Taking photos at concerts... Help!

firebug_guy

I was at a concert last night (i.e. dark room with bright lights on stage)

All my photos are crap, and I am sick of taking photos at concerts which look ok on the display, but are crap when put on my PC.

What settings, tips, recommedations do any of ye have for taking photos with a simple point and shoot camera when at a concert?

John

Get as close as you can, turn off your flash and hope for the best! If you're too far away, the camera will take ages to take the shot (as it will be a long exposure) and this will give you camera shake. If you're up close, it should be bright enough from the stage lights for it to take the shot normally. Flash from far back will give you a great photo of the back of people's heads and too close will give you frightening looking performers.

Ricky91t

OP what type of camera are you using?
An Slr or a compact,Most older compacts would be a no go,newish one might do ok

kensutz

firebug_guy wrote: »

What settings, tips, recommedations do any of ye have for taking photos with a simple point and shoot camera when at a concert?

Ricky91t wrote: »

OP what type of camera are you using?
An Slr or a compact,Most older compacts would be a no go,newish one might do ok

He said point and shoot.

Ricky91t

kensutz wrote: »

He said point and shoot.

Crap!How did i miss that,

OP i don't think you have much chance getting good shots unless you upgrade you camera

John

I disagree. While I get much better shots now, I have gotten some good shots with an old point and shoot (a 2.4megapixel Fuji Finepix from 2000!):

Ricky91t

Fuji compact seem to have excellent IQ,seen some great A3 prints off a 2mp digicam,Depends what OP has,i class cheap as a 39.99 digicam from argos

And i'm sure your fuji wasn't cheap back in 2000? :pac:

Not a Fuji FinePix 4700 is it?

melekalikimaka

John wrote: »

I disagree. While I get much better shots now, I have gotten some good shots with an old point and shoot (a 2.4megapixel Fuji Finepix from 2000!):

your never gonna get good image quality consistantly using a p and s.

John

Ricky91t wrote: »

Fuji compact seem to have excellent IQ,seen some great A3 prints off a 2mp digicam,Depends what OP has,i class cheap as a 39.99 digicam from argos

And i'm sure your fuji wasn't cheap back in 2000? :pac:

Not a Fuji FinePix 4700 is it?

No, it's a FinePix 40i and it wasn't cheap but it wasn't break the bank expensive either.

melekalikimaka wrote: »

your never gonna get good image quality consistantly using a p and s.

No, of course you're not but that can be said of a P&S in any situation. You just need to keep clicking and hope for the best! I'm guessing the OP wants to know how to do it on a P&S and not buy a new camera.

firebug_guy

I have a Digial SLR, but its a bit big, and I got in trouble at the last concert I was at for having it. Swear... a security guy took my batterys off me. He said the zoom was too high on the camera and they confiscated my batteries - but I had more in my pocket

So a smaller compact camera is my other choice, as they just let people snap away... I'm not forking out for a 3rd camera.

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips, but reading here seems its just pot luck with the photos

iamnothim

Taken on a fuji f420 a long long time ago.

the camera had no manual control, so had to find a wall light to point it at, half press to get it to lock on a quick shutter speed, then return to the gig and shoot without even refocusing.

DotOrg

Point & Shoot, compact camerasd simply aren't designed for concerts which are generally low light events.

The only real option is turn off the flash, turn the iso up as high as possible and then shoot in bursts when you know a spotlight is coming on etc

If you're just capturing your memory of the gig, then that should suffice, if you want to capture shots of the performers in a non documentary way, try and get a photopass and bring your SLR

www.AAAphotos.org/faq.htm might help in this regard

Fajitas!

Without trying to sound elitest, and without trying to bring up the age old argument...

If you have a point and shoot, and you end up a bit away from the stage, don't worry about taking photos, enjoy the gig. If you really want a photo from it, chances are there'll be a few photographers working there you could get a print off, DotOrg, above, for example.

Nothing worse than only remembering your favorite gigs holding your camera up in the air for some blurred pixellated photos

PCPhoto

maybe its time to look at your P&S camera and maybe that needs an upgrade..... theres plenty of P&S nowadays that offer full manual control over settings, which is what you need to do a gig in such conditions.

Everything depends on various things (lights available, movement of people on stage, movement of you in crowd and camera settings)

adjust your settings accordingly - if its dark, open the aperteur as wide as possible, Up the ISO , lower the shutter speed to a suitable setting to capture the image (some people like a little movement in their images)

Anyway - thats my opinion.

Ricky91t

I've seen some very good shots from other compact/bridges
The canon powershot S3IS

Or maybe the canon G series?
Theres a G7 on ebay for €205
Thats not bad and the shots off it seem good
http://flickr.com/photos/rocknserve/1962693404/

John

Fajitas! wrote: »

Nothing worse than only remembering your favorite gigs holding your camera up in the air for some blurred pixellated photos

I'd say there's nothing worse than remembering your favourite gig as being stuck behind the guy taking blurred pixellated photos!