Need advice - taking pics of bands in low light

[jeniferrice]

situations with lots of colored stage lights.

Can someone suggest some good settings to try? I'm a novice if I'm not using auto mode. I have a canon dslr xt.

I'm not using a tripod since the places are generally too crowded on the dance floor, etc. The guys don't move around all that much since the stages are generally small so not tons of action, but some.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Jen

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

situations with lots of colored stage lights.

Can someone suggest some good settings to try? I'm a novice if I'm not using auto mode. I have a canon dslr xt.

I'm not using a tripod since the places are generally too crowded on the dance floor, etc. The guys don't move around all that much since the stages are generally small so not tons of action, but some.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Jen

You're going to need a fast lens (i.e. 30mm 1.4, 50mm1.8 or 1.4, or 85mm 1.8 or 1.4 if further away) or a fast lens w/ IS. I do a lot of low light photography of bands/concerts etc., and I too can't use a tripod 99.9% of the time and forget about using a flash. Most venues frown upon that. Also, consider shooting in Aperture priority or manual mode. If you can't use flash -- in Auto mode -- doesn't it automatically pop open your flash? In Aperture mode you control the Aperture setting, and the camera sets the shutter speed. If it's very low light, it may set the shutter speed too low for hand held ; so you'll have to bump up your ISO. This is known as the exposure triangle (so I've heard ). One (Aperture, Shutter speed, ISO) basically influences the other, and there is no better way of getting to understand that than trying to shoot a live band in extremely low light situations. Trust me, I've been there. In fact, I'm still there! I'm currently debating getting a better camera body so that I can blast the high ISOs w/out having to worry about noise. One thing to watch out for when shooting w/ fast lenses wide open is the depth of field issues. It can cause your photos (or portions of it) to appear blurry -- which is great if you're shooting a flower or a portrait and you want to blur everything but the focus
of your shot, and not so great if you're shooting a 7 piece band. If you stop down the lens (to a higher fstop number) then the picture gets more sharp and in focus, but at the expense of available light -- which as you know in a dark nightclub environment is hard to come by and even worse w/no tripod or flash.
If you're a novice, have you checked out Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson or The Digital Photography book by Scott Kelby? Both are good. Kelby's book is great for fast fixes w/out having to read a ton of info to get started. It's basically an, "If you want to shoot this kind of picture, this is what you should do and how you should set your camera" kind of book. HTH!
Good luck!

 

[dpic]

Here's a photo of Off Kilter at Epcot. I used as 18-55 telephoto to take the picture. It is a fairly fast lens at f2.8 (the lower the f number, the more light it can gather--better for lowlight), and it also has image stabilization where the lens compensates for the slight movements of the camera when you take the photo.

I agree with everything DisneySuiteFreak said. This photo was 1/25 sec with the aperture set at 3.5, and the ISO 3200. As you can tell there is still some softness in the image--some due to slow shutter speed, some due to high ISO (the higher the ISO setting, the more noise and less detail), and some due to the movement of the subject. I really like lowlight photography. Now, with digital cameras, it's much easier since you can get immediate feedback on your photo by checking your camera's lcd.

Have fun.

 

[AndrewWG]

I'm going to agree with the other posters here that you NEED a fast lens. Without it, if it is anything like the band shoots I have done (in local bars), you cannot get a decent enough shutter speed to stop the action. Your photos will most likely be blurry. With a high ISO, the pics will be noisy like dpic shows in their example. See the ceiling above Off Kilter? It is spotty with "noise". It is throughout the pic as well, but can be seen clearly in the ceiling. This can be handled well with noise reduction software like Noiseware, but the pics will be even softer due to the correction that is done in the software. In some cases, it can totally save a pic, in others it just gets rid of the noise and makes it more acceptable.

I shoot with the 50mm f1.8 or the 30mm f1.4 lenses only when I do this. If you would like to see some examples, feel free to PM me.