Music Venue Photographer- Need suggestions

Hey everyone,

I am an amateur photographer who takes pictures for local bands and musicians. Most of these venues are back alley bars with terrible lighting (i.e. low light, changing light) and i've been trying out lots of different settings trying to get it right. In addition to low light, I have problems with shutter speed. I currently have my focal length set at 3.2 (not great, but better) and shutter speed at 1/8. I almost exclusively use the manual setting on my P100. I just CANNOT seem to get it right. The more I change it, the more the quality of the images suffer. At the time I bought this camera, it was all I could afford after my previous camera was stolen.

Any suggestions?

Could you post some pictures that you shoot with those parameters to see what they looks like?

Sometimes terrible light as you've experience prevents from taking photographs. Photography is just a way of capturing the light reflected from our subjects. If there is no or not enough light, no photography will be good. In the case of bands in dark bars, the only suggestion I have for you is that you use flash, or get a D3s and use very to extremely high iso to get a shutter speed that will stop the movements of the musicians. There is just no way around this, no light, no pictures.

Now if your subjects were not moving, you could use a tripod and a long shutter speed, but for bands, no go.

Just my 2 cents.

Mission impossible?

lizard89 said:

Hey everyone, I am an amateur photographer who takes pictures for local bands and musicians. Most of these venues are back alley bars with terrible lighting (i.e. low light, changing light) and i've been trying out lots of different settings trying to get it right.

Click to expand...

You have set a very difficult task for yourself. As Marcel said, it's all about the light - if you don't have a sufficient amount of it (either naturally or artificially created) then you are out of luck no matter which settings you choose. Shooting musicians under these circumstances would be a very tough task for even professional photographers with thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment.

lizard89 said:

In addition to low light, I have problems with shutter speed. I currently have my focal length set at 3.2 (not great, but better) and shutter speed at 1/8. I almost exclusively use the manual setting on my P100. I just CANNOT seem to get it right. The more I change it, the more the quality of the images suffer. At the time I bought this camera, it was all I could afford after my previous camera was stolen.

Click to expand...

A shutter speed of 1/8? Assuming you could even hand-hold that speed with the P100 and it's image stabilization, your subjects will certainly be moving faster than that! (i.e. you will get blurry pictures). I believe the P100 opens up to f/2.8 so at a minimum set it at that aperture. However I really don't think you're going to find settings with the P100 with such low light that will allow you to get a proper exposure, with a sufficiently high shutter speed to take a decent picture. The flash isn't that strong on the P100 but - if it's allowed by the club - turn it on as it will at least provide some light on the subjects assuming you aren't too far away from them.

The P100 is a super-zoom camera with a massive 26mm to 678mm range! This is not a camera designed to shoot in deep, dark places in order to capture musicians. Without any additional light source, you would need a DSLR body, capable of great high ISO performance along with a fast lens (f/1.8 or so).

lizard89 said:

Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Either ask the club owner to throw massive strobes on the stage and have it lit up like the face of the sun (assuming you use your P100) or save up for the right equipment for this job which would be a DSLR and some nice, fast lenses. Sorry - no shortcuts or magic around this situation.

PS. I see this is your first post...welcome to Nikonites!

One might say its flash or trash

Marcel said:

Sometimes terrible light as you've experience prevents from taking photographs. Photography is just a way of capturing the light reflected from our subjects. If there is no or not enough light, no photography will be good. In the case of bands in dark bars, the only suggestion I have for you is that you use flash, or get a D3s and use very to extremely high iso to get a shutter speed that will stop the movements of the musicians. There is just no way around this, no light, no pictures.

Now if your subjects were not moving, you could use a tripod and a long shutter speed, but for bands, no go.

Just my 2 cents.

Click to expand...

I completely agree with you. Flash is not an option due to proximity to the musicians; if you're on stage and someone snaps a photo right in front of you with flash, it blinds you. The problem is so contradictory that I doubt even with the best equipment I could afford that the pictures would have significantly better quality. Thank you for your suggestions.

Re: Mission impossible?

bluenoser said:

You have set a very difficult task for yourself. As Marcel said, it's all about the light - if you don't have a sufficient amount of it (either naturally or artificially created) then you are out of luck no matter which settings you choose. Shooting musicians under these circumstances would be a very tough task for even professional photographers with thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment.

A shutter speed of 1/8? Assuming you could even hand-hold that speed with the P100 and it's image stabilization, your subjects will certainly be moving faster than that! (i.e. you will get blurry pictures). I believe the P100 opens up to f/2.8 so at a minimum set it at that aperture. However I really don't think you're going to find settings with the P100 with such low light that will allow you to get a proper exposure, with a sufficiently high shutter speed to take a decent picture. The flash isn't that strong on the P100 but - if it's allowed by the club - turn it on as it will at least provide some light on the subjects assuming you aren't too far away from them.

The P100 is a super-zoom camera with a massive 26mm to 678mm range! This is not a camera designed to shoot in deep, dark places in order to capture musicians. Without any additional light source, you would need a DSLR body, capable of great high ISO performance along with a fast lens (f/1.8 or so).

Either ask the club owner to throw massive strobes on the stage and have it lit up like the face of the sun (assuming you use your P100) or save up for the right equipment for this job which would be a DSLR and some nice, fast lenses. Sorry - no shortcuts or magic around this situation.

PS. I see this is your first post...welcome to Nikonites!

Click to expand...

Firstly, thank you for the suggestions. And for the welcome. You're absolutely right; no shortcuts, no magic. I have tried a few different settings that include faster shutter speeds but the light is still the biggest issue. I have resorted to getting even closer to the musicians to absorb the back light from the overhead lights; that works a little better (mild win). I have also resorted to videotaping with a high quality recorder and using digital stills from that (slightly more of a win). Lastly, i;ve also resorted to doing "out of venue" pictures (in woods, parks, backyards, etc) so the bands have images to put on their websites.

Due to confidentiality (and maybe a little shame) issues, I am unable to put pictures of the band members on here. Imagine what a lacrosse game would look like at night with none of the field lights on.

Asking a sound or light tech to make a change would get me laughed at. Or, knowing the way upstate NY males treat females who attend metal concerts (genre of most of my bands), I would likely get spit on or something too.

Alas, I must save up and trade up for better equipment. I see a Nikon DSLR camera in my future. Thanks again for the suggestions.