[geoffw]

In the interest of scientific research, I borrowed somebody's phone shot to show what the lighting was like. This is a good example of that,

Attached Images

 

[RAART]

In bars like this with low ceilings a bounced flash makes everything so easy.

Just asking... Why you did not use flash? I thought that it was big open space.
I was shooting a friend's birthday in very similar setting and with bounced flash and BFT worked excellent.

(BFT - black foamy thing)

[TheOneAndOnlyJH]

Gee, they sure did cram them in!

Not sure if it would have been allowed, but in a situation like that I would have probably tried to get a couple shots with a flash bounced off the ceiling to compensate for the back lighting. I wouldn't want to piss anyone off, but if you get away with three or four well exposed flash shots of the whole band you might be able to crop it into individual pics with better image quality than low light grainy images.

I mostly use a 17-50 f/2.8 in low light now, but off the top of my head I feel like your images are grainier than what I used to get with my 18-135 f/3.5-5.6.
You might want to play with your post processing or try another de-noise filter too. (I haven't tried Google Nik, but it's free and I've heard good things about it.)

---------- Post added 03-27-17 at 02:28 PM ----------

RAART beat me to the punch!
I guess I took too long typing.

[geoffw]

They'd started by the time I got there so would have liked permission to use flash. Shame though, I had one with me too. Got the nik define 2 but need to look some tutorials to get to know how to use it.

[clackers]

Definitely a flash situation. These subjects are darker than their background.

[geoffw]

Your shutter speed is too slow and you;d need some fill, bounce a couple of flagged speedlites of the corner of the wall and ceiling behind you.

Manual exposure, shoot DNGs and set your ACR default on Luminance - Noise Reduction to 50. Need a print? Use Imaginonic Noiseware

First image K3II with 50-135 at 2.8, 1/500 and ISO 8000, second image K3II with Sigma 100-300/4 at f4, 1/320 and ISO 10,000

DNGs, AF-C, Spot, rear AF, SR Off, everything I can turn off is off

Thanks for that. Its clear I've got something wrong. Flash would have been the answer but as I said they'd already kicked off. Flash could have upset the locals too. Will learn from this for the next event. Leave camera at home and visit the bar more frequently 😉

[pacerr]

If nothing else, you're fighting a loosing battle with those two bright lights and a reflective wall behind the performers. Even a serious EV adjustment won't help DR much there. What you really need is a different lighting set up and flash may not be an option.

Consider moving yourself so as to get a different POV that takes those hot spots out of the frame and the metering window. Even a very low POV might work and maybe you'll also benefit from some unusual compositions then too.

Explore spot metering -- when you get a good solution revert to manual exposure as auto TTL metering can make unnecessarily twitchy adjustments with very small camera movements.

Don't overlook a hood / shade to defeat off-axis light sources, often outside of the VF window, that can adversely affect contrast.

[geoffw]

If nothing else, you're fighting a loosing battle with those two bright lights and a reflective wall behind the performers. Even a serious EV adjustment won't help DR much there. What you really need is a different lighting set up and flash may not be an option.

Consider moving yourself so as to get a different POV that takes those hot spots out of the frame and the metering window. Even a very low POV might work and maybe you'll also benefit from some unusual compositions then too.

Explore spot metering -- when you get a good solution revert to manual exposure as auto TTL metering can make unnecessarily twitchy adjustments with very small camera movements.

Don't overlook a hood / shade to defeat off-axis light sources, often outside of the VF window, that can adversely affect contrast.

Good shout. I'll blame the venue. 😊 What the pics don't show are two big pillars either side of the band. There is a side view but it put slightly behind them. I'll just put this down to a lack of experience with a dab of bad timing for being late. Must admit, other members pics show what the K3ii is capable of in the right hands. Here's hoping.