Nikon D4, 85mm ƒ/1.8G and High ISO are great combination for bands

Nikon D4, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 12800, ƒ/1.8, 1/200

I returned to Swayze's Venue in Marietta last night with my daughter and her friends to see Say We Can Fly.

I put one of his most popular songs here so you can hear his music. Braden Barrie is the singer who grew up in a small town and feeling a sense of abandonment, he shows listeners that no matter what struggles we face, we always have the power to make it through.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 1/60

Since I broke my foot less than a month ago I wasn't feeling like running around to setup lights. I decided to shoot the entire concert with available light.

Couple of things that become a problem when there is very little light in the venue. The major concern is bands are moving so too slow of shutter speed and they will be a blur.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 1/60

This is why I love my Nikon D4 camera and combining it with the super fast lenses Nikon makes like the Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G and the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 51200, ƒ/2.8, 1/80

Since Say We Can Fly was the headliner for the night, I took the opportunity to try a few things early on to see what I needed to capture all this with just the lights on the stage. By the way that is only 3 household tungsten light bulbs lighting the front, which seemed to be in the 60 watt range with one as a backlight. The one in the back I think is for the drummer to see his drums.

I started shooting Like Mike band at ISO 51200 and realized that would work, but I decided to continue to compare the different ISOs. But with the punk band Like Mike I would have had to stay at ISO 51200 because they just bounced around the stage.

Nikon D4, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 25600, ƒ/1.8, 1/320

I would later in the set of Say We Can Fly shoot some of the photos at ISO 25600 because I wanted to shoot faster than 1/200 shutter speed.  Here you can see one of those photos.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 1/60

I worked on moving around and trying to capture the small venue feel and show my daughter and her friends down front enjoying the concert.

I also like the fact that my daughter not only got to meet Braden but interview him for her YouTube Channel.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 12800, ƒ/4, 1/160

Besides getting some photos of her interviewing Braden I also got some posed photos of her and friends with Braden.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 12800, ƒ/5, 1/160

Now the most important photos to my daughter will be the ones with her friends and Braden. One of the front bands got my daughter and friends attention and that was Sanchez.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 12800, ƒ/4, 1/10–Nikon SB900 bounced with soft dome, slow sync and -1EV

Here they are with Sanchez.

While I was prepared to shoot low light concert photos, I also had my flash for a moment just like this with my daughter and friends. There was no light on them and the flash made this a moment to be held dear to her and her friends.

If I was covering this for a publication the photos of my daughter with her friends most likely wouldn't be included like this. I most likely would have shot a photo of someone taking a photo like this to show how this is part of the event.