Gig photography, help?

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steph.91

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Hey,

I'm currently studying photography at uni and I'm trying to get into the business of music photography, I've done a promo shoot for a band, with another one being planned for them, but I want to get into gig photography too. I was wondering what advice anyone could give me to get me started?

I have an entry level Canon 1000D (which I know isn't the greatest in low lighting, but I can't afford a better one as of yet, on a student budget anyway :( ), with a Canon 50mm f/1.4, the basic 18-55mm kit lens and a 28-80mm lens that came with my analogue canon camera.

Is there any tips on how to help the 1000D cope with low lighting? Any way around noise issues? Any advice and help at all to do with getting started will be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance! :)
 
There are about twlevety hundred threads on this at the moment,so just use the search above rather than having to type it all out again. Someone also wrote a great long tutorial on this very subject in the tutorial section which should help you out.

As for the noise, you'll be shooting at ISO 1600 at least, so I'd go for the 50mm but at F/1.8 if you can. You might need to use some noiseware afterwards in PP to help out.
Or go for the black and white gritty look that covers a multitude of sins.
 
1. Shoot in full manual mode, setting the fastest aperture your lens has
2. Learn to trust in and compensate for your camera's AF - MF takes too long
3. Shoot in RAW and set Auto WB - deal with the stage lighting in post
4. Set your ISO accordingly - 400 or so for well-lit venues, 800 or 1600 for the grungy ones!
5. Shutter speeds no lower than 1/60 (wide end) to 1/160 (tele end) will do the job
6. Use fast glass - f/2.8 constant if you have it or, if you have fast primes (f/2 or better) use them for the poorly lit venues
7. Always keep an eye open for what is happening around the stage - the lead singer might be beating away on a tambourine, but the guitaritst might be dropping into a demon-flava solo any second now

family portraits glasgow
 
Are you after shooting advice, or how to get into the business? The advice already given is good, so I'd just add:

1. Find a local venue that has live gigs/jam nights etc, such as a pub....the lighting is usually awful, but the venue people don't usually stop you from taking photos, so it's a good learning field.

2. Get some buisness cards printed with your website/Flickr page/FB page details and give them to the bands you shoot; if they like your images they can then contact you.

3. ALWAYS WEAR EARPLUGS.... you will be deaf as a post in just a short time, if you don't!

4. Don't worry about your equipment...it's how you use it that matters though you do need to be aware that sweat and beer are not good for lenses! You need to be able to change settings without looking at the camera...it will usually be too dark to see, so practise lots!

5. Don't worry about noise...gritty mono rules!

6. Have loads of memory cards...shooting RAW is great but fills up cards rapidly!


Have fun!
xx
 
photostar_1 said:
4. Don't worry about your equipment...it's how you use it that matters though you do need to be aware that sweat and beer are not good for lenses! You need to be able to change settings without looking at the camera...it will usually be too dark to see, so practise lots!
Click to expand...

I have to disagree. Fast lenses are a must as is high iso. You will struggle using anything other than the 50 1.4 (as said use at least 1.8 or you will really struggle to nail focus) in this situation, which makes it harder to shoot as you can't zoom, but it is never easy shooting live music at any level.


My main tips

Try not to use flash without changing exposure etc.

Learn manual exposure and learn how to change shutter and aperture without looking,

Shoot RAW. Gives you the chance of rescuing things more.

Single (Centre) AF point, focus and recompose.

At this stage don't worry about business, worry about learning how to shoot music photography. It is one of the hardest things to photograph.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=165114

Read this guide, it should help with most things.
 
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As a magazine photographer in Toronto and one who shoots concerts on a regular basis one point I'd like to add is shoot with the camera set on spot metering. You want your main subject to be well lit. Let the stage or ambient light do all the work.
 
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steve-4321 said:
As a magazine photographer on Toronto and one who shoots concerts on a regular basis one point I'd like to add is shoot with the camera set on spot metering. You want your main subject to be well lit. Let the stage or ambient light do all the work.
Click to expand...

Definitely agree with this. Set your camera to spot metering.
 
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