Hey there, well now I’m blessed. Nikon D300, 18-200mm lens.

Ah, it’s an amazing camera.

I shoot at between 30 – 120 mainly, depending on what I want to get out.
A great thing to try at times is, to shoot at 30shutter on a instrument, if you grab the lighting, the blur effect aids the photo, giving it depth and character.

Yeah, the article is cool man, at then of the day it’s a passion for some, and you’re sharing your ideas, and now we have this forum, and ideas and tips of flowing.

So props to you for that.

Thanks for checking out my blog site, really appreciate it.

You might enjoy http;//www.futurespace.co.za – Showcasing South African Design|Music|Culture

re: ISO – for me this really depends on the gear you are using in combination with the light. For example, every Canon camera since the 30D has amazing high ISO quality. This has only improved with 40D as well as Nikon’s latest round of DSLRs. This makes ISO 1600 very usable. I’d love to keep the ISO at lower than 1600, but when shooting at 200mm trying to capture a quivkly moving artist in the dark, that just isn’t always possible.

Just out of curiousity, what gear do you shoot low-light concerts with?

Re: Shutter priority, you are 100% correct, shutter priority works great in some concert situations, but on that topic, my favorite lens to shoot concerts with is a 70-200mm. If i was to set my shutter to 1/200th or similar to insure a shake-free shot that would only be benefiting me when fully zoomed in. If i quickly zoom out to 70mm, i can shoot at a much slower shutter speed to capture a sharp shot, and as you know, in the heat of the moment, you’ll miss the shot if you stop to adjust settings.

There are obviously many ways to go with this, and its important to stress people should always take what they read here as guidelines, understand it, and develop a technique that works for them.

Also, checked out your site, some great stuff in there!!

I like the fact that there are some ideas out there on live music photography.

I do disagree on two items:

ISO: The ISO relates heavily to moise as we know, so if you’re not aiming for a grungy 90’s feel, I believe that you’re ISO should max be pumped to 800.

AV: The thing with aperture priorty as we know is that the variable is shutter speed, now when shooting live acts, as you mentioned, they move. So that means thats the light and depth of field is constantly changing, thus the shutter speed is changing. This can lead to heay blurring and out of focus shots.

If one looked into shutter priorty, then you can gauge if your shots are crisp or not. I know that lighting is the main problem in live photography, but there are ways to get around it.

Lights work on cycles, one can count out the colour cycle and time cycle. Another point, is to have your subject block out the direct light, providing an amazing back lighting effect.

Well, thats a few thoughts from what I’ve experienced.

Of course with this setup, a song with more sedate, or atmospheric lighting, will cause problems – especially with a longer lens. Then the solution is either to crank up the ISO or get a faster lens (as you suggest .

I really like the pictures, specially the one with the woman.