Gig photo's

D

DylanHaskin

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2009
Messages
100
Reaction score
0
Location
Durbanville
I recently bought an SLR camera and have been experimenting shots in different lights etc. I went to watch a band playing live to try some shots with stage lights etc.
I was trying to take shots without the flash so I can get the colour of the stage lights in the photo,but the band always came out blury - cause they where moving... If I used the flash, it looked crap because the flash canceled out the stage lights and all you see is people on a dirty looking stage... What do I need to do to get that right?
 
What sort of kit were you using?
 
Canon 500D. I used a tripod too. The flash is the flash that is built on the camera. Nothing fancy yet - just starting out.
 
At a guess, you'd try a higher ISO and/or larger aperture to improve the lighting, with a faster shutter-speed to freeze (not 'cancel') the motion?

Note: a noobish view
 
Last edited:
DylanHaskin said:
Canon 500D. I used a tripod too. The flash is the flash that is built on the camera. Nothing fancy yet - just starting out.
Click to expand...
If you're using a kit lens you want to open it up all the way, crank up the ISO and hope for the best. Because its very fast and affordable I'm going to recommend a 50mm f/1.8 or if you have a bit more cash the f/1.4. Ideally you want enough speed to freeze the action on the stage.

Koffie likes shooting concerts - I'm sure he'll have more useful advice.
 
Well faster shutter speeds will freeze the motion and get rid of blur, you then have to open the lens aperture more to get the exposure right. You'd have to do some experimenting with your settings to get things right I should think. Would have thought that the stage lighting may be somewhat difficult to work with as it's maybe flashing and changing a lot.

Try putting your camera on shutter priority, then it will handle the aperture for you.
 
Ok cool. I tried changing the ISO speed but that just came out black - but I didn't change the aperture so that was probably my problem.

Thanks for advice, I'll give it a shot next time.
 
As Bwana stated.

Crank up the ISO - to about 1600 or 3200, on the 500D its going to be grainy (but this can be sorted to a extent in Photoshop with Noise Ninja or something similar.

Open up the lens to the widest aperture. I have the 50mm 1.4 and under the bright stage lights you should be able to easily use 1.6 - 2.8

Just take some time to experiment a little.
 
As a rule, I've found that if you get a shutter speed of anything less than 1/30 you will not be able to hand-hold the camera and will need a tripod. 1/60 is probably a little safer. The converse is also largely true. If the shutter speed indicated on the display is less than 1/60 when you're shooting in Aperture Priority (Av) mode, blur is almost guaranteed. You're going to want as low an aperture and as high an ISO as your camera can handle, and if, having set all that, you still can't get at least 1/60, you're going to need to upgrade something.

Juice
 
Juice said:
As a rule, I've found that if you get a shutter speed of anything less than 1/30 you will not be able to hand-hold the camera and will need a tripod. 1/60 is probably a little safer. The converse is also largely true. If the shutter speed indicated on the display is less than 1/60 when you're shooting in Aperture Priority (Av) mode, blur is almost guaranteed. You're going to want as low an aperture and as high an ISO as your camera can handle, and if, having set all that, you still can't get at least 1/60, you're going to need to upgrade something.

Juice
Click to expand...
The rule of thumb is that on a full frame camera your shutter speed should be equal to or greater than the focal length. IOW a 50mm @ a minimum of 1/50th of a second, 17mm @ 1/17th, 500mm @ 1/500th etc. Now some people can keep a camera steady better than others but it's something to keep in mind. You also need to adjust for the crop factor.
 
One photo, two photos.

Forget flash. Unless your name is Joe McNally and you can make flash look like the light coming from the setting sun, it's not going to do you any good. Anyway, you don't want to see the stage, you want to see the artist.

My best shots came from the 50mm f/1.8 II:

50mm, f/1.8, 1/200, ISO 800:


50mm, f/1.8, 1/600, ISO 400


50mm, f/1.8, 1/200, ISO 400


Get this (or better, the f/1.4, the 35mm f/2 and maybe the the 85mm f/1.8. People on stage tend to move around so you don't want too slow shutter speeds either.
 
Last edited:
Nifty. I've been looking for pricing on a 1.8 lens and the Canon el-cheapo isn't too bad at about R1300 or so. It gets VERY pricey very quickly after that though.

Juice
 
Juice said:
Nifty. I've been looking for pricing on a 1.8 lens and the Canon el-cheapo isn't too bad at about R1300 or so. It gets VERY pricey very quickly after that though.

Juice
Click to expand...
You get a lot more for the money. Better build quality, much better manual focusing, a USM, and of course more light.

The 1.2 is crazy money . . . but who knows, maybe one day :)

I still love my f/1.8 though.
 
I would say it's pretty covered. Higher ISO (but noise will be a problem) and a 1.8 will be your best bet to keep the stage lighting effects. I shot a gig with just the 1.8, but be careful as when at 1.8 you have to be VERY careful with your focus as the slightest movement will result in your shots being out of focus
 
I got me the f/1.8 on Koffie and bwanas advice and I tell you it's opened my eyes when it comes to low (no) light photography. I went for a stroll through old town Zurich yesterday and I took some picks that I really though were going to be a waste of 1's & 0's. Was I sooooo wrong! I just wish I had the same speed but wider lens to get some landscape shots. With my 1,6 crop it's just to narrow for architecture and some skylines but I recon in a club or concert vernue. It will blow your mind. Borrow or hire one if you can and test it out. Legen-frikken-dary!
 
@MadMailMan, try the EF 35mm f/2. It's dirt cheap (ok, not as cheap as the 50mm f/1.8, but still), and offers roughly the same field of view that 50mm does on film.
 
MadMailMan said:
I got me the f/1.8 on Koffie and bwanas advice and I tell you it's opened my eyes when it comes to low (no) light photography. I went for a stroll through old town Zurich yesterday and I took some picks that I really though were going to be a waste of 1's & 0's. Was I sooooo wrong! I just wish I had the same speed but wider lens to get some landscape shots. With my 1,6 crop it's just to narrow for architecture and some skylines but I recon in a club or concert vernue. It will blow your mind. Borrow or hire one if you can and test it out. Legen-frikken-dary!
Click to expand...
I dont shoot it but maybe have a look at the inexpensive Canon EF 28mm f2.8?

I thought you got the 1.4?
MadMailMan said:
Amen to that. I am using an old 20d and with the kit lense it is so-so but when I got a 50mm f/1,4 it started taking some amazing shots. I can really justify buying a new body but the list of really good (fast) lenses I want for Birthday/Christmas/Father's day/Monday is growing all the time. :o
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Congrats. The 50mm f1.8 lenses are just about the cheapest lens money can buy and are really awesome...

I like to shoot with aperture priority so set your camera on ISO 400 or so to start, aperture priority at f1.8 (so you can use what you paid for) and let the camera guess the shutter speed. If it still too slow/blurry up the ISO to 800/1600 but it will get noisier. (and this is (edit: one of the reasons) why people buy the big fancy cameras, because you can use iso 1600/3200 without any noise problems)
 
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/14236/title/jan-van-memerty-and-da/cat/all

This picture was taken from quite far back in the theatre because sitting closer would have had heads in the way.
Nikon D5000, 55-200mm VR lens
1/30s, f4.5, ISO450, Focal length 110mm, no flash

The camera was set to aperture priority, 1/30s minimum speed with the ISO adjusting automatically up to 3200.
Eventually 1/30s turned out too slow for really fast action, 1/60s seemed more suitable.

http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php/photo/14237/title/jan-and-viv/cat/920

Nikon D5000, 55-200mm VR lens
1/30s, f4.5, ISO1000, Focal length 98mm, no flash
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X