December 29, 2008
Best settings for a digital slr for a live band?
orange_sandwhich asked:
I love taking photos but am not too good with finding the best settings for low lighting.
I have a digital slr and would like to be able to take great photos at live music gigs.
What time exposure, ISO and all of that is best for low lighting…… or the oposite, really bright stage lighting?
Any other tips for taking photos in these conditions?
Thankyou!
Also, I realise there are night settings on cameras…..I more so need to know actual manual settings, thanks : )
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Comments on Best settings for a digital slr for a live band? »
There is a night setting on your camera, usually in the shape of a moon/star. This allows the shutter to be open longer, and it gives it a warm look. However, the camera has to be super steady or it will be blurry.
Get as close to the stage as you can. The farther away you are the less light gets to you and your camera…
Put your camera on Av (aperture priority) and set it to your largest aperture (smallest f/number, say f/4 or f/2.8) so you can maximize the amount of light you get and see how fast a shutter speed you need. If the light is low you will also probably need to use manual focus.
When the stage lighting is the same as for the performance, set up a shot and press the shutter button halfway. If your shutter speed is less than 1/100 sec, change your ISO setting to a higher setting (for example from 200 to 400). Check your shutter speed again. Keep doing this until your shutter speed is 1/100 sec or faster.
If you know you are good at getting sharp photos at slower shutter speeds you can set the ISO a little lower, which will reduce the noise (looks like graininess) in your photos.
There are already some good answers. I would suggest setting a fairly high ISO like 800 so that you can keep your shutter speed fairly high to stop the action (say, 1/125th or at the very least, 1/60th). I would also suggest setting your white balance on “incandescent” so that the color of the lights comes out true. With “daylight” as your WB setting, the colors will be too red because stage lights are incandescent.
If you want to experiment with flash, I would see if you can set your camera on “slow synch” so that the shutter stays open and you see some action in the form of blurring, but the flash will freeze the motion at one point. Photos done this way can look very cool. If you do this, set your WB back to “flash” so that the part of the subject receiving the flash will look fairly natural and the blurred part will look reddish.
Good luck!