Concert Photography - D7100

[J-Cal]

Hi everyone,

I've been asked to take some photos of my band from time to time. This genre is totally new to me, and i'm just a hobbyist anyway. So I bought a Nikon 35mm 1.8 to shoot with on my D7100. I only took a couple of shots at the last job because I just didn't have time to take more.

I noticed that the musicians that were in consistent/even low light were much easier to shoot, although I did get some blur when they moved. The singers however, were much more difficult as they were in and out of bright lights, and often partially in them.

I have a couple of questions right off the bat. Sorry if they're really noobish.

One, when people are in the spotlights, should I be exposing for their skin? It seemed that if anything was blown out, it was their skin. Secondly, they had blue lights on them last show as that was how the room was decorated. I wasn't thrilled with shooting in it. Are there lighting colors that are more photogenic than others?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Destin]

Hi everyone,

I've been asked to take some photos of my band from time to time. This genre is totally new to me, and i'm just a hobbyist anyway. So I bought a Nikon 35mm 1.8 to shoot with on my D7100. I only took a couple of shots at the last job because I just didn't have time to take more.

I noticed that the musicians that were in consistent/even low light were much easier to shoot, although I did get some blur when they moved. The singers however, were much more difficult as they were in and out of bright lights, and often partially in them.

I have a couple of questions right off the bat. Sorry if they're really noobish.

One, when people are in the spotlights, should I be exposing for their skin? It seemed that if anything was blown out, it was their skin. Secondly, they had blue lights on them last show as that was how the room was decorated. I wasn't thrilled with shooting in it. Are there lighting colors that are more photogenic than others?

Thanks in advance!

Some colors are definitely better than others.. blue is especially difficult. Red lights look terrible in color but convert remarkably well to black and white.

The spotty lighting is hard.. sometimes you have to let some areas blow out in order to show the mood of the scene properly.

If you're blowing out skin in wide shots try shooting tighter and exposing for the skin. By shooting tighter there will be less surrounding area to underexpose.

I generally expose wide shots for the mood of the stage and tight shots for the stage. The new "highlight priority" metering mode on some nikons is very helpful for this, unfortunately the d7100 doesn't have this mode so that isn't much help for you.

 

[J-Cal]

Hi everyone,

I've been asked to take some photos of my band from time to time. This genre is totally new to me, and i'm just a hobbyist anyway. So I bought a Nikon 35mm 1.8 to shoot with on my D7100. I only took a couple of shots at the last job because I just didn't have time to take more.

I noticed that the musicians that were in consistent/even low light were much easier to shoot, although I did get some blur when they moved. The singers however, were much more difficult as they were in and out of bright lights, and often partially in them.

I have a couple of questions right off the bat. Sorry if they're really noobish.

One, when people are in the spotlights, should I be exposing for their skin? It seemed that if anything was blown out, it was their skin. Secondly, they had blue lights on them last show as that was how the room was decorated. I wasn't thrilled with shooting in it. Are there lighting colors that are more photogenic than others?

Thanks in advance!

Some colors are definitely better than others.. blue is especially difficult. Red lights look terrible in color but convert remarkably well to black and white.

The spotty lighting is hard.. sometimes you have to let some areas blow out in order to show the mood of the scene properly.

If you're blowing out skin in wide shots try shooting tighter and exposing for the skin. By shooting tighter there will be less surrounding area to underexpose.

I generally expose wide shots for the mood of the stage and tight shots for the stage. The new "highlight priority" metering mode on some nikons is very helpful for this, unfortunately the d7100 doesn't have this mode so that isn't much help for you.

Thanks Destin! When you say "mood of the stage" what do you mean? Do you mean you just expose for the overall stage and if people are shadowed out you deal with it of fix it in post production?

 

[Destin]

When you say "mood of the stage" what do you mean? Do you mean you just expose for the overall stage and if people are shadowed out you deal with it of fix it in post production?

Well I mean that concert photography hinges on maintaining the dark mood of the stage lighting. You have to keep the color of the lights and the shadows play a big roll in keeping the mood of lighting that was present in the venue.

You can't just blast the stage with flash or expose everything for the shadows or the highlights... you'll kill one end of the lighting spectrum and your photos will look nothing like the actual venue. You have to find a happy medium, with your exposure which is very difficult with the changing lights. It almost always fools your cameras meter so you have to shoot manual, but that makes it hard to keep pace with the changing lighting conditions.

 

[J-Cal]

When you say "mood of the stage" what do you mean? Do you mean you just expose for the overall stage and if people are shadowed out you deal with it of fix it in post production?

Well I mean that concert photography hinges on maintaining the dark mood of the stage lighting. You have to keep the color of the lights and the shadows play a big roll in keeping the mood of lighting that was present in the venue.

You can't just blast the stage with flash or expose everything for the shadows or the highlights... you'll kill one end of the lighting spectrum and your photos will look nothing like the actual venue. You have to find a happy medium, with your exposure which is very difficult with the changing lights. It almost always fools your cameras meter so you have to shoot manual, but that makes it hard to keep pace with the changing lighting conditions.

Ok, that's what I thought you meant. I don't even own a flash yet and oddly enough I have never used the one on top of the camera. I always shoot manual. Although once in a while i'll shoot auto just to see what the camera picks out of curiosity.

 

[greybeard]

This is what I would do: Set your ISO to Auto, set the minimum shutter speed to a setting that will freeze your action (125-250), select (A)perture priority. Set the Aperture to f/2.8 and snap away. When shooting the lead singer in strong light, spot meter on the highlight and don't worry about the shadows. You can bring them up in post or leave them alone, it may better capture the mood of the show. Rock on

 

[mdruziak]

One thing that I'll throw in here. I agree with what @Destin posted. But regarding lighting and exposing for the face. Some times you may want the faces in the shadows and other times you might not.

So what do you do if a performer's face is in the shadows and you want the face lit? You have to watch the performer and see if at any time he moves so his face (or instrument) is lit by the stage lights. When he moves into the stage light, that's when you shoot your photo. If the performer doesn't move into the light, then you need to take what you get. You might be able to brighten up the face in post.

 

[chuasam]

Not sure about your camera but my D810 has an exposure mode just for stage/concert. It looks like [.]* on the camera.
D810 TIPS | Technical Solutions | Nikon Professional Services

 

[Destin]

Not sure about your camera but my D810 has an exposure mode just for stage/concert. It looks like [.]* on the camera.
D810 TIPS | Technical Solutions | Nikon Professional Services

That's highlight priority.. works for some stages, as long as the brightest lights are on your subject. Won't work well with a strong backlight.

And the D7100 doesn't have it anyway. One of the biggest things I miss when I pick up my 7100 instead of my 500.

 

[J-Cal]

This is what I would do: Set your ISO to Auto, set the minimum shutter speed to a setting that will freeze your action (125-250), select (A)perture priority. Set the Aperture to f/2.8 and snap away. When shooting the lead singer in strong light, spot meter on the highlight and don't worry about the shadows. You can bring them up in post or leave them alone, it may better capture the mood of the show. Rock on

Thanks for the idea. I will try this. I typically shoot in full manual (and avoid the other modes), as I want to learn as much as I can and control everything, but i'll try it.

 

[J-Cal]

I have to admit, I can't seem to find a minimum shutter speed option on the D7100. I only spent a few minutes but honestly, I might just shoot manual with auto iso, and get a starting point, and then go from there.

 

[Destin]

I have to admit, I can't seem to find a minimum shutter speed option on the D7100. I only spent a few minutes but honestly, I might just shoot manual with auto iso, and get a starting point, and then go from there.

It's located in the "shooting" menu, under iso -> auto ISO -> minimum shutter speed

 

[J-Cal]

I have to admit, I can't seem to find a minimum shutter speed option on the D7100. I only spent a few minutes but honestly, I might just shoot manual with auto iso, and get a starting point, and then go from there.

It's located in the "shooting" menu, under iso -> auto ISO -> minimum shutter speed

Thanks. I got it. It just wasn't highlighted, although it does seem that the ISO setting over rides it. It I set the ISO limit too low it auto adjusts the shutter. Learning all types of little things tonight...

 

[mdruziak]

This is what I would do: Set your ISO to Auto, set the minimum shutter speed to a setting that will freeze your action (125-250), select (A)perture priority. Set the Aperture to f/2.8 and snap away. When shooting the lead singer in strong light, spot meter on the highlight and don't worry about the shadows. You can bring them up in post or leave them alone, it may better capture the mood of the show. Rock on

Thanks for the idea. I will try this. I typically shoot in full manual (and avoid the other modes), as I want to learn as much as I can and control everything, but i'll try it.

Or you could shoot in Manual and set the ISO to Auto.

 

[greybeard]

This is what I would do: Set your ISO to Auto, set the minimum shutter speed to a setting that will freeze your action (125-250), select (A)perture priority. Set the Aperture to f/2.8 and snap away. When shooting the lead singer in strong light, spot meter on the highlight and don't worry about the shadows. You can bring them up in post or leave them alone, it may better capture the mood of the show. Rock on

Thanks for the idea. I will try this. I typically shoot in full manual (and avoid the other modes), as I want to learn as much as I can and control everything, but i'll try it.

Or you could shoot in Manual and set the ISO to Auto.

Using Auto ISO with a safe minimum shutter speed and Aperture priority is similar to Manual-Auto ISO. The advantage of the former is that it won't over expose and blow out your highlights the way manual with Auto ISO can when the light exceeds the your minimum ISO, it will adjust the shutter speed to compensate. I have 2 setups on my camera that I use 99% of the time U1 is for action and has Auto ISO with minimum shutter speed at 1/1250 and Aperture Priority. U2 is for general walk around and has Auto ISO with minimum shutter speed at 1/125 and Aperture Priority. I use Full Manual for anything else especially when I'm using Flash.