Live show… with a Fuji x100s

I’ve been loving my little Fuji X100S camera for my street and travel photography.  Light, compact and great quality.

But as I shoot a bunch of live shows, I’ve been hesitant to use the camera as I’m shooting for medias who require a set number of images per show, and I don’t want to compromise the work I do for them to test out a camera.  But last night, at the Steve Aoki show at Metropolis, we were allowed to shoot the whole set.  I did my regular 3 songs in the pit with my Canon 5D Mark III, and then moved around the venue and ended up in a balcony closed off area.  I was waiting for the artist to do some cake tosses and crowd surfing, so while I waited, I took out the Fuji and snapped some images.

Didn’t have time to do many, but I did get a few done.  If you want to see my actual set shot with my 5D Mark III (as a means of comparison to these), click HERE.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the output.  The focus speed is a bit slow, and I’m still not used to switching the settings quickly, which is something you need to do really fast to get a proper exposure in show shooting.

These shots have been processed in Lightroom for exposure and contrast and that kind of stuff.  I have NOT applied any sharpening other than the default LR settings and I did NOT apply any noise reduction.  I did a mix of shooting in Aperture mode and in Manual mode.  I’ll post up the settings used as well, for those who are interested 🙂

First shot done, ISO 1600, f/6.4, 0.4 secs.  I basically grabbed my camera out of the bag and shot.  I dig the flow/motion in the crowd 🙂

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-1

 

Corrected my settings in manual to ISO 4000, f/2.8 and 1/40 sec

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-2

 

Turning my attention to the stage (or the bit I could grab with my fixed 23mm lens without much obstruction)

ISO 4000, f/2.8 and 1/40 sec

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-3

 

And then another at ISO 4000, f/4, 1/250 sec

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-4

 

Now let’s really try and see the grain…

ISO 3200, f/4, 1/500 sec

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-5

 

 

Another slow shutter crowd shot.  ISO 3200, f/4, 1/3 sec.  While the camera is great to hand hold at low shutter, the constant base of the show gives ya a sliiiight shake haha

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-6

 

Back to the stage for a confetti toss ISO 3200, f/4, 1/45 sec

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-7

 

And one last one at ISO 3200 f/3.6, 1/100

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-8

 

And I cropped in really tight on the one just above to give you an idea of the details.  I am sooooo not a pixel peeper.  I like sharp images, but don’t analyse every shot at 100% magnification.  Emotion and feel are always WAY more important than technical perfection

aoki-show-live-fuji-x100s-crop-1