Help shooting indoors at night for band with lights and movement. What setting? HELP

I have tried to shoot indoors and outside at night with the camera on auto and it does not seem to know when it needs the flash. They all come out dark.
I will be shooting for a band at night indoors in a few weeks so there will be other lights and a lot of movement any suggestion??????? What settings should I have it on?
I have mainly done auto and not really dabbled too much with manual. HELP

The flash ought to open and work (if needed) in the mode called AUTO, but there are a few of the scene modes (like Sports) where it does not open or work. And there is a position right adjacent to Auto that turns the flash off.

Band and Flash don't usually mix.

Anything other than manual and bands don't usually mix to be honest.

Think of your usual band stage, its very dark in some places and ridiculously bright in others. Depending on your metering mode, your camera has no idea whats going on.

Suggested settings are:

ISO as low as you can go while still keeping your shutter speed as fast as you can so as to not have too much motion with your aperture as small a number as you can with your lens choice.

Meter for the highlights.

HTH.

What lense are you going to use? If you are using kit lens then a powerful flash (if allowed) is needed.
I have shot dance floor with 35mm F1.8 with D3300 and it is doable at ISO 400 or 800 at F1.8 or F2. Shoot RAW, with "A" (aperture priority), auto ISO off. Watch the shutter speed and change ISO when it goes too low (if band is static even 1/50 will do, else 1/200).

Here's what I suggest...

Set your camera's metering mode to "Spot".
Use "A"perture Priority mode.
In the Shooting Menu (Camera icon) on your camera, go to "ISO Sensitivity Settings" and click right one time.
In this menu set the following:

ISO Sensitivity: 100
Auto ISO Sensitivity Control: ON
Maximum Sensitivity: 6400
Minimum Shutter Speed: Either select "Auto" and click right once and move the slider over one notch towards "Faster" if your camera has this option, or select "1/125 s"

Spot Metering will insure what you are focusing on will be properly exposed. The Auto ISO settings will allow you to set your aperture and will then automatically increase the ISO as much as necessary to keep your minimum shutter speed at, or above, 1/125 of a second which is enough shutter speed to stop a certain amount of motion and camera blur. These settings not perfect, but they should do you pretty well. If your shots are coming out too dark or too light, use your Exposure Compensation button to make quick and easy adjustments to get the correct exposure or try switching back to Matrix metering and see how that works out. You're probably going to need a relatively wide aperture but it's impossible to say without being there what the shots are going to require. This is a difficult shooting situation and there are no "Magic Recipes" of camera settings we can tell you to dial in to consistently nail the shot; you're going to need to try things, see what works and be flexible. Knowing your camera's settings and how they control the final output is crucial so you might want to spend some time with your manual.

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Horoscope Fish said:

Spot Metering will insure what you are focusing on will be properly exposed.

Click to expand...

There is so much more to Spot metering. Spot never works like we superficially imagine. Spot is NOT a beginners tool. Spot requires we know more.

Spot does Not insure the focus point is properly exposed. Spot only insures focus point will be exposed to be middle gray tone, which is what meters do, which might be proper, depending on the spot selected. Maybe Spot was on a gray card, that's good. But more likely will not be proper exposure, depending on the spot. The normal idea of Spot is that we know how to compensate for the spot selected (standard procedure is, if spot metering on a face, faces are not middle gray, so open exposure one stop more, etc).

Except, Spot only affects ambient light exposure, does not affect flash exposure. Spot does switch flash from TTL BL balanced mode to be TTL mode, but flash uses its own metering area, ignoring Spot.

In dim ambient, where we need flash, the ambient is way down and insignificant, so there is no issue with Spot (and ambient). There is little advantage of Spot either, except we do get TTL mode, which can be a bit brighter, and which can be a good goal, esp in normal indoors shots at home, assuming low ISO.

Except high ISO possibly brings the ambient exposure way up, so now there may be something bright to balance with flash. But Spot and TTL won't do it, no balancing occurs in TTL mode. TTL flash will overexpose the subject instead of backing off to balance with it (the sum of proper ambient and proper flash exposure is 2x exposure). So manual -EV flash compensation will likely be required then. Also probably need CTO or other filters on the flash to match the ambient white balance we see now.

High ISO and flash really don't mix well (and Auto ISO and Manual flash is especially bad). Instead we solve the dim problem with flash power to make it not be dim. If flash does not have the power capability (bounce), THEN a little higher ISO (but still not maximum ISO).

Spot metering requires more knowledge than point & shoot. Details about Metering Principles

WayneF said:

Spot does Not insure the focus point is properly exposed. Spot only insures focus point will be exposed to be middle gray tone, which is what meters do, which might be proper, depending on the spot selected.

Click to expand...

I stand corrected. Spot metering will insure what you are focused on will be exposed to mid-tone. In my experience, using Spot metering in these situations proves helpful, but not always; which is why I mention you are going to need to be flexible and prepared to revert to Matrix metering should Spot not be working out for your situation.

WayneF said:

Except, Spot only affects ambient light exposure, does not affect flash exposure.

Click to expand...

I did not mean to encompass the use of flash in my response.

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This part was the key: "If your shots are coming out too dark or too light, use your Exposure Compensation button to make quick and easy adjustments to get the correct exposure".

Or Flash Compensation of course. It always seems amazing that novices cannot grasp the need and benefits of compensation.

You've got your work cut out for you. I've shot a number of bands and can tell you that the lighting always sucks. I agree with spot metering mentioned already, plus high ISO (I'm usually at 6400), wide open (I shoot 2.8 zooms) and a shutter speed that will produce a sharp photo (1/focal length). Best way to get good is know your gear and practice. Good luck.

In film days, when I had all manual camera and all manual flash, the aperture was set for the distance depending on the Guide Number. So as the flash power was constant, you changed the aperture with the distance to get proper exposure. I have found this works even today. For dim light situations, I set the aperture as wide as required, and adjust the ISO for proper exposure. As long as you are below the range, the flash will moderate the power in TTL mode.

I'm sorry if this will sound a bit harsh, but you will have to learn about exposure, shutter speed, aperture and iso settings. You'll have to practice through trial and error, reading and practice again and again.

If someone was to ask you in a Forum to tell him how to drive a manual transmission, how would you be able to help him?

Just the same with photography, it has to be learnt by the person holding the camera.

Now I get a bit discouraged with these question only, first time poster. Many times the person won't even have the courtesy of thanking members that answered or tried to answer their questions. Then post and run...

Let's see if you're one of them too.

I read, read, read. Then try shooting. And then read some more. 99% of the time, the questions running through our newbie minds has already been asked.
From a newbie, thank you for your patience!

I shoot bands too and I would say the only good way to do it, and have the control that you need, is to shoot in manual. I Knowing your camera so that you can change settings quickly (and in the dark), you have got to practice as much as you can beforehand when you're not under the pressure of an actual session/shoot. There are so many challenges with shooting live music (crazy lighting, movement, lots of noise and people, etc) but that's why I enjoy it! If you want some good tips online, look up Fro Knows Photo; he has some awesome tips and recently did a creativeLIVE course on low lighting which was really helpful.


From kamoorephoto
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