A little rye on the rocks, a familiar taste in a familiar place; the feel, the smell, the sound…
The Belly Up in Solana Beach has been a venue where I’ve made some good memories going to shows over the years, and I’ve enjoyed photographing some live acts there as well.
For this particular night, I kept things pretty simple.
Camera set up
Camera: Nikon Z8
Lens: NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S
Audio: External mic
Typically, I try to get audio directly from the board when I’m shooting video, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to that night, so I ran an external mic as well.
Both the photos and video were shot at ISO 64,000.
Yep, 64,000.
There are things you can do in post to reduce noise in both photos and video, but in the examples here, I’ve done nothing to remove it. I actually think that makes these a pretty good representation of what you can expect from the camera at an ISO this high.
The best thing you can do to reduce the impact of noise is simple: nail your exposure.
Photos can look great at this ISO, and you still have a surprising amount of adjustability in post. RAW video, however, will be much noisier, and adjustments in post need to be more nuanced. There is simply less room for correction compared to shooting at ISO 800 or 2,500—base ISOs Nikon has used in the past for N-Log.
Camera Settings for Live Music Photography
When it comes to camera settings for live music photography, I like to turn off as much as possible.
Vignette control, Active D-Lighting, and similar settings are all unnecessary processing for the way I shoot. I’d rather start with as clean and consistent a file as possible and make those decisions myself afterward.
I also turn off Auto White Balance and select a single Kelvin setting. Stage lighting is constantly changing color, intensity, and direction, and I don’t want the camera trying to reinterpret white balance from one frame to the next. Picking one Kelvin value gives me a consistent starting point across the entire set.
I keep Auto ISO turned off as well. This allows me to work with changes in lighting the way I want to rather than having the camera compensate automatically. If you prefer shooting with Auto ISO, I’d recommend setting maximum ISO parameters so you still have some control over how far the camera is willing to push things.
Live music is dark, unpredictable, loud and constantly changing—which is also a big part of what makes it fun to photograph.
I’ve always enjoyed photographing live music—the unpredictability, terrible lighting and all. If you’re a band, artist, venue or brand looking for photo or video coverage in San Diego or beyond, get in touch.
Let’s make something loud.