Gig photography

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ashleygiles88

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Ashley
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I all,

Just a quick one wit regards to gig photography.

I've been asked to take photos at the indigo2 for a friends band.

Can anyone give me some advice of shutter speeds, aperture, lens ect.

I have a Sony a290 with kit lens and a 70-300 sigma lens too. I am looking at a fish eye lens that I may have by then.

Suggestions and help please :-)

Thank you
 
Search the forums for gig photography, there's alot of good information on here, really helped me when i started out.

I tend to use my 24-70mm or 70-200mm both between f2.8 and f4.0 depending on light.

I use my camera in manual mode, shutter speed of 1/125 if you can manage, anything below 1/80 will be blurry, although you can sometimes get a nice effect at that speed.

If it's a dark venue you'll really have to play with your shutter and ISO settings to find something that works.

Dont focus on getting perfect pictures, just enjoy the experience, mess about with your camera settings, and find what works.

Flash can sometimes be useful too.
 
ashleygiles88 said:
I all,

Just a quick one wit regards to gig photography.

I've been asked to take photos at the indigo2 for a friends band.

Can anyone give me some advice of shutter speeds, aperture, lens ect.

I have a Sony a290 with kit lens and a 70-300 sigma lens too. I am looking at a fish eye lens that I may have by then.

Suggestions and help please :-)

Thank you
Click to expand...

I think you will really struggle with those lenses.. Gigs are dark, usually very dark, so you need a very wide aperture to get shutter speeds fast enough to freeze the performers. Most venues do not allow flash, so you will be relying on your aperture and ISO to do the work for you.
My starting point is f/2.8 and ISO 1600. I can then adjust as needed. Preferably lower the ISO if you can.

I'd highly recommend buying or renting a good low light lens, a 50mm f/1.8 or similar.
The sigma 70-300 will be next to useless at the long end, as your aperture will be around f5.6, which is far too slow.
 
It will, but fisheye is very specialised. If you, or more importanly the band like that style then fine, but I'd prefer a more standard focal length and style.
 
ashleygiles88 said:
Thank you everyone for your input!

I'm Looking at getting a f2.8 fisheye lens for the event.

Hopefully this should do the trick?

Ash
Click to expand...

Fisheyes are very selective and unless you've got alot of money, you'll end up with a very fast fisheye lens thats not that good at much else unless you know your way around PP programmes. You're kit lens will be the best one for you, many reasons.

If it breaks, it's usually the cheapest to fix.

It's not slow and it's not fast.

Decent focal length, wide to sharp prime territory.

6272665839_52667c2949.jpg


6272663059_35e1781786.jpg


Both of the above images were done on my 500D. No post processing other than a bleach bypass effect in lightroom. Have some fun with long exposure!
 
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