Whatcha gonna do? For sure you don't want to be blasting your guitar heros with blazes of light from your mega watts on board shoe mounted studio lighting system. Rude boys might; I turn off the flash and go available light. Since most clubs are sinfully dimly lit you're going to need to set your camera to wide open, the largest aperture available. You can do this by setting the camera to aperture mode 'A', and selecting the smallest aperture available (f 3.8 - 5.6 on my Nikon 18-200 zoom). The camera will then set the correct shutter speed for you to get a good exposure. But that guitar playing is slinking around and wailing on the guitar, remember. He's going to be blurred for sure, especially those lightening fast picking and fretting hands, so you need enough speed for the shutter to stop the action. To do that you'll have to pump your camera's iso to it's highest rating (iso 1600 or higher). Wait a minute. Doesn't that creat a lot of noise in the photo? Yes it does. You can reduce it by using a noise reducing program in post production (you know, after you take the picture and it's in your computer and you fix it up)like Noise Ninja, or you can look at it like I do that the noise is just part of the arty look, like my old grainy high speed film b&w photos.
Either way, there are times when the guitar player, or drummer etc, will pause momentarily and offer you a shot at a non moving object. If you practice it a bit you'll start to sense when those moments are about to arrive in fron of your lens. So use a wide open aperture, highest iso, and wait for the right moment. And have a blast without your flash.
Photos are of Pistol Pete. See and hear him at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89oXY8aGM2E/
Terry
Madison WI photographer Terry Talbot
http://www.talbotphoto.com/
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