Settings for Outside Shooting

I just got my new D7000 yesterday and a friends band is playing an outdoor show Thursday afternoon and he wants a few good shots of the gig. I do not know the camera well yet and do not know photography well either but I am working on it with classes starting in three weeks.

Anyway I need to know what settings you would use at 5:00 in the evening outdoors in 100 degree weather but they are shaded from direct sun by a large building. So basically outdoors in the shade. I’d also like to know what you’d do if they moved to direct sunlight as the day progressed. Sun would be at their faces.

Thanks for any input.

go the day before and test drive your camera. being new try different scene modes, try dusk & dawn, try sports, try landscape, try. turn off your auto iso limit it to around 400 use a tripod if you have one. bands move around a lot i would try sports first

Being this new to the D7000 you probably will not learn enough about it's functions to shoot effectively. I would recommend setting the camera mode on "Program" and then you can dial in the shutter speed and/or the f/stop combination you need for the shot. This will also allow you to dial up or down the f/stop to put the background in or out of focus as needed for the shot. The ISO setting will depend on how much daylight you have to work with and what range you need on the program mode. And as has been recommended go to the site the day before to see what you will be working with. Also go early on shoot day to the location to check out the stage lighting and pick out possible shooting spots.

I like the scene shooting comment ... I was looking them over last night and will look more into them tonight. I am not ready for full manual mode but I am ready to start using Program mode. I will check that mode out as well while looking the site over before the show. Thanks

OK I have to learn focal points better ... I had a few photos that were not focused on what I wanted them to be on. I have to figure out how to get one of the numerous points to be the only focal point. Aggg

If it was me, I would use hood lens if its gonna be sunny, if you have one, ISO 200 or 100 don't know the d7000 that well, white balance set to sun, and put in P. Shots should come out pretty good and the shutter should be fairly fast since its daylight.

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Get the biggest card you can buy plus an extra battery and shoot like crazy. Digital film is cheap and the odds are greater to get some good shots without knowing your camera that well is higher if you see how many cards you can fill.

When I got my D5000 last year I had about 3 weeks to get ready for my youngest son's wedding and I am just glad that I filled a 8gig card because I barely ended up with a couple dozen keepers.

Here's a rule to memorize that can often give you a starting point - the Sunny 16 Rule. For a subject on a sunny day, with the aperture set to f/16, use a shutter speed that is the inverse of your ISO setting.

For example: f/16, ISO 200, 1/200 second. Or, f/16, ISO 400, 1/400 sec.

From there, the usual adjustments can be applied, such as double the aperture and half the shutter speed.