First Gig Photo's

aFlabbyPanda

A buddy of mine on hearing that I bought a DSLR asked me to take some photos for his band at a gig. I was really nervous as I'm still learning the basics but I thought I'd give it a shot. I took 170 shots and picked out these as the best and I would love to here your opinions and advice on how to improve. Camera was set to AF, ISO 1600, no flash and fully manual. I then just played with the shutter and aperture settings as I went.

A couple of things I already learned are, 1. Dont try to change lenses in the dark while moving (you drop them!), 2. Red light is horrible for pics(see guitarist), 3. turn off AF as it likes to lock onto the mike stands and leave the musician out of focus.

Over all I had a great time and he's happy enough to have asked me to do the next gig too. Anyway the pics can be seen at http://www.briang.org/Subsonic/

Fajitas!

Some very good shots there for a first gig. Some could have done with either cropping a bit more, or leaving a bit more in, but technically they are sound. Keep up the good work!

peepingtom

the first 2 were great and my favourites .... fair play

elven

I just loved the one with the guy's hands when he's playing the guitar, and it's half red and half grey. The first one I liked too.

I'm going to be a bit cheeky and honest though - I didn't get a sense of what they were doing on the stage when I was looking at them, they were slightly static. Ironically to me I think it's because they were quite technically spot on - some movement I think might add to the atmosphere. Just a suggestion.

I think it's totally amazing when people get such good gig pictures. I was at the Riders on the Storm gig a few weeks ago (2 of the original doors members) and I got a couple of snapshots with my wee compact digital but even if I had the SLR I'm not sure I could come up with anything like what you have there, because the lighting is just so unpredictable and they are moving about the place too. That and I was too busy jumping up and down like a mad thing

Looking forward to seeing your next lot...

aFlabbyPanda

@fajitas, it would be great for me if you would crop them just so I can see someone elses take on them.

@elven, I tried doing the movement shots on the night but couldnt get it right. they just went all blurred. the guitar pic isnt even touched up. the lighting was actually like that!

melekalikimaka

605 and 609 are really nice, great job for first try. I made a fair balls of things on my first try, try drop the iso abit to reduce noise, and the whole selective colouring can be hit ir miss so i personally try to avoid it. great job, look forward to more

DotOrg

not bad for a first gig, you need to learn to tweak your shots a bit more in photoshop as shooting in the dark, test the limits of your equipment, the composition of most of them could be better, and many of them aren't all that sharp due to slow shutter speeds and camera shake.

have a read pf:
http://www.photo.net/learn/concerts/mirarchi/concer_i
http://aaaphotos.org/faq.htm
and listen to this itunes podcast
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=149188673&s=143444

Fajitas!

BrianjG wrote:

@fajitas, it would be great for me if you would crop them just so I can see someone elses take on them.

@elven, I tried doing the movement shots on the night but couldnt get it right. they just went all blurred. the guitar pic isnt even touched up. the lighting was actually like that!

No problemo, I'll have to wait til morning though...When my hand is..er...A bit more steady...