Advice wanted for live gig photography

[Fearless_Shultz]

Morning all

I am going to be having my first go at photographing live bands tonight and as I have never done it before, I would love any advice and tips anyone can offer to try and make the most of the opportunity.

The venue I will be playing in is quite small and likely to be quite dark. If it makes a difference the music is likely to be heavy rock.

I have a nikon d40 and just have the 18 - 55mm kit lens at the moment.

Any advice greatly appreciated

fearless

 

[davidbridges]

Well if its heavy rock, there will probally be moshing (headbanging) from the guitarists and singer so try some fairly slow shutter speeds for that same with the drummer, get some motion blur on his sticks. I'm not too sure to be honest just experiment see what happens!

 

[Fearless_Shultz]

thanks for the advice david I have not really played around much with different shutter speeds. I would say there will be a fair bit of moshing going on so hopefully this will give me a good opportunity to get in some practice

 

[Le Chant]

Don't forget to 'up' the ISO to account for the low light conditions. I always used to use 400ASA when using film in the good old days. Oh, and it goes without saying NOT to use flash if shooting from the crowd - all you'll get are shots of the backs of punter's heads!

​

One I took from the crowd at Leeds Queens Hall of Phil Collins of Genesis on the 'Mama' Tour, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in '83.
Take your time when shooting if on film, but on digi just go mad! Otherwise - enjoy!