Concert/Gig photos...help needed

[gabbysans]

Hi there, I am starting to do gig photography with a Nikon D70 and was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.

I prefer taking gig shots using the light available however this means a longer shutter speed and there is not always enough time!! I was wondering if there are anyways of catching the light available without such a long shutter speed?

secondly when using a flash. Does the flash on the d70 provide enough light without using an external flash? and is the 'loudness' of the photos come out quite high?

thanks

[jdepould]

what lens are you using?

[marxz]

firstly... for music/band gigs don't use a flash, built in or hot shoe... it looks really really really bad... shooting upwards and washed out light gives a horrible "zombie skin" look to the performers

Also flashs brings all those items that stages hide away in to clear view ( a row of par 64 stage lights behind the singer go's from being a nice wash of coloured backlight to being an ugly row of tin cans with a coloured center oh yeh and all that gaffa tape? yeh flash shows that up "real nice")

get a fast prime to start with (a f:1.8 or faster 50 mm nikon or sigma should be quite cheap and 50mm primes are all pretty much damn good optically) it gives you mild telephoto effect on a cropped FoV camera which is good for shooting front of stage (if you need wider then use the Ansel Adams infinite zoom technique)

Use least 400 iso

Spot meter on the face (or exposure compensate about 1 to 2 stops down to prevent matrix metering factoring in the large expanse of dark stage area or 1 to 2 stops up if facing a backlight).

if you NEED to use flash you'd need to use remote triggered flashes mounted up in (or near to) the lighting rig or similar and even then only as a fill light rather than primary light.