Advice for shooting low light concert.

Is this where this goes? I am going to shoot a local area bands show this Saturday night and being that I have never done anything like this before, any advice would be appreciated.

Qiet at The Adelphia Music Hall

Just a small local venue and I'm not to use flash. I'm just doing it for them as a fan. Anything usable will be gave to them to use. As I've posted, I have a D5100 with the 18-55 kit lens and a 55-200. I should have pretty close access. Small place so no tripod. All handheld.

I've seen some really nice shots from people in similar places. Thanks!

Good luck, your going to want something with atleast a f2.8 or bigger. I had to use my 85mm f1.8 at a local venue and a 6400 ISO on my D600 and some heavy post processing to get out the noise. All I can say is good luck to post some pics after your done. Thanks



Jeremy V

Bring the fastest lens you have. (Lowest Aperture). If handheld, try to stay above 1/60. Use the lowest aperture you can, and your probably going to have to crank the iso up moderately high. 800ish? I'm not too sure about the 5100, but I'm sure it can get good non noisy pictures around 800. Might want to use Manual mode, so you can dial in 1/60 and lowest aperture. And I would try to shoot raw, so you can do some PP to open up blacks and get a bit more exposure. Good luck!!

It's going to be tough with those lenses. If you have at least a mono pod to steady the camera I would go a slower speed. If the lighting is good you might be OK. If you know someone with a 35mm or 50mm lens borrow that. Here is a shot I took at a play using my 50mm @ f1.8, speed 1/250, ISO 800.

Auto ISO...Minimum Aperture F3.5 to F4.5...I have know doughts you will have a lot of blurry images...

Try and read the band and snap away when you think there wont be a lot of movement....

And above all have fun...Your lucky to not have the pressure of having to Get The Shot...A very good way to learn....

Turn off your focus assist light. and do not use flash.

It can be done, but yes you need the lenses for it.

This was with the 85mm 1.4 (I think) and my D80

I primarily shoot small venue concerts and my initial settings are typically: Manual, ¹/125, f/ 3.2, auto ISO (limited to 4000 max), and I meter from forehead with spot. Usually use 28mm 1.8, 85mm 1.8, or Tamron 24-70.

I mostly use (+-) iso 1600, f/2-f/4, shutter around 125-250 depending on the amount of light. Your meter will go insane but dont look at it, look at your images instead.

Last ones I did: http://nikonites.com/low-light-night/18912-concert-images.html#axzz2qC0W13oe

I've had a couple issues shooting indoors - not with a concert just family etc.

if you have Lightroom it's really good at getting rid of or reducing noise so don't be afraid to go ISO2500 if you need to. One thing I would say though is I've been far more dissatisfied when I've got blur from a slow shutter than when I've got noise from high ISO.

like previous posts have said shooting raw will help as it retains way more pixel info than JPEG. Just make sure you got a big memory card! I think the raw files on ours are 22MB each so less than 100 pics would completely fill a 2GB card.