My first attempt at Gig photography

Well, as I posted elsewhere, my son (age 14) got chance to play at the Cavern Club (ie, birthplace of the Beatles)!
So, I just had to get some photos.
Not many are usable beyond the family album and I won't put any of the kids up on here before speaking to the other parents, but here are some of one of the semi-professional bands who also played that night. They are called the Mono LPs and are a local band.

They are all a bit noisy as ISO was up at 1600 (max). All shot in manual.

Hi Ted

These are not bad at all and I don't think the noise is an issue.

The one thing that hits me with these is the focus is off on all of them, which makes them look a bit soft. I think it would have been easier for you with a K-5iis, or a K-3, both of which are demons at focussing in low light. Given that you had to use your K10D which doesn't have the low light focussing capability, you have done pretty well I think.

The first one is my favourite.

Regards
David

Not bad results. Have to agree with David about the focusing. But if antone thinks this form of photography is easy they should give it a try..Certainly gets the old grey matter turning over..

A couple of years ago, at a Boomtown Rats gig, I got talking to their official photographer prior to them coming on stage. got talking about settings etc, and he said for gigs he ALWAYS shoots in shutter priority, auto iso, and RAW, to pp white balance.
I cant remember what shutter speed he said though....trial and error I suppose.

Hi Ted, I like these, there are some focusing issues but on the 1st and 4th ones it still works.

Can't see them unfortunately, my browser won't load them...just hangs.

Karlo

Not too shabby Ted, I'd have been pleased with those. just as good if not better than my own attempts.

Thanks guys.
Yeah, focusing was, erm: Interesting!
From memory, these were all with the K 50mm f1.7 wide open, so DoF was tiny anyway, not helped by the artists inconsiderately moving around on stage!
For a first go, under these conditions, I am fairly pleased. A friend of mine does this as a side line, so I'm keen to go along with her and try some more.
Unfortunately, changing camera is not an option at the moment.

Feed back from the artist is positive though!.

I have trouble with my K10D bought 2007 in 'backfocussing' -- getting fed up with it !

For a first go at this type of photography they're pretty good Ted. What they might lack in total image quality they make it up with bags of atmosphere.
The more you shoot any category of photography the easier it gets and the better you get, so keep going to these gigs.
David

Nice one Ted,
Great points in all that has been said already.
I do like 1 and 4, regardless of any lack of sharpness or focus both of these work well
Good shooting for first time out.
Derek

Very well done, I have been doing some gig photography over the last 2 years and results vary from venue to venue.

For the few gigs I was using K-m with 18-55mm which was completely hopeless. I now have a K5IIs (and a K3II) and the 50mm F1.8 which can be a little close at times but does the job well.

I had a problem with my first K10d but got some software which allows me into Debug mode.
I found that I couldn't focus my 28 - 80 lens on infinity at 28mm. I set it up for that, but then couldn't focus my 70 - 300 on 70, so ended up having to compromise. But this camera had been dropped and damaged.

I haven't tried my newer K10, might take a look just as an exercise.