Gig shooting tips/advice

mehfesto2

Heya all. Got a passfor a few bands playing a few gigs in the next few weeks and was just looking for some tuning tips.

I got this shot the other night with the below settings, but is there anything stated there that's an obvious no-no or something that I should avoid? I'll admit I dont fully understand Exposure Bias or Metering mode, so if there's anything I should look out for in these, let me know if you can. Thanks!

Here's the pic:

Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/2.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 640
Exposure Bias: -1/3 EV
ISO Speed: 640

Orientation: Rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise
X-Resolution: 300 dpi
Y-Resolution: 300 dpi
Software: Ver.1.01
Date and Time: 2008:08:15 22:01:35
YCbCr Positioning: Co-Sited
Exposure Program: Manual
Date and Time (Original): 2008:08:15 22:01:35
Date and Time (Digitized): 2008:08:15 22:01:35
Compressed Bits per Pixel: 2 bits
Maximum Lens Aperture: 16/10
Metering Mode: Pattern
Sub-Second Time: 70
Sub-Second Time (Original): 70
Sub-Second Time (Digitized): 70
Color Space: sRGB
Sensing Method: One-chip colour area sensor
CFA Pattern: GREEN BLUE RED GREEN
Exposure Mode: Manual
Digital Zoom Ratio: 1/1
Focal Length In 35mm Film: 75
Gain Control: Low gain up
Contrast: Soft
Sharpness: Soft
Compression: JPEG
Colour Mode: COLOR
Quality: NORMAL
White Balance: AUTO
Sharpening: LOW
Focus Mode: MANUAL

hussey

I can't answer the technical parts
but can give you some advice

with a F2.2 the DOF will be very shallow, in your image the mike stand seems to be in focus rather than the subject, to do this, set the Auto Focus point to the subject, also is you have spot or partial metering you can meter for a specific point (i.e. your subject) doesn't guarantee a perfect shot.

bovril

You could potentially lower the shutter speed more seen as you are shooting at 50 focal length **. This would allow a bit more light in. You also have room to open the aperture more if you so wish.

Hussey is correct about the focus being on the mic.

The lights in the shot that you posted are not ideal as there doesn't seem to be any on the guy. You have a few options, use a flash or wait until the light lights up the guy a bit more. In the case of lights that flash on and off on the performers if you set your camera to a burst mode (takes many shots when you press the shutter) you might get 1 out of 3 with the light on the guy.

You might also want to switch to shooting in RAW if you have the memory for this. Shooting RAW will allow you more leeway when processing the shots. You will be able to adjust the exposure in processing.

** totally assuming you are using a 50mm 1.8 based on the settings you posted.

mehfesto2

Cheers lads,

Yeah, I was using the 50mm 1.8 for these shots. I had my 70-300 too, which I thought would be a little useless given the apenture range, but I got some nice ones, surprisingly.

I wanted to avoid auto focus, becuase it sends out a little white light that was getting me a lot of unwanted attention, so I was using manual mode instead. It might take a while to get used to!

About RAW though, I've no facilities to process in RAW yet, I only have an old Paintshop Pro and Picnik.com for editing.

Anywhere I can get some sound, trustable advice on Exposure Bias.

bovril

Have a read of your manual, there may well be a way of turning the light off. I know with my canon there is no light for auto focus. In a gig situation it might be difficult to use manual focus if they're moving around (which they will be!)

Did you not get some free RAW editing s/w with your camera? I have a canon camera but it still came with a program for manipulating the RAW image. Shooting in RAW is extremely helpful at gigs.

You can also download the 30 day trial for a program such as lightroom which will edit your raw files too.

bovril

Exposure bias - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_compensation

mehfesto2

Cheers Bovril.

My instruction manual has no English section, but I'm sure there's one to be found online. I didn't know that you could turn off the light with the AF. So I'll have to investigate that. And cheers for the link too!

I'll have to have a look into Lightroom too. And considering Im heading to college again, Im sure I'll have access to it or CS2/3 there too.

Cheers again.