pit (The bit security stand, between the stage and the crowd), it can get quite packed in there, many photographers trying to get the shot in a tight area, a pod just wouldn't be practical.

For a smaller gig, same kind of thing really, except you don't have a barrier, it'd just get in the way of the audience.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info
 
It`s only in like a small bar, you know where most bands tend to try and get big, im doing it for a friend *** its ther last gig so i thought id try n help out lol
 
andrewc said:
high iso, wide aperture, slower than comfortable shutter speed, shoot raw for added flexibility, be prepared to bin a lot of shots.
Click to expand...

See i understand partly what you mean, but im really new with my camera so im struggling to understand how to change all that lol.

:bonk:
 
DJMorgan said:
See i understand partly what you mean, but im really new with my camera so im struggling to understand how to change all that lol.

:bonk:
Click to expand...

I had a quick look at the camera on Google images, don't see a quality button, take a look through your menu and look for something like Quality and you should be able to switch to RAW in there.
 
buy a d700
i used a d70s with 50mm 1.4 the other night i preffered the grainey effect of the d70 [almost film like]
but the percentage usable was about 10% [and i had to work hard for that] compared to my d700.
i also forget how much further you have to stand back on a none fx difficult with a big crowd.
 
I just spent 400 on my D3000, sod that xD! , The gig went ok, lighting was crap though it was like looking in a living room, I thought it would of been on stage etc but it was nothing like that. and doc, ill empty some of it soon !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top