Night Club

[Byron Lentz]

I went to a bar Saturday night to shoot some photos of a band the at a buddy of mine is in. Here are a couple of examples; I was limited to available light from the stage lights and very little room to work in, (a very small Cowboy bar). I used my Nikon D300 with a 50mm 1.8 lens. ISO 2500. They are somewhat soft. I know I need a faster lens, any suggestions on technique or lens?
Byron

[MB1]

The images look very static and don't convey amy emotion to me. With the odd lighting they could almost be wax figures.

I'm thinking go for longer exposures to convey movement and get closer or crop tighter as full figures aren't required. You might also try getting behind them and shooting into the light.

[GB1]

It's tough, for the low light means you will need long shutter speeds, and shooting wide open aperture means you will have to be 'right on'. And you've already maxed out a very high ISO value.

If you can get closer and use a wider angle, you will get less blur and probably have a little more depth of field, depending on how close you get (getting too close may negate some of the added DOF.. but it's still better to shoot wider angle since you can use a slower shutter also).

A flash would also work if you got in close, but that would probably be unacceptable in that environment.

Another thing you've probably already thought of it just to time your shutter release to when they freeze their movement. This is more instinct than science.

You might also consider that some of the blur is caused by your camera shake and not their movement. Try bracing against a pole or using a mini-tripod (if that makes any sense here..).

Gb

[Byron Lentz]

Yeah, I was thinking part of the problem was me, as I was going over my mind what I had done during the shoot, I may have forgotten about my technique with holding the camera and shutter release.

[CanonFan]

The first shot isn't bad except the yellow on his face and hand looks bad. The second shot is far too static - he does look like a wax figure. I did a bit of concert photography back in the late 80's using a Canon T90 and, mainly, Canon 85mm f/1.2 lens. I used the spot meter and available light for some really great shots of The Turtles and Billy Preston, along with some others. I like the available light for concert shots because it is more "real" to me.