Concert Low Light

Stangman98

Senior Member
From last Saturday

Lighting was better than the last show, still a lot of 2000+ISO

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gqtuazon

Gear Head
Shooting concerts is sometimes challenging since the spot lights that goes on and off can change the ISO settings. I usually just set my camera to Auto ISO 3200 or 6400 and let the camera decide what's best to get the optimal exposure. If it is too dark, the NEF file can easily recover the shadows.
 

STM

Senior Member
I usually do a meter reading on a singer's face when he is spotlighted with non colored lights and set my base exposure from that. I rarely changed it throughout the show, even when I was shooting slides. If there was a scene which was especially dark, I just opened up a stop. Any differences in brightness could be corrected in printing. Of course with digital, you can use Camera RAW in PS to make any tweeks. Here are some I shot at a Kentucky Headhunters show a few weekends back. They were shot with a D700, 300mm f/2.8 ED-IF AIS Nikkor (on a monopod) at ISO 800. Even with all the lights and gels, I barely had to tweak any of the shots in Camera Raw in PS:

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Stangman98

Senior Member
Shooting concerts is sometimes challenging since the spot lights that goes on and off can change the ISO settings. I usually just set my camera to Auto ISO 3200 or 6400 and let the camera decide what's best to get the optimal exposure. If it is too dark, the NEF file can easily recover the shadows.

I never use auto ISO. I want complete control over what I am doing. For stage shots I am usually at 2000-3200. Crowd shots 4000-6400. I always shoot in RAW so the I can get better files to edit in LR4. I hate that damn magenta color LED lighting though, but I hate the idea of flash shooting it also. I have been working with colors to eliminate some of that magenta.
I can't wait to move outside this summer to shoot the band. That will be awesome!
 

SkvLTD

Senior Member
Hmm, what lens are you using, Stang? Seems like you can easily do 10 fold lower ISO with a D3 of all things.
 
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