I finally got myself as DSLR...

I go see lots of bands.and usually take along my little compact camera, but have always wanted t take some 'nice' photos.

Sooooo.... recently i went out and boruhgt myself a dslr and here are a few of my shots from the initial test run.

Please bear in mind.... i did not play around with the camera at all..... i simply left it on auto and turned the flash off. (as i use it more i'll venture into the manual settings, but i wanted a baseline to start with so left everything at 'auto')

did buy a lens specifically for gigs... a 30mm F1.4 prime for those who that means anything to.

Anyway, heres a few shots i took

Imogen Brave @ Squatter Arms Hotel
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Kill Shot @ The Cavern Club
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Any thoughts, comments, suggestions on this first attempt?
Of course as i get more confortable with the camera i will explore the manual functions

Not bad.
The 4. and 5. are actually really nice. What kind of camera do you have now? The lens is awesome. 1.4 - I am jealous! I've got a 50mm 1.8....
Otherwise, just get comfortable with it, and try things out even with manual functions. It can be fun.
Maybe you should als xiilai, I guess she knows more about it...

the lens is a Sigma 30mm 1.4
the camera is a nikon d5100 (prretty much a reasonable quality starter level camera from what i can understand)

as mentioned, these were taken will zero adjustment to the auto setting of the camera... apart from tunring flash off. these wre literally... take the thing outta the box, charge the battery and lets see if this thing works.

i think a slr is something that will take a bit of practice to get used to, but i think it'll be a good challenge.

It is and it takes some time.
Personally I loved trying all the manual out at gigs. I was reading about settings before and just adjusted them. For gigs I usually use the TV -Mode (Tv - Shutter Priority. You set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture) on my Canon No idea what's similar on a Nikon. I find it pretty helpful. If there's difficult light I go whole way manual But yeah...I am not pretty good so as I said, Xiilai has probably more knowledge...

When it comes to technical stuff and making the transition from a compact camera to a full blown DSLR, I have very, very limited ideas about it all and it's like 99% just what I worked out from diving right in and giving it a try. That said, I can offer up what I like to go by, maybe it's helpful...? .
I still only have a compact, so lenses are out of the question for me, but my biggest tip is to shoot in the Tv (Shutter Speed Priority Mode). It's not as daunting as manual settings because you only have to control one value. I just aim to get the fastest shutter value possible without making the picture unbearably dark.
I know a few people who take gig photos and prefer to use the Av (Aperture Priority Mode), where they use the biggest aperture available to them, but this mode is a little sketchy on my model and from (extremely limited) experience in photoshop, I find a slightly too dark picture much easier to fix than one that is blurry .

Also, Red light is the absolute worst. And trying to fix the colours drives me insane, so recently I've tried shooting some shows with absolutely over-saturated light in only one colour for 90% of the time in black and white.

Also, can I just throw in that I'm Jealous? haha
I can't wait to upgrade and take on an SLR, but for financial reasons that's out of the question right now, haha.
Good luck with it though, I can't wait to see the results!

mrs v. viper wrote: does your camera allow raw format?
becazse most compacts don't, and the colour correcting ofc gets sooo much easier then...
SLR is the shit, I am afraid I'm a little too unappreciative of mine D:

yeah, it has raw. i've been told to switch to that for ease of making modifications.

here's a couple of galleries (on facebook) of some photos i took recently:

KILL APPEAL
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151525476464994.559942.650549993&type=1

KILL SHOT
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151525389604994.559935.650549993&type=1

LACED IN LUST
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151530700094994.560479.650549993&type=1

Any comments, suggestions, etc always welcome.

I like these 2:
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These are shot a great angles, I would have worked with Photoshop a bit more to get a sharper look and such..

I am a photographer too, focusing on documentary and live photography. U can see my works here: www.flickr.com/photos/thekonstapeln/sets/

Nikon D5100 is indeed a very good entry-level DSLR. x)
Absolutely try shooting in RAW - it helps a lot in terms of post-processing, which is as much a part of being a photographer as actually taking pictures is, if you ask me. (But who am I, aside from a humble freelancer...)
Other than that; read everything you can, but mostly TRY. Experiment! Play with your camera's settings! Try to develop a style that is all your own.

As for lenses, first of all, I'm jealous of your sigma.
Depending on the venue, a 70-200mm lens can actually be quite good for shooting live shows, if you're ever looking for a new lens. Yes, I just recommended a telephoto zoom lens for shooting relatively close-up photography...gasp, the horror...but it works quite well for tight shots and it makes the field of view interesting!

Unfortunately I'm not a photographer... would love to do that for living... It's an awesome job! Nonetheless I take pictures at shows with my Panasonic as often as I am allowed to take it into the venue

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