Laura go to website/ links down near the bottom. It is in a topic started by Bazza about actuations.

Alan do you fancy doing a sort of guide to Gig photography?

I would be interestedas it is something I would really love to try.

Your top tips thanks x

another vote for that! I am always being asked to do it as i play in several bands and know a lot of semi professional musicians - so it would be really useful!

xx

Hey Suzi,

I'm combining three things I like as I have a drink while I am there too

Coping with the changing light conditions is the tricky part. I generally fix my shutter speed to say 1/125 as I know this is fast enough to get crisp images with no or little blur. Next I set Maximum aperture and then set the ISO to around 800. I take a few shots and see how they are, if they are a bit bright then I bring the ISO down, once I get to ISO 400 that is fine and I can start tinkering with the aperture. Most of the shots you take at a gig will be fairly at Max Aperture (say F2.8) and you will use higher ISOs than you would normally.

The amount of ISO really depends on the Gig. Good places you can use Low ISO (100-400) and get away with F2.8. I have been to other venues where I am on ISO 800 @ F1.2 and still getting slightly dark images.

The rest of the work is in Photoshop, you get used to rescuing images you would normally discard

I still use auto focus, but generally focus on say the singers Mic, and wait for him to come in to it (not always, but if the singer is particularly energetic, its a good tip)

Bass players, especially in 'new' bands tend to stand still, so most of your shots of them can look really similar, same with the drummer. If you can not get round the side of the drummer then wait till he crashes the symbol and shoot through the gap (one of the few times multi shot mode might come in handy)

To get started, find a local band that are pretty new, and have no photos (use MySpace to find them, it's really good for that) and approach them on a TFP basis, it's really easy to get some free tickets from a band if you give them photos. Have a practice on them and see how it goes.

For anyone doing this on a budget, I started out by using the 50mm F1.8 (everyone has one of those by now right ) and I got some great shots.

As everyone has big megapixel cameras by now, zoom out a little and leave some room for croppoing, if you go in too tight you might miss the headstock of the guitar or have someone step slightly out of frame etc.

I seem to remember that I am not allowed to post my web site links in my posts, so if you want my web site with my live shots on it then I guess you can PM me for the link? (is that allowed?)

Alan.

thanks for that! very useful info there! The bands i photograph are not so energetic!

xx

Thanks Alan, great info there definitely want to have a goif I lived closer , I'd ask if I could tag along

Will pm you about your website xxx

Zounds looks as if it has been removed the link but not by me.

Bazza

Not quoted it all but thanks for that helpful advice WW. Excellent.