camera tips?

[daveyt]

my pics sucked! i reread the manual to see what i can come up with for next time. my buddie said take out the AF sensor light and speed up the ISO to 400.

 

i could go automatic but i'll try manual under different settings like "moving pictures" duuuuuuumb!

 

what about the image stabilizer? there is a setting the compensates for horizontal movement. i got a new canon and my pics suck! always out of focus.

 

any tips would be beered.

 

:handles:

[OldRod]

I could use some tips too. I took close to 150 shots at the KC show and only about 15-20 of them came out. I have an Olympus FE330 point-and-shoot. It normally takes great pictures, but at the 2 shows I've taken it too so far, I noticed that if I zoomed in at all, then the pic was blurry. And even with the great seats I had, I had to zoom in to get any closeup at all.

 

I'm seeing the guys again in Tulsa in September - would love to take some better shots.

 

[Toddbe]

Guys, all camera's act differently when taking concert pics. Some do a great job while others take a lot of practice and skill to get the manual settings exact according to lighting on stage.

 

The best trick for me and my Minolta is to make sure and have a steady hand on zoom and give the camera a chance to focus in before you release the shutter all the way. (press shutter halfway and it will focus in). If your using a flash then your battery will be stressed and it will take longer in between shots.

 

Good luck and please check for some great pics and full review coming up later this week from the Philadelphia PA concert held 7-21-2010.

Rock Concerts

[yyz98]

I just recently picked up an Olympus Pen. I practiced such shots at my daughters school awards, used different settings (manual) to find best results. They were mixed at best. I picked up a digital photography book which has example shots and what the photog used to achieve the shot. You can also look online at photo forums for shooting from the dark to lit stages, wiht setting tips. Granted, most of these are for digital SLR (professional type cams) but you can get in the neighborhood of their settings anyway for improved results.

[FootballYouBet]

 

Generally speaking, do not use a flash. Don't use a flash unless you're close to your subject. If you use a flash and you're not close to ther stage(close like within 3 or 4 rows), your picture not only won't light up the guys on stage, but will instead light up the heads in front of you at the show, mask the colors of the lights, and look more like you were trying to take a picture of the back of concert goers heads. Then there's the fact that using a flash will eat your batteries quick too. In short, in most low ligh concert picture situations, the flash is useless.

 

In order to get good quality low light concert photos you're going to need to set your camera to MANUAL, with an ISO ABOVE 400, with NO FLASH. If you are within the first 10 rows/close to the stage you can probably get away with ISO 400 or slightly higher. If you are 10-15 rows back probably 800-1200. The higher the ISO setting the greater sensitivity the camera will have to light. That is why the further you get away from the stage the more sensitivity you want. The downside of the higher ISO is that the higher sensitivity the more grainy the photos will be. If you're notn blowing the photos up it shouldn't be that much of an issue. The rule of thumb is to never use an ISO# higher than you need.

 

Last, if your higher ISO pictures come out blurry, try a faster shutter speed, which is not the same thing as ISO speed.

 

 

 

 

[daveyt]

thanks!

[FootballYouBet]

Here's some more tips.

 

If you are not close to the stage, and you have to use a lot of digital zoom, keep in mind that the more you zoom, the more susceptable to camera shake your camera is going to be, resulting in blurry pictures. If you start taking fotos and notice that they are coming out blurry no matter how still you try to hold the camera, you're going to have to zoom out no matter what.

 

Last, be prepared to try the settings I talked about and look at the pictures you've taken to evaluate your settings right away. Once you get them right, you won't have to touch them and you can just enjoy the show and enjoy taking pictures. So start taking pictures with the idea to immediately start reviewing them to get the setup aspect of this all out of the way. Familiarize yourself with setting up your camera before the show so that you can make adjustments quickly without missing the show.

[Snaked]

1. Turn off your flash

2. Turn off your flash

3. Turh off your flash

4. Get into manual mode

5. ISO 400

6. Shutter speed around 50-60 (you gotta play with this to see how your camera responds

7. Turn off your flash

8. Put the camera in your pocket for a majority of the show. It's a concert. enjoy

9. Turn off your flash!!!!!

[randyferron]

try the TV settting w/o flash

[amish_ashaman]

QUOTE (Snaked @ Jul 23 2010, 10:17 AM)

1. Turn off your flash 2. Turn off your flash 3. Turh off your flash 4. Get into manual mode 5. ISO 400 6. Shutter speed around 50-60 (you gotta play with this to see how your camera responds 7. Turn off your flash 8. Put the camera in your pocket for a majority of the show. It's a concert. enjoy 9. Turn off your flash!!!!!

Shutter speed around 50-60 might still be too slow. As a rule of thumb, the shutter speed shouldn't be much lower than your foal length to get clean shots. On crop bodies (like the Canon rebel for instance), you've got to multiply the focal length by whatever the crop is (probably 1.7) for this to still be true. I have no idea how this works with point and shoots, because I don't know if the camera tells you the focal length.

Edited July 25, 2010 by amish_ashaman

[wacky4alanis]

P+S cameras often over expose shots at concerts. You can always use manual mode if you have it - but if the lighting is changing, that can be tedious. Another solution is to manually adjust the exposure. I set my EV to -2/3 or -1, and it makes the pictures turn out much nicer (and has the added benefit of speeding up the shutter - which in turn reduces motion blur).

[LakesideMaiden]

tip one:

 

if your camera shoots with manual settings, use it.

 

tip two:

 

NEVER USE FLASH (3 reasons)

 

1) it annoys the hell out of the 3 guys on stage

2) it will call attention to you

3) it will mainly illuminate and focus on the people standing directly in front of you

 

Settings:

 

ISO: 200 (MAX 400 - but it's best to try and keep it around 200)

Aperture: 2.8 or the lowest number you can go

Shutter Speed - will depend on where your seats are. If you're close, keep it around 1/200 or 1/250. If you're further back, you'll need to adjust it to let in more light (so around 1/50), but you'll get more blurring because you won't be able to stop as much action.

[LakesideMaiden]

QUOTE (LakesideMaiden @ Jul 24 2010, 10:44 PM)

tip one: if your camera shoots with manual settings, use it. tip two: NEVER USE FLASH (3 reasons) 1) it annoys the hell out of the 3 guys on stage 2) it will call attention to you 3) it will mainly illuminate and focus on the people standing directly in front of you Settings: ISO: 200 (MAX 400 - but it's best to try and keep it around 200) Aperture: 2.8 or the lowest number you can go Shutter Speed - will depend on where your seats are. If you're close, keep it around 1/200 or 1/250. If you're further back, you'll need to adjust it to let in more light (so around 1/50), but you'll get more blurring because you won't be able to stop as much action.

Oh yeah - and the higher the ISO, the more grain (or Pixellation) you're going to get in your shots. That's why I suggest an ISO of 200, max of 400. Check out my shots from Mohegan here:

 

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v407/lak...mview=slideshow

 

password is guitar2112

 

I was pretty far away - section 106, row B - upper loge section.

 

Also, try not to zoom if you can avoid it, because it will slow everything down.

[drgrendel]

Thanks for the tip one and all! Wish I would have adjusted accordingly for the Maiden show last week! They are not bad from the 13th row though. Always looking to improve!

 

[amish_ashaman]

QUOTE (wacky4alanis @ Jul 24 2010, 09:11 PM)

P+S cameras often over expose shots at concerts. You can always use manual mode if you have it - but if the lighting is changing, that can be tedious. Another solution is to manually adjust the exposure. I set my EV to -2/3 or -1, and it makes the pictures turn out much nicer (and has the added benefit of speeding up the shutter - which in turn reduces motion blur).

This is an excellent idea for concerts. I do this a lot for anything involving stage lighting. I've been a professional photographer for 10 years, and while I haven't photographed many concerts, I have photographed some theater, a ton of weddings and other things where this same concept applies.

 

The issue with photographing concerts is that you have a large dark area and a brightly lit subject. The camera is programmed to calculate the exposure based on the assumption that everything in the viewfinder averages out to middle gray. This is why you get gray snow (underexposed) and overexposed scenes at concerts, where some of the lights are okay but the subject is ultimately too bright. Stage lighting is something that cameras will have trouble with, because they will too often account for the large area of black, which shifts the average of everything in the scene to a darker tone than what the subject actually is, therefore prompting the camera to overexpose and lighten all of those areas that are actually supposed to be black. Knowing how this works may help you spot the situations that your camera will have trouble with. Adjusting the exposure setting is a type of manual exposure, because it overrides what the camera determined as the exposure.

[daveyt]

QUOTE (wacky4alanis @ Jul 24 2010, 07:11 PM)

I set my EV to -2/3 or -1, and it makes the pictures turn out much nicer (and has the added benefit of speeding up the shutter - which in turn reduces motion blur).

damnit i thought about that but the manual didn't say what u just said! thanks, i'll try that next year :]

[flybynightgirl]

Well lots of good advice trf

I grew up in photography and learned a lot shooting concerst last 20 yrs.

This is no longer a slide film concert industry where Ectachrome I use to shoot 400 and push the film to 800/1600

but here is my take...practice using features and

 

Read the manual and learn how the camera focuses

Most cameras have

1. Metering for your subject hence what our pro was saying about the subject washed out. You can set the camera for different metering mode ie spot center and multiple. I turn off the illuminator to not bring attention to myself while the camera is too busy finding subject in low light. Compensation can work in manual modes to stop down one or more. I don't this cause a ... what is I don't want it anymore.

2. Focusing for P and S is monitor or single shot. If you set for single than if the subject moves when you half press you are out of luck with that shot.

3. TO NOT shoot 400 pass that and you get YUKKO and don't even try to enlarge but if you want grain it is ok for B&W

4. NO FLASH wastes your battery and talk about washed out and the boys don't want you to see their zits either. Takes out the light show effects.

5. Get a camera with a fast lens I use Sony cause they have little guys with fast lenses when I don't get the readings I shoot a video instead.

6. The more you zoom the lesser the quality but I try anways.

7. Steady shot and motion setting are YES

8. Hold you arm steady and wait for better lighting shots.

9. HOld you breath and pray

10. Like once said enjoy the show first and foremost

 

[daveyt]

QUOTE (flybynightgirl @ Jul 26 2010, 02:26 PM)

1. Like once said enjoy the show first and foremost