band photo shoot - How did I do?

Well It was harder to do than I thought. The lighting was death!
There were no special effects style lights. It was small, cheesy, non-moving stage lights with no color.
Mostly shot at 1600, f4, 1/30/45 with my 70-300mm lens

Any good?

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I like second one

Me too

What's the f-stop range on your zoom?

When I shoot, I'm almost always at 1.8, and I really like most of the results I get.

These look pretty good, though. I like #6...

Steve

fstop was 4, which is the minimum.
I had a tough time man, Maybe it was the lens, maybe my lack of experience but none of them came out crystal clear.

2 & 6 look like ones you would see on the inside of the CD foldout. Well done!

Well done.

Is this a retro thing? You know, its a bit retro having actual musicians with instruments in a band. I thought pop groups just need slick PR, Dr Zeuss lyrics, and 180seconds-worth of dance moves...

# 2 is great...one that would work for just about anything you wanted to do with the band..

Good stuff

#2 is a keeper. #6 is a bit OOF. I had almost the exact same problems when I started shooting my daughter doing 1meter spring board. Low light and fast movement and I was shooting using my kit lens which was the 17-85 F4. This forum was great and suggested a faster lens. I got a 50mm F1.4 and through the magic of Disney (er Canon) my shots improved about 1000%!!!

Well, at f/4, shooting with just stage lighting, it's going to be a bit of a challenge. I'd tried shooting with a wide open 300D kit lens, and was so unhappy with the results I sold the lens. Seriously.

How long an exposure were these?

If you're getting shots like that at f/4, I'd recommend picking up the 85m f/1.8, and letting yourself go nuts...

Steve

Im a newbie so please excuse the dumb question.

But you say an f1.8 would work better, is this because the wider aperture lets more light in?

I think you did great!. I love number 2.

Yes. More light = faster shutter speed. When you're shooting moving subjects you want a faster shutter speed to stop the motion.

In my experience shooting live bands it is very rare to be able to shoot at f/4. The only time that I would is either with flash, a day time show or at a gig with very serious stage lighting.

Most of the live photos that I take are at f/2.8 or f/1.8 depending on my lens choice of the night.

You've got some good captures there, though Albert. Rock and roll photogrphy is difficult at the best of times!

Excellent. Thanx for the tips.
My assumption is that f1.8 lenses cost an arm and a leg?

Actually, the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens is one of the cheapest (and best value) lenses in the canon line-up. I don't buy pentax gear but I imagine that the pentax equivalent would not be too pricey. A fast prime such as the 50mm f/1.8 should be in every rock and roll photographer's gear.

f/2.8 zooms tend to be a bit pricier, however if there is a pentax mount version of the tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 maybe look at that. It a fast and sharp lens for a very reasonable price.

The lens choices (other than those above) for rock'n'roll certainly don't tend to be the cheapest available, that's for sure!