First Assignment - Bang/Gig Photography (advice appriciated)

[rapid]

Dear all,

Got a canon 30d a while back along with a 50mm 1.8 II recently, and have bought 2 lenses today, the 16-35m 2.8L and the 24-70mm 2.8L. I've got tomorrow off to get to grips with the lenses etc, I'm pretty comfortable with using the camera and its functions.

Just wanted a bit of advice to make sure I've got a good base to use for my upcoming band shoots. Venue is a local little place, so lighting isn't going to be great.

My thoughts are as below:

Aperature Priority Mode
Aperature set to 2.8
Spot Metering (not sure on this)
AF center point only (not sure on this)
ISO 800 - 1600 if need be, maybe even 3200.. I've got noise ninja so not too worried here..
AI SERVO / AI FOCUS / ONE SHOT (I'm really not sure what to go with on this?)
Auto White Balance
Low speed burst mode

Going to start with the 24-70, get some individual shots, perhaps 2 members shots on the 24mm end, then move on to the wide 16-35mm to cover the whole band along with some crowd shots.

Thinking of shooting raw - ultimately so I can tweak a bit more as I'm not confident enough to shoot jpeg only..

Any thought or tips would be much appriciated.

Regards,
R

[rapid]

Also, whats peoples take on using hoods for indoor low light stuff, are spot lights and gig lighting problematic for flare?

Regards,
Ryan

[Biscuit761]

Took some band pictures at a party the other night, was using flash a lot of the time but it made the pictures loose any atmosphere, tried a few with the 50mm f1.8 at iso 1600 but even then was too dark as there was no lighting on them. Will try and post some later.

I would suggest doing a white balance check early on, perhaps fire some test shots - can you get there early while the lights are being set up - may be able to sort it then.

Found that I got the best shots on manual settings after a bit of a play, all the colours of the disco type lights they had were confusing the auto exposure.

Good Luck

Bill

[stoo31]

I use one shot auto focus.

UV Filters make flare worse, hoods are usually overkill or don't help.

As you've said shoot RAW, gives you ultimate control over colour balance which is key when shooting in places with poor lighting.

Using manual is a good bet if your camera is suffering. It's generally all about trial and error, preparation can help but ultimatley can't change the conditions on the night.

[rapid]

Not yet bought a flash, but personally dont want to intrude on the atmosphere etc anyway..

The hood on my 24-70 scares me, its massive! think it looks overkill esp indoors..

I was thinking about manual, but ultimately im going to want to use the lowest aperature I can, 2.8 in this case, so I dont see any advantage on going manual? or is aperature priority mode not as good as i think it is at working out shutter? I guess its almost like leaving it on auto mode really, nothing to change on the fly..

hmm

Definately be interested to see your shots buscuit, any reason why you didn't step it up to 3200 iso?

Thanks,
R

[stoo31]

The problem with AV can be you get very under and over exposed shots, you camera see bright lights works out the exposure and you fire by which time the lights have changed completely. If you can find a mid point manual exposure you can get consisitent results.

Check out my flickr I do gig photography more than anything.

[rapid]

Stu,

Just looked through pretty much all of your flickr albums, man you got some great shots, quite inspiring, your pretty much where i want to be (gunna be a long ride i think heh), you working for any magazines?

Cheers for the input, much appriciated.

[stoo31]

Thanks!

I've been in a few magazines, it's a slow climb but at least it's an enjoyable one. I've just signed up to any agency as well so hopefully will start to see some pennies rolling in!

[rapid]

Stu, any chance you could give me an idea on the below settings?

Spot Metering (not sure on this)
AF center point only (not sure on this)
AI SERVO / AI FOCUS / ONE SHOT (I'm really not sure what to go with on this?)
Auto White Balance
Low speed burst mode

Also, do you always shoot your shots with the band member in the center then crop, or do you change the AF point to be at the side then shoot the shot with the band member to the side? hmm..

Cheers mate,
Ryan

[rapid]

bump, scared

[stoo31]

Sorry missed this!

I see you centered weighted metering and the middle AFpoint, I usually focus on the face and recompose the shot to the correct composition.

I go with one shot just out of habit.

Best thing is to try different variations and check the results because some things will work for some people and some stuff doesn't.