 Cheri Lyn Hauschild |
Films to Use for Rock Band I am not a pro - I only have Nikon N60 - but I would like to take nice pictures of my brother's rock band in dark, smoky bars. I used 1600 speed color film and a couple of the pictures were okay. I have a flash too. Is there higher speed black and white or color film? I'm desperate and want to do this right. Or is is that my camera is not good enough? I have a Nikkor standard 35-80mm lens and an older Nikkor 100-300mm. For any tips I would love ya forever!
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
Cheri, A big help would be a faster lens. A 50mm with f1.8 or better lens would help you a lot.
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Jeani |
Cheri, I recently photographed a friend's band in what sounds like similar lighting and used Ilford B/W Delta 400 Pro. I have only seen the negatives at this point, but will be printing some of the images very soon. I used my Pentax ZX5N with a 28-80 f3.5 lense. At first I had everything set on automatic to see how the camera would do with the lighting....needless to say, it didn't do too well. I see trails all over that series of negatives (but am hoping they might be interesting). I then set the shutter speed at 1/60 sec and opened up the apperture to 3.5 (the max on this lense). The negatives appear quite dark, except for where the light was falling, i.e. musicians faces, instruments, etc. I am hoping that in the darkroom I will be able to work with the negatives to get some good prints.(I keep thinking about the jazz shots of Hermann Leonard and how wonderfully dark they were - but so beautiful). After I print these negatives, I will come back to the site and let you know how the prints turned out. Another note... about a week ago I noticed that someone at this site posted a question similar to yours and the person who answered had some really good tips on using flash and photographing bands. Here's the link to that thread. After I visit the darkroom, I'll come back and post more info.
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Michael Lucas |
I use a Canon Elan 7e for my live band shots. I would also suggest having a 70-200mm with f2.8. This can give you the option to staying out of peoples way and give you a variety of shots.
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Jim Sutton |
Cheri, Try push processing your film. Set the ISO at 3200 instead of 1600 and shoot as you normaly would. Be sure to shoot the whole roll at 3200. When you have exposed the entire roll, take the film to a good lab and tell them to "push it one stop." See if you like the results. It might save you some money.
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Colin Bell |
I am a professional, and I do a lot of low light work with live bands. The equipment you have is sufficient for the job. All you have to do is change your technique. If you use professional film and "push" the film, you can get excellent results. If you do not know about "pushing and pulling" film, I'm sure there is a detailed section on this Web site that explains it. Basically, you expose the film you have at a different film speed than it is rated for. Example: you used 1600 speed colour film. You would rate it at 3200 (or 6400 depending on the film) and when you are getting it processed - go to a professional lab - and tell them that it was pushed to 3200. They then process that type of film at 3200. That’s "pushing", it increases the amount of light that gets to the film. That way you can use the available natural light in a dark smoky bar. This will add atmosphere to your photos. Pushing can increase the grain in your photos, but with modern film it isn't as bad (or good) as it used to be and in some cases there is no grain at all. When you are taking an available light picture, expose it to the lightest part of the scene. This will generally be the face. I shall include some of my pictures as examples. It's a good idea to use pro film, because it has a greater range in stops and the colour is always more exact. You can find out how much a film can be pushed or pulled by reading the manufacturer's instructions. They are usually on the inside of the film box. Manufacturer's Web sites are also good sources. I usually go to a job with four or five different types of professional film, to cover all the different shots that I am after. I use Fuji colour films and push them as far as they can go for available low light shots. I use Fuji rated at normal or just above for straight flash shots and also for available light and second curtain sync shots (a bit of movement in the picture). Well, I hope I have been of some help to you. The best advice that I can give you is take more pictures and don't be afraid to experiment. Regards,
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