Taking pictures in bars/clubs/theatres??

[WELFARECHEESE99]

Hi there. I am a beginning photograper who enjoys taking pictures of rock bands in places with TERRIBLE lighting conditions, like bars and whatnot.
Using the kit lens, most of the pictures come out blurred (due to the very slow shutter speed), and noisey (due to the high ISO setting required). Adding the on camera flash kills the stage lights and, loses the mood of the show. My question is this: Which would make for better, clearer, more acceptable shots, a very fast lens (like Canons fixed 50mm f1.8), or an accessory flash with which I would be able to adjust flash exposure?. Is f1.8 wide enough, and would it enable me to use a lower ISO setting and a fast enough shutter speed to stop motion? Ok that was 2 questions. Thanks for any advice!

[mobilestudio1]

I personally use the 50mm/1.8 a LOT . . . in club settings it's almost a must. I wouldn't go any wider than that because DOF becomes a serious issue, but the 1.8 has served me well. I also shoot concerts exclusively in RAW. You'll be amazed at the images you can save! For severly low lit situations, I often shoot at 1600 and even at 3200. If the exposure is dead on and with a little post-processing (and in some cases noise filtering) you can obtain perfectly acceptable images. I use the 20D, which I have found to work beautifully under such conditions, but that has not been my experience with other digital cameras. As far as flash goes, I use a 580EX and often use it as a fill light. Bounce it whenever you can, turn it down whenever possible and try your hand at slow-sync.
For a cheap lens, the 50mm/1.8 will become one of your most used work horses for club shooting. ;)

Lisa

[ssim]

There are many here that are probably more qualified than me to comment on this but I'll give you my spin anyway. I've seen some very good shots here from people who have used lenses in the 1.8 range. I would suggest the 135 f/2.0L, 50 f/1.4, 85 f/1.2. These are all very good (but expensive) low light lenses. There are also a number of f/2.8 lenses that would fit the bill.

I would shoot RAW, with as high an ISO as you need to keep the shutter speed up and then deal with any resulting noise in post processing with a noise program. RAW will let you get the most out of exposures that are not bang on.

[langer]

it depends quiet largely on your subject ie. the band you are shooting. The band I shoot has very high stage dynamics. Set to highish ISO but depends on the gear you use, setting it to anything above 800iso on my 300D is pointless. The noise is so annoying at such high iso on the 300D. I use 420ex for reasons of balance and weight. I shoot a lot in clubs and pubs, confined spaces. Unlike in concerts where you get some ambient light and the luxury of some space to move. I have to squeeze between people to get the shot. Generally I use shutterspeeds of 1/60 and below and use Flash accordingly. A fast lens is good. But beware of shallow depth of field.

[RockSlut]

There has been a few recent discussions on this topic. Here is a couple that may be of assistance...
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=60913
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44780

[Jesper]

I have a friend who is a guitar player, so I'm also shooting concerts sometimes. The lighting is the worst you can get - very dark, and coloured lights which make it almost impossible to get the white balance right.

I often use the 50 f/1.8, but I rarely use it wide open - mostly at f/2.8, because otherwise the depth-of-field becomes really shallow. A lens with IS also helps but the image stabilizer ofcourse only works to counteract the shaking of your hands with slow shutter speeds, not to stop moving subjects.

For concerts I set my 10D to ISO 1600, I never use ISO 3200, because it's just too noisy. I use Neat Image (http://www.neatimage.com) to clean up the noise afterwards and it does an amazing job (there are also other programs like Neat Image to remove noise from photos, search for previous threads about noise reduction software).

Here is a tutorial about concert photography: http://www.photo.net/learn/concerts/mirarchi/concer_i
It's maybe a bit old, it talks about film etc. and not about digital photography, but a lot of it applies to digital as well.

[tim]

Jesper, that's a fantastic article/tutorial, absolutely invaluable, thanks a lot for posting it :D If you have any other articles or tutorials you like do please post them too :)