Posted by Jim Wright on April 09, 2008 at 21:21:55:
In Reply to: question for jim and the group posted by dan hodges on April 09, 2008 at 12:25:44:
but most of the places I shoot, unlike stage performances, are in poorly lighted clubs and I am pretty much forced to use flash. I have been shooting in manual mode a lot and setting the flash on manual at half power which allows it to recycle a lot faster. Once in awhile I get to shoot with available light but it is still so low that I end up shooting in black & white mode at ISO 1600 or 3200 with a monopod at 1/30 second and I still get smearing due to the artist moving. If I am lucky I can catch them holding fairly still and I will get the head and shoulders of the guitar player pretty clear while the playing hand is blurred. Drummers are out of the question. I usually end up throwing out about half to three quarters of the available light shots due to movement. The blurred ones that end up looking pretty cool I keep anyway. I think I posted a shot of Ike Turner back some time when it was announced that he had died. That shot was taken with available light but it was on a big stage that had lots of lights and a big spot from out in the audience area that was shining right on him.