I've been asked by an associate of mine to shoot his band after work tonight. This was a last minute request. I haven't shot a concert since 1976 (Chuck Mangione!) and I'm looking for some starting points on settings. I grabbed the following as I ran out the door this morning:

- D300
- NIKON AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4D
- NIKON AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5 - 5.6G IF-ED
- SIGMA APO 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG MACRO HSM
- SB800

I typically shoot high school/college sports and landscapes.

I would appreciate suggestions from those w/experience in this area.

Thanks in advance!

Chuck

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Use your 50 f1.4. I shoot local bands using a D300 and the 50 with the aperture wide open, ISO 1600, on aperture priority. Depending on the lighting you'll get widely varying shutter speeds. I don't use a flash because it affects the colors you see from the light show, but I wouldn't argue against taking shots with and without flash.

I'm assuming you can move around. With a D300 you may have to stand quite a bit back from the stage to get the whole band in with the 50, and a wider lens (for example 35mm) might be nice. But I just use the 50 and find I can zoom with my feet, standing back to get the whole band in, and moving to the stage to get shots of the individuals.

If the venue has its own light show you may be able to any of your lenses and get shots when the lights are brighter, but f1.4 surely is nice in dark venues. If you take lots of photos and delete the bad ones, you'll end up with a few nice ones to show the band.

I shoot sports too, and you'll find you can get away with much slower shutter speeds shooting bands, so don't think you need 1/320 to get good shots.

Randy

You may even get some shots with your Sigma 2.8 at 70mm. The Nikor 18-200 might work at 18mm but because of the variable aperture, it would be problematic at the higher focal lengths.

George
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