I need some help with band photography

bigtwinky · Jun 4, 2009

farmerj said:
Why are you using ISO200?

If you are going to use your D200, crank that baby up and get it to ISO1000 at least.

Try to keep it low to keep the noise down, but try a higher ISO.

The user has a D200? His profile lists a 40D, so I guess I missed something somewhere.

farmerj · Jun 4, 2009

Sorry, I got the OP mixed up with delizo23

William Petruzzo · Jun 4, 2009

The 20D's high ISO function got a little rough. It's likely that two models later it's improved quite a bit. Why not go out and shoot some test pictures in low light on various ISO levels?

delizo23 · Jun 5, 2009

i shot at iso200 with my d200 and i got grainy results! i actually find that the D200 is bad in high ISO situations. i used to have a D80 and it seemed like that sensor was better with high ISO. but maybe i might be doing something wrong. what else makes a picture grainy?

gsgary · Jun 5, 2009

delizo23 said:
i shot at iso200 with my d200 and i got grainy results! i actually find that the D200 is bad in high ISO situations. i used to have a D80 and it seemed like that sensor was better with high ISO. but maybe i might be doing something wrong. what else makes a picture grainy?

When shooting high ISO your exposure has to be spot on, i shoot bands at iso1600 and 3200, this shot is iso3200 http://gsgary.smugmug.com/photos/497531703_dQVoU-L.jpg

Phazan · Jun 6, 2009

Done with the shoot! I think they turned out pretty well, thanks for the advice everyone. I'm probably going to post some later, if anyone is interested

farmerj · Jun 6, 2009

:addpics:

JamieR · Jun 6, 2009

Canon 40D
ISO3200
f/4
1/25
with 50mm 1.8

Taken in near enough darkness, you can see a considerable amount of noise, but it's not THAT bad. I'd imagine the gig will be allot lighter than this, so a lower ISO should be fine.

Phazan · Jun 7, 2009

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/general-gallery/167527-band-pictures.html#post1620759

Here are some of the pictures. What does everyone think? Did they get their $50 worth? (There are more pictures than these, I just picked out 5 of them to show on here)

Henry Peach · Jun 11, 2009

I'm coming in late, but here's my advice...

Go to your local library and look in the oversized book section for one of those giant Rolling Stone Magazine photo books. After you look through it you will be less concerned about noise/grain; it's traditional in live music photography. What is important is capturing the action and emotion. If you get a great shot no one will care if it's noisy.

Learn raw. I shoot my 40D at ISO 1600/3200 all the time for live music and wedding photography, and 8"x12" prints look very clean. Most of the noise problems in out-of-the-camera jpegs is because of crude, over done, in-camera processing. Once you learn raw you can start experimenting with push processing. Push processing is intentionally underexposing, and bringing it back in processing. It works much better from a raw file than a jpeg. I've pushed my 5D to ISO 51200, and the results are good enough (in BW) that I've got those prints hanging in a show right now. Also raw makes wb adjustment easy, which can be nice with lots of crazy colored lights.

Fast lenses are a must!

If I've got to use really low shutter speeds I switch to machine gun mode. I shoot in bursts of 3, and often the second or third shot is sharper than the first. I hate editing through lots of similar pics though, so I try to avoid this.

Keep practicing

Check out my live music photography here HenryPeach.com Gallery - Home

Marissa Foto · Jun 23, 2009

Phazan said:
^I have a flash, I'll see if I can use it. Those pictures are pretty cool too!
Thanks for the replies everyone, I guess I'll have to settle for grainy pictures haha. I really hope I can use a flash, that seems like my best bet but I'll have to play around. I have a 3 song, and then later a 4 song area to try and get some good pictures..Then back up to run the camcorders Busy night haha

And another thing though, they want me to get "artistic" shots. Like one behind the drummer they said, looking into the crowd? If anyone has any ideas, please let me know! Thank you

I shoot a lot of bands and one thing they, and their managers hate, is a giant flash going off in front of them.

My live music gallery is at www.marissafoto.com.

lonesomexloveus · Jun 25, 2009

i shoot bands all the time, and i just use my on camera flash. i've found that adding the extra sb600 i could doesn't really add anything to my photos at all.

you can see some of the stuff i've done at: www.myspace.com/allisonfrankphotography

OR my flickr user name is allisonefrank