Gig/Concert photography advice/help

PGowdy

PGowdy

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Pete
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Hi, I am new to photography and specifically indoor gig photography is something i need a little help with.
I own a Nikon D3100 and have the 55mm lens it comes with plus a 35mm AF1.8 lens.
I was recently talking pictures at a gig where obviously, the lighting was extremely poor(as it normally would be but i mean there was no ultra bright or white lighting like you might get), on stage the lighting (red and greens etc) was constantly changing, the band, of course, were in near constant motion (tho nothing extreme save the drummers arms!) and i was not able, nor did i want to use a flash.
I has the settings at 1/60 and at 1.8 with the ISO at 1600
Sadly almost all of the photos had a little blur to them. Some of them were usable but nothing like the quality i was hoping for. I have got as good snaps from a cheap handheld before.

Am i using the wrong settings? (probably), the wrong lens?...

I would really appreciate any advice on this, what setting i should use, and, any other tips, as this is something i will be doing more often and really want to get it right.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long spiel!

Pete.
 
1/60th probably isn't fast enough to freeze the action, which is why you're getting blurry images. The only real option if you're shooting at your widest aperture is to bump up the ISO again to give you enough shutter speed. Obviously this'll introduce more noise into the image, but there's really nothing you can do about it.

There's a reason Pro Gig photographers rock £3.5k D3s's, it means shooting at ISO 12000+ isn't an issue.
 
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I've done plenty of gigs with a d200 and even a d50. Wide aperture lenses and high iso are the only way really. My base setting was Iso 1600 @f/2.8 and then raise/lower the iso as needed. I also used noise ninja in PP to get rid of most of the noise.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the helpful advice.
I know a more expensive camera will eventually be the answer for real quality pics in such a harsh environment but for now i'm just looking to get the best with what i have... till i can afford an upgrade.
From advice i've had on another forum and this, it seems my shutter speed was way too low. So that's the first thing to try.
TCR4x4- any specific lenses for the Nikon i can have a look at for when i'm able to upgrade? (i will be upgrading lenses long before i can upgrade cameras)

Thanks again.
 
In the OP's situation, would a faster lens give better results than a body upgrade? Whilst the 3100 is entry level, I was under the impression the high ISO performance was pretty good. (not that i've used mine enough yet to find out)


EDIT: forget my stupidity.... he's already using a 35mm 1.8..... Sorry!
 
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To be honest, there's nothing much more YOU can do in order to get better pictures in those conditions, with the kit you have. (I think :lol:)

  1. You were using a fast lens - F/1.8 and were shooting wide open
  2. You were shooting at 1/60th, but said you need to increase this to free the motion, but you can't increase it, because there's not enough light as it is, so you'll just end up with a extremely underexposed/black image.
  3. You were shooting at 1600ISO, you could increase it to 3200, but on my D40 (don't know about yours), that totally ruins the image, at least 1600ISO is unusable. I suppose any image is better than no image though.

It's a situation I'm going to have to deal with as well. I'm hoping to do some gig shots shortly, really interested in seeing what images I can achieve from it!

The thought of it makes me want to buy a D90 for the better noise handling; it would allow me to get f/stop of two.

Can you post the images so I can have a wee look? :)
 
Hi, thanks Steven. I hope to upgrade at some point but it may be a year or so. until then i'll just have to go to gigs with better lighting. ;)
Here's a few of the better shots from the night. Bare in mind this was my first ever gig shoot so be kind.

ps. Would the D90 be much better at handling these kind of conditions then? I reckon i could upgrade to one of those in the fairly near future.

DSC_0033-4.jpg


DSC_0066.jpg


DSC_0107.jpg


DSC_0101C.jpg


DSC_0103.jpg
 
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Thats some ****** light!

I dont think there is much else you could do without getting into the realm of expensive full frame cameras and the better high ISO they provide. I dont think a D90 would give a whole lot more than that, maybe you could push to ISO 3200 and use some noiseware.

I used mainly a 24-70 f/2.8 and an 85mm f/1.8 for all my stuff.

I think you just need to get better venues!! :lol:
 
Yeah, as i said, the lighting was baaad.... all dark greens and reds and no white lighting at all!
I knew i was in trouble as soon as the first band came on. It was a grubby student union in north london and i think they had about 3 lights in total! The band are well known to student types and have a record deal but still playing tiny venues over here (they're from Belgium).
I shall make a few adjustments to my settings next time and hopefully get to a gig with better lighting. :lol:
 
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If I'm honest, I'd say that your problem isn't movement, but your subject is out of focus. Shooting at f/1.8, you're going to have a very narrow depth of field.

You can see this best in your fourth image where the neck of the guitar and micstand are sharp but the pick-ups are out of focus due to the way the guitar is angled.

In the second image shooting upwards, it's the keyboard in focus and not the musician.

What focusing points are you using because if you leave your camera to its own devices, it'll probably pick the nearest, most "contrasty" subject in the frame.
 
Most of them i was trying to focus on the musician and many i was using auto.
What setting would give me a less 'narrow depth of field'? I did find this a problem with the focus being too specific in many of the pics. Something you'd want in close up/still life but not when shooting a band. With the 35mm lens should i have set it to f2.4 or higher??
 
PGowdy said:
Most of them i was trying to focus on the musician and many i was using auto.
What setting would give me a less 'narrow depth of field'? I did find this a problem with the focus being too specific in many of the pics. Something you'd want in close up/still life but not when shooting a band. With the 35mm lens should i have set it to f2.4 or higher??
Click to expand...

You were shooting with the camera in Auto mode?:shrug:

The lighting is terrible, with that sort of light you would be better off converting them to B&W.

As mentioned, the focus is off in every single picture, probably a mixture of camera shake/their movement and focusing on the wrong area.

#2 You have focused on the keyboard instead of the musician
#3 Doesn't really have anything in focus
#4 The guitar neck is actually really sharp, but I think it would be better with his picking hand in view.
#5 Again not very sharp, and a bit too much space above his head

Take these comments with a pinch of salt. I've never done this sort of thing before and it was also your first time :thumbs:

Try messing about with the focus modes next time, using Dynamic area should help keep the subject in focus if they move.

Have they been processed at all of just straight from the camera?
 
You would need to reduce the aperture (increase the f number) to widen your depth of field. Your problem then is that you let less light through to your sensor so even darker images or longer shutter speeds.

I usually only use my centre focus point as it tends to be the most sensitive with lens with apertures of f/2.8 or greater (smaller number), focus on my subject and then recompose the shot whilst holding that focus.

The easiest way I've found to do that is set up the custom function on my camera which uses a different button to focus from the shutter button so it doesn't shift by accident when I go to take the shot.
 
"You were shooting with the camera in Auto mode?"

Yes, some of the time. Cos the camera was away from my eye.

Thanks for all the pointers.
These have been altered only slightly. Just a little contrast and sharpness here and there. I'm not very good at that sort of thing and don't yet have photoshop installed. :(
 
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I always go for center point only and either AF-C or sometimes AF-S.
It takes practice, as its very hectic, and trying to nail the focus with such a thin DOF is hard work. Just keep at it!
I also find doing bursts of 3 or 4 shots at a time will get you at least 1 good one out of the 4.
 
PGowdy said:
"You were shooting with the camera in Auto mode?"

Yes, some of the time. Cos the camera was away from my eye.

Thanks for all the pointers.
These have been altered only slightly. Just a little contrast and sharpness here and there. I'm not very good at that sort of thing and don't yet have photoshop installed. :(
Click to expand...

That could be why the focusing has been missed ;)
 
Don't mind at all. Any and all views on this are welcome. I have some B&W ones of the gig and due to the poor focus they tend to look a lot better than the colour ones.
Thanks.
 
Another option maybe to use flash, i am not to sure how the bands or venues would take it but it would certainly help freeze the action at slow shutter speeds. But would defo check with the venue/band/promotor before hand though.
 
Tyler138 said:
Another option maybe to use flash, i am not to sure how the bands or venues would take it but it would certainly help freeze the action at slow shutter speeds. But would defo check with the venue/band/promotor before hand though.
Click to expand...

Yuk..

Most bigger venues wont allow it thankgod.
 
Using flash at gigs usually completely kills the atmosphere, making for very dull images.

All the OP needs to do is improve his technique to ensure he gets the bits he really needs in focus.

Nifty fifty at f/2.8 and f/3.2 using ISO 1600 on a 40D.

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No problems Pete. Don't be afraid to push the ISO up if you have to in order to get a useable shutter speed. I often find that a bit of noise actually adds to the atmosphere of these types of shots rather than detracting from it.
 
Scarecrow said:
Using flash at gigs usually completely kills the atmosphere, making for very dull images.

All the OP needs to do is improve his technique to ensure he gets the bits he really needs in focus.

Nifty fifty at f/2.8 and f/3.2 using ISO 1600 on a 40D.
Click to expand...

Sorry to high jack thread....

But I am new to this on your to photos one with red high lights and one green...

Was this done with on stage lighting or using some filter....

How did you do it??

Sorry to be cheeky but was impressed and liked the style

Jamie
Ps you can tell me to sod off lol
 
Just standard stage lighting by the looks of it.

Red is one of the worst colours you can encounter at a gig!
 
Why is that and thanks I never realy thought about gig photography but now well that might of changed ....
 
Yeah definitely stage lighting. I've played many a gig in the past and am now hoping to learn how to shoot them. The lighting is more often than not red and green, sometimes blue and usually switches intermittently throughout the show. The better venues will also have white lighting to illuminate the stage in a more general way but i was not so lucky at my grubby student union. It was very dark but for two lights one red and one green.
 
Yep, as others have said, it's all down to stage lighting. Available light at gigs is usually pretty dim, leaving you struggling to get a decent shutter spped even with a fast lens. Under those circumstances the last thing you really need to be doing is putting a coloured filter on your lens that will only reduce the light hitting your sensor even more.

This overall shot perhaps gives a better idea of what I was working with.

7846.jpg
 
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