Camera Settings...

hopefully i can get some replies before i leave - but i have a show to go to at a club and i get to play photographer. ive never done photographer inside a club before and was wondering what kinds of settings people would use. Lenses include 85mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor and 70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED AF Zoom-Nikkor. Any suggestions would be welcome. not sure what model my flash is (its a mate of mines, so..)
feedback would be lovely asap.
it is greatly appreciated.
MIR

I'm going to assume nightclub. First thing I would suggest is to get different lenses. The 85mm f1.4 may be usable as far as light goes but both are too long unless you can really get far away from your subjects. I would prefer to work with a 24mm lens in a cramped interior.

ok, a 24m lens may be possible. thanks for that. and, haha, yeah, sorry, it is a night club
MIR

They may not allow you to use your flash. The last muscian I shot I used my 18-70 with spot metering on the faces. Turn your AF Assist lamp off. ;-) I would also use Aperature Priority and keep it set to the lowest number aperature to allow the most light in. I would set the ISO to 640 and also set the ISO Auto on with a setting of 1/60 just to prevent camera shake. Hope this helps.
--
Sincerely,
John Talvan

Equipment:
Nikon, Olympus, and other junk.

http://www.digitaldingus.com/
http://www.nikonians.org/
http://www.mgcc.ws/

so a flash isnt neccessary then? from what i know (which isnt much) those settings sounds pretty decent.
Thanks
MIR

Find out what you are allowed to do but personally I wouldn't use flash unless I was asked specifically to do it and was doing a paid job. It can be very annoying to the patrons of the club. If I had to use flash I would set ISO as high as possible for the required image quality and use a wide aperture so the actual flash is as low power as possible. Also don't chimp any more than you have to as it looks unprofessional.

Flash will probabley be necessary, but may or may not be allowed. Depending on exactley how dark the club is and what kind of lighting they have on the band/singer depends on how well those settings will work for you. Mine was decent lighting for a Lounge, not great but not to bad either. Some night clubs can get pretty darn dark and you might not be able to even focus. If it is that dark, turn the AF assist lamp back on, and use it to dig up that flash. :-D Hopefully that flash will be a SB-800. If it is, you can turn the AF assist back off, the flash has an infrared one built in and it works darn good. I dont know if th SB-600 has the AF assist or not. Forgot to mention earlier, I agree with the previous poster, leave the long lenses at home, well bring the 85/1.4 just in case you need it but I wouldnt bother with the 70-300. Keep in mind I normally leave events early because I have been carrying around a ton of gear. LOL Hope this helps.
--
Sincerely,
John Talvan

Equipment:
Nikon, Olympus, and other junk.

http://www.digitaldingus.com/
http://www.nikonians.org/
http://www.mgcc.ws/

All of it.
--
Sincerely,
John Talvan

Equipment:
Nikon, Olympus, and other junk.

http://www.digitaldingus.com/
http://www.nikonians.org/
http://www.mgcc.ws/

I've shot in three restaurants/clubs in the last few weeks. The best shots I got were without flash, Many of them with a mini tripod on the table. I also found long lenses useful for some interesting close up shots. All depends on stage lighting, of course.

thank you very much for your help. and im looking in to gettin an sb-800. i hear they're fantastic!!! thanks again, ill post some pics when they're taken.
cheers
MIR