Struggled badly with first try at gig photography

J

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Stevo
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Hi,

Had my first attempt at gig photography this week and boy, did I struggle.

I took my Fuji X100 as its small and copes better with high ISO than my D300

There was very little lighting at the gig so I had to set the ISO as high as I dared to 3200 and shoot at f2. I should still have been shooting at about 1/8 sec at this aperture, but motion blur was too bad so I had to underexpose at 1/60 to get anything even remotely in focus. Even then I have motion blur and 1/125 sec was just way too underexposed.

The X100 has a fixed 23mm lens so I knew I would need to crop hence not wanting to go above ISO 3200.

I guess my choice of kit here may be the problem, but I don't have much of a choice. How on earth do you guys get decent photos? and can anyone help me with any advice on how to do things differently next time?

I have attached a couple of photos and these were the best I could get.

Toyah1.jpg


Toyah2.jpg


Toyah3.jpg


Toyah4.jpg



Any help would be greatly appreciated before I venture into a gig again :)
 
Playing with white balance should help to make skin colour slightly more natural - on my (uncalibrated!) monitor I think that would help.

Also, in some cases the lighting really is just tough, despite the best efforts of the sensor in your camera. Additionally, the lens on your Fuji isn't especially close which means it covers a large area of very dark lighting - a lot of gig shots often use tighter shots with the musicians (who are better lit by spot lighting) taking up most of the frame - allowing faster shutter speeds.
 
Sometimes, the lighting at gigs is just so bad you'll struggle with most cameras.

As been said earlier, it's about waiting for the right lighting on the person. Not easy when it's changing all the time. The red lights are awful for photographs, they don't even convert to monochrome well.
My hubby plays in a band and I try to take photos for fun but I am seriously considering hiding all the red gels. :suspect:
 
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