C&C plus tips for next time. Band photos.

[Nikon_Dude]

Here's six shots I took of my friend's band a few weeks ago. This was my first time shooting a band, and the venue was very dark. They really liked the pictures and want me to come out this friday and take some more, same place. I think I will bring my sb600 and attempt to bounce some flash off wall/ceilings. Very high ceiling though, so not sure how that will work.

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Any specific issues, things to do different next time? I wish I would have got the guys hands fully in the shot on the last picture. And the singer had that damn paper taped to the mic that got in the way in a lot of the shots. I used my 35mm 1.8 lens exclusively, and was very impressed with how well and quickly it focused in such low light.

 

[fokker]

I wouldn't worry about bouncing the flash, you're better off in this sort of situation using it direct. For this type of lighting I will use my flash aimed direct in ETTL mode, usually with about -2/3 stops exposure compensation. Camera in manual mode with settings usually something like f/2 1/80 ISO 1600. My line of thinking is to let in as much ambient light as possible with the wide aperture, high ISO and slowish shutter speed, then let the flash do the thinking to bring it up to a good exposure. That way you still get the nice colours from the stage lighting but you'll get nicely filled in shadows on faces without looking washed out or harsh. Plus you get the addded bonus of AF-assist light and you can adjust your shutter speed all the way up to 1/200 or so if necessary/possible, or stop down the aperture for a bit more depth of field without introducing motion blur.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

Thanks I'll give that a try.

 

[Geaux]

Yeah, what's up with that paper lol. Looks like a bib on him in the first shot. I sure hope those aren't his lyrics lol.

As far as band photography and flash ... wouldn't shooting the flash directly at him kill off any ambient coloring of the stage lighting?

 

[Nikon_Dude]

They were his lyrics. How he could possibly read them like that, I don't know.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

Bump back to the first page. Don't normally like doing that, but I'd like some C&C.

 

[fokker]

As far as band photography and flash ... wouldn't shooting the flash directly at him kill off any ambient coloring of the stage lighting?

No, not if you keep your settings so that you are still letting as much ambient light as possible in the circumstances. These shots of mine were taken with direct flash:

1/80 f/2.8 ISO1600

1/80 f/2.8 ISO1600

1/125 f/2.8 ISO1600

 

[fokker]

Also, nikon dude: I would personally go for your tamron 17-50 lens, the 35mm in this case doesn't seem to be getting you close enough. A longer focal length will also help you compress the background, which helps when you want to exclude things like that pesky exit sign in the background. Not sure what settings you were using but I'm guessing something like f1.8 ISO800 1/60. Your shutter is just a bit low in a few cases, giving you a bit of motion blur and some loss in sharpness.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

The first picture was shot at f1.8 ISO 640 1/30

Last one was f1.8 ISO 1000 1/50

All somewhere in that range. I did try the 17-50 at first but felt I needed extra aperture of the 35mm because I was being forced to go really slow on the shutter or really high on the ISO. Will give it another shot with the flash.