What settings should i use for taking photos at Gigs/Concert?

Yo all

Im a newbie to photoraphy as you can probably tell.

I go to many gigs and i want to capture those great moments and rememeb them foreverr.

I have this camera below. So you know what im working with

http://www.samsungcamera.co.uk/produ...888&cat_uid=11

I know its not the best camera ever but it seems okay, i got it for xmas as a present.

Could someone tell me what settings i should have etc in order to get good photos

thanks for reading, cant wait to start posting more !

peace

Ed

Hi Ed.

Your camera link is bad please repost it.

The ... in the middle makes it unusable.

Ed Briscoe said:

I have this camera below. So you know what im working with

http://www.samsungcamera.co.uk/produ...888&cat_uid=11

Click to expand...

Did you mean the S700:

http://www.samsungcamera.co.uk/product/pro_view.asp?prol_uid=1888&cat_uid=11

This was the only one with 888 in the URL.

Ed Briscoe said:

I know its not the best camera ever but it seems okay, i got it for xmas as a present.

Click to expand...

The best camera for the job is the camera you have, not one you do not. Do not worry overly much over your tools. It takes time and lots of practice before cameras and lenses become truly limiting factors. Learning to compose shots and expose correctly will let anyone with those skills take decent shots with just about any camera.

Ed Briscoe said:

Could someone tell me what settings i should have etc in order to get good photos

Click to expand...

Put the camera in full manual mode at 1/15-1/60 seconds and adjust the aperture and ISO to suit to correctly expose the background light. Then turn on the flash and adjust power to suit to get what you want.

The trick is to expose for the ambient light (low intensity) and then use flash to stop action and brighten closer in details. The technical term for this is dragging the shutter which should yield lots of links on a search engine.

enjoy your day,

Sean

Sean DeMerchant said:

... Then turn on the flash and adjust power to suit to get what you want. ...

Click to expand...

If you are talking about taking photos of a concert from the pit area, then you will not be able to use flash. Typical rules allow you to shoot the first three songs and no flash use.

You may be able to get away with it if you are in an intimate setting like a bar or club, but ultimately flash use will be up to the band (or it's managements) discretion in this situation.

In any case, the setting is usually dark and stage lighting is constantly changing (oxymoron?). Expect to shoot at ISO 1600 and wide open.

Ed

Personally I never use flash in these sort of photographs (though I did a little 20 years ago). If you need to use flash you should underexpose it and bounce it off the ceiling if you can and maybe use a coloured filter over the flash. In other words, you shouldn't be able to tell from that shot that you did use flash.

You'll find it easier to take available light wide angle shots than telephoto shots with the camera you have unless the light is very bright. And then what you can do with the camera is just the starting point - post-processing is at least as important. Getting the right expressions through the lense takes patience, concentration and an affinity for the music. There's probably more of a learning curve with the post-processing so that requires persistence and developing a good sense of what you want to achieve.

Regards,
Murray

real simple. high iso and fast lenses and hope for the best. by high ISO i mean 1600 during the the indoor events or night. daylight is no real issue. of course positioning
P&S cameras will give limited results at best. the new sony DSC-W200 has higher iso capability then those out there today. again the lens will then become the limiting factor
Theater Shot

XTi w/300/2.8 1/125s f/2.8 at 300.0mm iso1600

Club Setting

1Ds2 w/24-105/f4 1/10s f/4.0 at 32.0mm iso1600

Club Setting

1Ds2 70-200/2.8 1/60s f/2.8 at 200.0mm iso1600

i regularly shoot at 1600-3200 iso NO FLASH

on shooting with a flash:
1 it kills the ambiant lighting (theatrical lights)
2 it generally irritates the performers if your reasonably close
3 it can get you ejected from the venue
4 bouncing it off a ceiling in a theater some 30ft over head really isn't going to work
5 most built in flash units are only usable out to in reality about 10-15ft and with high iso (and generally a a lot of noise) 20ft

Ed,

Look at Steven's 1600 ISO 1/60 sec picture. That shot is likely timed to get the microphone away from her face. Skill, multiple shots or luck! Now try multiple shots in rapid succession with flash and you are definately unpopular! The fans might do that with their little digicams, but these are low power and infrequent just providing atmosphere to the club. You arrive with a pro setup and real flash and you'll get nailed.

Besides, as Steven points out, if you succeed in using flash, you will lose the light painting that makes the performance real anyway! Imagine using a grey card to correct the light of a sunset, you throw away all the golden magic; same with flash in clubs!

Now if they hire you, get their O.K. (all the band and the club manager must be put in the loop) and try a low level fill-in flash and even use a colored filter over the flash to keep the light uniform. It's easier then to make any final changes in PS later.

Asher

reference the difference with and without flash
http://www.pbase.com/crusader/music
all these images are raw in that they have not been actively edited except for:
http://www.pbase.com/crusader/album_cover__liner_shots