Support your local bands!

My cousin plays in a band called The Maul Shoppe. You can find them on Facebook, if you're interested in hearing their stuff. =)

Anyhow, I took these at their show last night. All were taken w/ the 17-55IS at 4000-6400ISO.

I'll take any and all C&C please. Looking to better my concert/low-light photography... Thanks!

1)

Great action shots, but need better editing skills

Plus, when shooting concerts, shoot RAW

That's why I posted these - to get some c&c. If you're going to say I need some better pp skills, why not suggest what should have been done?

And I always shoot in RAW.

Thanks for your input anyhow...

They're not bad. I personally think the shots need to be a bit brighter. I would've shot these with a really fast prime instead of the standard zoom you used.

Shooting shows in a small club can be a nightmare, lighting wise, because they aren't big enough or have the same budget as a bigger venue would. You have to get creative with it, but it's still frustrating.

BryantFC wrote in post #13458194
They're not bad. I personally think the shots need to be a bit brighter. I would've shot these with a really fast prime instead of the standard zoom you used.

Yeah, I can see what you mean. I could push the brightness up a little, but then the noise starts to show. I wanted to test out the 17-55IS for this show. IS did help, but like you said, it may be best to go with a faster prime. Thanks!

dannequin wrote in post #13458279
Shooting shows in a small club can be a nightmare, lighting wise, because they aren't big enough or have the same budget as a bigger venue would. You have to get creative with it, but it's still frustrating.

Exactly! Although they had different color lighting there, red and yellow were the only ones used. Not sure why, but it was difficult to get shots of the guitarist (right) as there was not much lighting there.

I'm planning on following their career (my cousin's in the band after all) and shooting their future shows. There's another one coming up in a few weeks. It'll help me get some practice in.

Thanks for both of your comments!

NP! I suggest using spot metering if you haven't. I shot a show with a 60d and it was so difficult BC there was multiple strobe lights going off and the cameras metering was going wacko. Also use your 430ex but just use it as an ambient flash by bouncing from behind. I noticed it works well for me without killing the mood and lighting of the scene.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my flash that night. I left it in my other bag, which was at home. I didn't know I was supposed to shoot the show til I was halfway there. Lol.

I really like the group shot. Ideally I would have preferred more room under their feet, and shifted them a bit so the guy's head second from the right wasn't intersected with the stripe on the wall. The woman in the centre is in an awkward pose, too. But if it were me and I was a smaller local artist in need of some good images, I would be really happy with it to be honest. I think it's a cool shot.

For the rest, what were you settings? I agree, a kit lens wasn't far from ideal but you worked with what you had. Since it's a local band and they asked you to photograph, I would have gone for some more creative angles instead of just from-the-crowd-shots.

byrant, im curious to how using a flash pointing backwards creates ambient light?

I use mine with the flash disabled, so the AF assister still works, this helps with the low ambient light.

If your having a problem with metering, shoot in manual, take some test shots and your good to go!

Road_Rebel wrote in post #13459355
byrant, im curious to how using a flash pointing backwards creates ambient light?

I use mine with the flash disabled, so the AF assister still works, this helps with the low ambient light.

If your having a problem with metering, shoot in manual, take some test shots and your good to go!

I got the technique from fellow photographer Peter Nguyen (http://500px.com/peter​_n)

But this outlines it a bit more.

"I’ve had a fair number of people writing in to tell me that they don’t quite understand what I am bouncing the flash off when I bounce behind me into an open room.

What is happening there, is that I am usually at a wide f-stop and a fairly high ISO – something like f2.8 and 800 ISO. This usually means that ANY light that bounces back from various objects in a room, will register in the image. The light from the strobe bounces back from furniture, other objects, part of the ceiling, some of the walls to the side. You’re in effect just flooding the entire place with light from your strobe – and at f2.8 it will register. Obviously it depends on the size of the room, etc. But just try it.

Especially when you are using flash to augment the available light – you simply don’t need a lot of flash to have some effect."

http://neilvn.com …bouncing-flash-behind-me/

JOEinSD wrote in post #13457792
That's why I posted these - to get some c&c. If you're going to say I need some better pp skills, why not suggest what should have been done?

And I always shoot in RAW.

Thanks for your input anyhow...

No problems, I know that the small venues can and will be an arse to shoot in, but that is where we learn

400dabuser wrote in post #13456941
Plus, when shooting concerts, shoot RAW

I don't know that it's absolutely necessary all the time.

I know I'll end up getting lambasted for that, but it's absolutely true. I'm not saying there's not a benefit to it, but one can certainly get very good results shooting in jpeg...

BreitlingFan wrote in post #13460200
I don't know that it's absolutely necessary all the time.

I know I'll end up getting lambasted for that, but it's absolutely true. I'm not saying there's not a benefit to it, but one can certainly get very good results shooting in jpeg...

When starting out, its the best policy, if your confident about editing .jpg, then by all means shoot .jpg

Brandon72 wrote in post #13459344
I really like the group shot. Ideally I would have preferred more room under their feet, and shifted them a bit so the guy's head second from the right wasn't intersected with the stripe on the wall. The woman in the centre is in an awkward pose, too. But if it were me and I was a smaller local artist in need of some good images, I would be really happy with it to be honest. I think it's a cool shot.

For the rest, what were you settings? I agree, a kit lens wasn't far from ideal but you worked with what you had. Since it's a local band and they asked you to photograph, I would have gone for some more creative angles instead of just from-the-crowd-shots.

Thanks for the tips, Brandon. Actually I was using the 17-55IS, not a kit lens. I'll keep the creative angles in mind next time. I've never shot these types of events or even brought my camera into such venues before. Afterall, I'm just a hobbyist.
I used the same settings (1/30-60 4000-6400ISO) throughout the set. Should I not change my settings so much during these events? Because I was going back and forth quite a bit for the ISO to be able to get the shutter speed I needed (drummer required a much faster shutter speed, obviously..) I know I definitely need more practice, but at least now I'm a tad bit more comfortable pushing the ISO.

Here's a link to the rest of the photos (well, half of them...Still need to finish up the rest): http://jrassavong.smug​mug.com …-11-25-11/20282752_p7rkb2