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Nikon D1x - Concert Photos

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Aaron Spence

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If anyone is interested in seeing the D1x do concert photography I have about 1500 small images at the link below for you to check out.

http://www.fc7.com/agmf

Note these images haven't been edited. I've just dumped them all online. They've been shrunk and slightly sharpened.

Camera
Shot with the D1x at either 800 or 1600, daylight white balance.

Settings

Shot manual with centre weighted metering and autofocus. Images saved as Medium Jpegs. (I prefer NEF's but I don't have the storage capacity to shoot 200 images in 45 mins without a download break)

Lenses
Sigma (shock horror) 70 - 200mm (140 - 300mm digital) 2.8 EX HSM
Sigma 15 - 30mm (22.5 - 45mm digital)

Manfrotto monopod with ball/socket head for the 70-200 and handheld with the 15 - 30.

Thanks,

Aaron.

(I posted this to the galleries but it occured to me that Nikon users would find it much more interesting)
 
Aaron,

some really nice color and action, for sure. You shots give a great sense of the moment. Nice and clear, too. It's good that they're such small files, they're quick to look at.

I'm jealous of your gear, BTW. I'm hoping a D100 will stack up in the concert shot department.

I don't know though.--RegardsAndrew McGregor'We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.' -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
 
Thanks Andrew,

I've not looked in detail at the D100 spec. but if it has very fast, good low light autofocus, a decent image buffer (ie at least 9 images) that can write to the cards quickly, & 800 - 1600 iso, then it should be just as good as the D1x for this sort of thing. (assuming the low light noise pattern is random like the D1x)

I used to shoot concerts with a Nikon F-801s (N8008s) I mainly used it in manual focus and manual exposure so it could have been basically any SLR body. What really matters is the glass. ie it needs to be fast. I've always found a 70-200 2.8 to be excellent.

The thing I'd most like improved on the D1x for concerts is the image buffer. I didn't have much trouble with it during the couple of days I was shooting this festival, but if I wanted to shoot NEF's I'd have missed many shots. The D1x can store 9 jpegs while writing to the card but only 6 NEF's (Raw format) + the NEF's take longer to write to the card.

Aaron.

(The D1x is just OK in this department.
Andrew McGregor said:
Aaron,
some really nice color and action, for sure. You shots give a great
sense of the moment. Nice and clear, too. It's good that they're
such small files, they're quick to look at.

I'm jealous of your gear, BTW. I'm hoping a D100 will stack up in
the concert shot department.

I don't know though.
--
Regards

Andrew McGregor

'We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.' --
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
Click to expand...
 
Thanx for the link, and the info.

Just making the move back over to Nikon (where I shot film) from Canon, where I've been using the D30.

One quesiton: you mentioned speed in your last post, but with the D1X. Did you decide against a D1H, and if so, why?

I've got the bucks for the D1H now, but my next big concert (4 days) isn't until July, so I could wait a month to go with the D1X if that's the way I need to go.

Thanx,

--scott b.'The most important piece of equipment a photographer carries is right between the ears -- don't forget to bring it along on your shoot!'
 
I've had my hands on a demo D100, I too am interested in its speed for photographing gigs. It was okay but not like the D1X/H, focus selector is small and less sensitive. It has one of those AF-assist lamps which is a bit naff. I think I'll pick one up on the basis that its smaller and lighter - for times when I can't be bothered to carry a D1X but feel safer with a camera (i.e. as a replacement for my Coolpix 990). I don't think it will cut it at a gig.

Roger Woolman-- http://themusicphotographer.com/
 
Scott,

You should hunt down posts by Joe H. and Ron Resnick, neither of them shoot concerts as far as I know, but they have used both the D1x/D1h and can cerrtainly give you some useful comparison info. I personally have (and love) the D1x, but the buffer issue is clearly the biggest difference.

regards and welcome,

Jil
Scotty B said:
One quesiton: you mentioned speed in your last post, but with the
D1X. Did you decide against a D1H, and if so, why?

I've got the bucks for the D1H now, but my next big concert (4
days) isn't until July, so I could wait a month to go with the D1X
if that's the way I need to go.
Click to expand...
 
Great,

Thanx, Jil. I'll do just that.

I've carried everything from old Minolta 201s and Pentax K1000's all the way up to the F100, so weight isn't a big concern.

I'll check those threads.

Thanx again,--scott b.www.countryshots.com
 
Aaron,

Great shots...I didn't look through every single one, but the couple of hundred or so that I browsed through were very impressive. I'm really impressed by the high ISO performance of the highest end digital SLRs...in fact jealous. :-) I shot a theater production directed by my sister that involves a lot of colored lighting and fast moving hip hop dance, and used a film camera and Superia 800 and 1600, and ended up with usable but extremely grainy shots. I'm going to have to shoot the same show in a few weeks, and sure wish I could have a D1h or x for the occasion...

Nice work!

Robert
Aaron Spence said:
If anyone is interested in seeing the D1x do concert photography I
have about 1500 small images at the link below for you to check out.

http://www.fc7.com/agmf

Note these images haven't been edited. I've just dumped them all
online. They've been shrunk and slightly sharpened.

Camera
Shot with the D1x at either 800 or 1600, daylight white balance.

Settings

Shot manual with centre weighted metering and autofocus. Images
saved as Medium Jpegs. (I prefer NEF's but I don't have the storage
capacity to shoot 200 images in 45 mins without a download break)

Lenses
Sigma (shock horror) 70 - 200mm (140 - 300mm digital) 2.8 EX HSM
Sigma 15 - 30mm (22.5 - 45mm digital)

Manfrotto monopod with ball/socket head for the 70-200 and handheld
with the 15 - 30.

Thanks,

Aaron.

(I posted this to the galleries but it occured to me that Nikon
users would find it much more interesting)
Click to expand...
 
Aaron Spence said:
Aaron Spence wrote:
The thing I'd most like improved on the D1x for concerts is the
image buffer. I didn't have much trouble with it during the couple
of days I was shooting this festival, but if I wanted to shoot
NEF's I'd have missed many shots. The D1x can store 9 jpegs while
writing to the card but only 6 NEF's (Raw format) + the NEF's take
longer to write to the card.
Click to expand...
Aaron, does your D1X take a long time writing NEF’s, maybe it’s your card? With the Ridata cards my D1X writes a NEF in just a couple of seconds, what card are you using?
Dennis D

--Dennis D
 
Nice shots BTW, how do you like that Sigma 15-30? I got mine a few months ago and I'm really happy with it.
Dennis D
Dennis D said:
Dennis D said:
Aaron Spence wrote:
The thing I'd most like improved on the D1x for concerts is the
image buffer. I didn't have much trouble with it during the couple
of days I was shooting this festival, but if I wanted to shoot
NEF's I'd have missed many shots. The D1x can store 9 jpegs while
writing to the card but only 6 NEF's (Raw format) + the NEF's take
longer to write to the card.
Click to expand...
Aaron, does your D1X take a long time writing NEF’s, maybe it’s
your card? With the Ridata cards my D1X writes a NEF in just a
couple of seconds, what card are you using?
Dennis D

--
Dennis D
Click to expand...
--Dennis D
 
Hi Scotty,

All I can say is resolution. I do alot of other photography and the increased resolution is vital. Not that it isn't helpful for the concert photography as well. When a band wants to run posters or whatever the more file size I can give them the better.

Also with the increased file size comes the ability to downsize and reduce noise. You'll see the images I have online look perfectly clean and they are good, but the original 17mb files have very visible (random) noise. Just downsizing them to the size of a D1h file helps make the image cleaner.

Hope that helps,

Aaron.
Scotty B said:
Thanx for the link, and the info.

Just making the move back over to Nikon (where I shot film) from
Canon, where I've been using the D30.

One quesiton: you mentioned speed in your last post, but with the
D1X. Did you decide against a D1H, and if so, why?

I've got the bucks for the D1H now, but my next big concert (4
days) isn't until July, so I could wait a month to go with the D1X
if that's the way I need to go.

Thanx,

--
scott b.
'The most important piece of equipment a photographer carries is
right between the ears -- don't forget to bring it along on your
shoot!'
Click to expand...
 
Hi Dennis,

It's not like I'm waiting ages for the camera to write an NEF, but it certainly takes longer than a JPEG. By a couple of seconds. When I'm photographing a concert, those couple of seconds can make a big difference.

As far as cards go I'm using a 160Mb Lexar and a 256Mb Pretec. I had ordered a Mindstor earlier in the year to transfer my shots while shooting but no stock was available then and I don't have the spare cash now. (Building a new home) So I transfer to the laptop between sets. My point here is I wouldn't be able to shoot as many images as I like to with NEF at the moment.

Thanks,

Aaron.
Dennis D said:
Dennis D said:
Aaron Spence wrote:
The thing I'd most like improved on the D1x for concerts is the
image buffer. I didn't have much trouble with it during the couple
of days I was shooting this festival, but if I wanted to shoot
NEF's I'd have missed many shots. The D1x can store 9 jpegs while
writing to the card but only 6 NEF's (Raw format) + the NEF's take
longer to write to the card.
Click to expand...
Aaron, does your D1X take a long time writing NEF’s, maybe it’s
your card? With the Ridata cards my D1X writes a NEF in just a
couple of seconds, what card are you using?
Dennis D

--
Dennis D
Click to expand...
 
Dear Roger,

Do yourself a favour and ditcch iTools as a web site; it never works for very long. If you go to your gallery 1 half of the bearded chap's face is missing even after a refresh.

If you use a Mac you may be interested in Freeway which is a wonderful codeless web site builder.

Check out my site. It is very utilitarian and possibly boring but I can add and delete at will and my links work 95% of the time.

Using these idiot proof site builders like iTools is a true waste of time. been there, done that, regretted it.
Regards
Jerome Y
http://www.jy-photo.co.uk
 
Thanks for the comments, er I think?

I've never had any problem with pages loading on the site. Idiot proof the site is, which means I didn't have to build one! - no time for this, too busy taking photos...

I don't use the site to get work, but I will keep an eye on it now following your comments. Any sign of trouble and I'll change it.

Roger-- http://themusicphotographer.com/
 
It helps.

Now it's just getting the patience to wait till I can get the extra grand together.

Thanx, and thanx again for the link to the great photos!

--scott b.www.countryshots.com
 
Aaron,

Nice work! I have not yet tried shooting Boston club performances with my D1X because the stage lighting is generally poor. With film I shoot stage performances aperature priority, using flash. Would you mind revealing more technique details of how to shoot concerts in manual mode? For example, what did you meter off of? Do you just set it up front and leave it?

Michael
Aaron Spence said:
If anyone is interested in seeing the D1x do concert photography I
have about 1500 small images at the link below for you to check out.

http://www.fc7.com/agmf

Note these images haven't been edited. I've just dumped them all
online. They've been shrunk and slightly sharpened.

Camera
Shot with the D1x at either 800 or 1600, daylight white balance.

Settings

Shot manual with centre weighted metering and autofocus. Images
saved as Medium Jpegs. (I prefer NEF's but I don't have the storage
capacity to shoot 200 images in 45 mins without a download break)

Lenses
Sigma (shock horror) 70 - 200mm (140 - 300mm digital) 2.8 EX HSM
Sigma 15 - 30mm (22.5 - 45mm digital)

Manfrotto monopod with ball/socket head for the 70-200 and handheld
with the 15 - 30.

Thanks,

Aaron.

(I posted this to the galleries but it occured to me that Nikon
users would find it much more interesting)
Click to expand...
-- http://www.harkavy.com
 
G'day Michael,

Regards concert technique it has changed a bit since I started shooting digital a while ago but I'll tell you about my film and digital methods.

Before I start shooting I usually meter off someone in the spotlight, medium intensity spotlight if possible, using centre weighted metering. ie I want the camera to take into consideration the fact that the entire image is not this bright, just most of the bits I want. (Therefore I don't use matrix metering which gives me no idea what the camera is metering off or spot, which can cause the rest of the image to be massively underexposed.) I'll then shoot away at those settings keeping an eye on the lighting and what the camera is recommending. I'll adjust it, usually one stop up or down depending on the stage lighting changes.

With digital I do the same thing, except I check the LCD screen when I see a change in lighting to see if I need to adjust the exposure. Just as quick and more accurate than my old methods with film. That said colour negative film has far more exposure latitude than digital so you can get away with bigger exposure errors. With digital you have to be much more careful not to overexpose the brightest areas. If you do, they are gone forever.

Usually my exposures will be between 60 - 200 of a second at f2.8, depending on the venue of course. I've also done some long exposures in the images I have online to give me subject and camera movement. I've also zoomed some of the exposures at the same time. At around 1/15 - 1/2 second with the appropriate aperture changes.

Hope that helps a bit, let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks,
Aaron.
Michael Harkavy said:
Michael
Aaron Spence said:
If anyone is interested in seeing the D1x do concert photography I
have about 1500 small images at the link below for you to check out.

http://www.fc7.com/agmf

Note these images haven't been edited. I've just dumped them all
online. They've been shrunk and slightly sharpened.

Camera
Shot with the D1x at either 800 or 1600, daylight white balance.

Settings

Shot manual with centre weighted metering and autofocus. Images
saved as Medium Jpegs. (I prefer NEF's but I don't have the storage
capacity to shoot 200 images in 45 mins without a download break)

Lenses
Sigma (shock horror) 70 - 200mm (140 - 300mm digital) 2.8 EX HSM
Sigma 15 - 30mm (22.5 - 45mm digital)

Manfrotto monopod with ball/socket head for the 70-200 and handheld
with the 15 - 30.

Thanks,

Aaron.

(I posted this to the galleries but it occured to me that Nikon
users would find it much more interesting)
Click to expand...
--
http://www.harkavy.com
Click to expand...
 
Michael,

I should have also noted the following items.

Flash will generally kill the atmosphere of a concert instantly. (In about 1/10,000th of a second depending on your flash ;) Unless you use flash with a longer exposure to bring up the ambient lighting, which can give you some interesting effects.

You need fast glass if at all possible to give you fast enough shutter speeds to stop most of the movement on stage. Of course you can just bump up your ISO to compensate for slower maximum apertures, but then you lose quality with increased noise. Everything is a trade off.

Thanks,
Aaron.
Aaron Spence said:
Regards concert technique it has changed a bit since I started
shooting digital a while ago but I'll tell you about my film and
digital methods.

Before I start shooting I usually meter off someone in the
spotlight, medium intensity spotlight if possible, using centre
weighted metering. ie I want the camera to take into consideration
the fact that the entire image is not this bright, just most of the
bits I want. (Therefore I don't use matrix metering which gives me
no idea what the camera is metering off or spot, which can cause
the rest of the image to be massively underexposed.) I'll then
shoot away at those settings keeping an eye on the lighting and
what the camera is recommending. I'll adjust it, usually one stop
up or down depending on the stage lighting changes.

With digital I do the same thing, except I check the LCD screen
when I see a change in lighting to see if I need to adjust the
exposure. Just as quick and more accurate than my old methods with
film. That said colour negative film has far more exposure
latitude than digital so you can get away with bigger exposure
errors. With digital you have to be much more careful not to
overexpose the brightest areas. If you do, they are gone forever.

Usually my exposures will be between 60 - 200 of a second at f2.8,
depending on the venue of course. I've also done some long
exposures in the images I have online to give me subject and camera
movement. I've also zoomed some of the exposures at the same time.
At around 1/15 - 1/2 second with the appropriate aperture changes.

Hope that helps a bit, let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks,
Aaron.
Michael Harkavy said:
Michael
Aaron Spence said:
If anyone is interested in seeing the D1x do concert photography I
have about 1500 small images at the link below for you to check out.

http://www.fc7.com/agmf

Note these images haven't been edited. I've just dumped them all
online. They've been shrunk and slightly sharpened.

Camera
Shot with the D1x at either 800 or 1600, daylight white balance.

Settings

Shot manual with centre weighted metering and autofocus. Images
saved as Medium Jpegs. (I prefer NEF's but I don't have the storage
capacity to shoot 200 images in 45 mins without a download break)

Lenses
Sigma (shock horror) 70 - 200mm (140 - 300mm digital) 2.8 EX HSM
Sigma 15 - 30mm (22.5 - 45mm digital)

Manfrotto monopod with ball/socket head for the 70-200 and handheld
with the 15 - 30.

Thanks,

Aaron.

(I posted this to the galleries but it occured to me that Nikon
users would find it much more interesting)
Click to expand...
--
http://www.harkavy.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, Aaron, for the tips, the helpful spirit and showing that one can use a D1X for excellent stage performance results. I know it's not easy creating good concert images and I'm impressed. For the last couple of years I've been using a Nikkor 80-200 f2.8 on a monopod and Supra 800. Now if I can get comfortable with the idea of relying on a battery powered mass storage device. Cheers!
Michael
http://www.harkavy.com
Aaron Spence said:
I should have also noted the following items.

Flash will generally kill the atmosphere of a concert instantly.
(In about 1/10,000th of a second depending on your flash ;) Unless
you use flash with a longer exposure to bring up the ambient
lighting, which can give you some interesting effects.

You need fast glass if at all possible to give you fast enough
shutter speeds to stop most of the movement on stage. Of course
you can just bump up your ISO to compensate for slower maximum
apertures, but then you lose quality with increased noise.
Everything is a trade off.

Thanks,
Aaron.
Aaron Spence said:
Regards concert technique it has changed a bit since I started
shooting digital a while ago but I'll tell you about my film and
digital methods.

Before I start shooting I usually meter off someone in the
spotlight, medium intensity spotlight if possible, using centre
weighted metering. ie I want the camera to take into consideration
the fact that the entire image is not this bright, just most of the
bits I want. (Therefore I don't use matrix metering which gives me
no idea what the camera is metering off or spot, which can cause
the rest of the image to be massively underexposed.) I'll then
shoot away at those settings keeping an eye on the lighting and
what the camera is recommending. I'll adjust it, usually one stop
up or down depending on the stage lighting changes.

With digital I do the same thing, except I check the LCD screen
when I see a change in lighting to see if I need to adjust the
exposure. Just as quick and more accurate than my old methods with
film. That said colour negative film has far more exposure
latitude than digital so you can get away with bigger exposure
errors. With digital you have to be much more careful not to
overexpose the brightest areas. If you do, they are gone forever.

Usually my exposures will be between 60 - 200 of a second at f2.8,
depending on the venue of course. I've also done some long
exposures in the images I have online to give me subject and camera
movement. I've also zoomed some of the exposures at the same time.
At around 1/15 - 1/2 second with the appropriate aperture changes.

Hope that helps a bit, let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks,
Aaron.
Michael Harkavy said:
Michael
Aaron Spence said:
If anyone is interested in seeing the D1x do concert photography I
have about 1500 small images at the link below for you to check out.

http://www.fc7.com/agmf

Note these images haven't been edited. I've just dumped them all
online. They've been shrunk and slightly sharpened.

Camera
Shot with the D1x at either 800 or 1600, daylight white balance.

Settings

Shot manual with centre weighted metering and autofocus. Images
saved as Medium Jpegs. (I prefer NEF's but I don't have the storage
capacity to shoot 200 images in 45 mins without a download break)

Lenses
Sigma (shock horror) 70 - 200mm (140 - 300mm digital) 2.8 EX HSM
Sigma 15 - 30mm (22.5 - 45mm digital)

Manfrotto monopod with ball/socket head for the 70-200 and handheld
with the 15 - 30.

Thanks,

Aaron.

(I posted this to the galleries but it occured to me that Nikon
users would find it much more interesting)
Click to expand...
--
http://www.harkavy.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
-- http://www.harkavy.com
 
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