Concert Photography Settings

[saxondale.]

Well my band has a gig tonight and my friend is using my Canon 350D (he better not drop it :angry: ) and well, he has never used an SLR of any kind, and since i wont be taking the photos i cant adjust the aperture size and ISO speed as i go along, so can anyone recommend a standard setting for the camera.

There will be no stage lights if i remember correctly, fairly dark, but not too bad.

[Pink Floyd Veteran]

A must: tripod

General notes:

now depending on the light, set ISO at 800 or 1600 (note: higher iso make digital noise, which is bad)

set it in Aperture mode and manually set your F at 2.8 or the lowest you can depending on the focal

or

set it in Speed mode and slow down the shutter speed as slow as you can.

Again, if the band are moving, that will be another problem :(

the best you can do is to practice just before the band start their performance

[JohnO]

Tripod?!

Are you going to a jazz concert?

I had a 350D + 17-85 in early decemeber (now 5D+50 f1.8) and did my first concert attempt.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oconnor/page14/ (pages 14 and up)

It turned out pretty good but unless the concert is really relaxed a flash of any kind is a must.

Don't shoot 1600 on the XT, you will destroy your shots.

800iso+flash+ any shutter speed above 1/60 and most of all don't expect to have a great time.

Photography takes focus, jam to the band later.

[saxondale.]

Well hopefully a band will play before us and i can take some photos and tell my mate what the best thing will be.

No tripod :(

I will give option one a try :)

Thanks

800iso+flash+ any shutter speed above 1/60 and most of all don't expect to have a great time.

Photography takes focus, jam to the band later.

Will give that a go :)

I wish it was possible for me to take photos and play my bass at the same time :rofl:

[BroChaos Veteran]

most concert photogs i've seen don't use tripods. you need fast glass.

other than that, unless you are going for artistic impression, sharpness is much more important than light. and you can't use flash.

therefore, set your camera for Tv, and use the slowest shutter speed that you can still produce a sharp picture with. i've gotten away with 1/30 before.

also, bump the iso to 800. still not enough light? than go 1600. again, you can fix brightness, you can't fix blurriness.

no stage lights?

here's one of my concert shots. the exif data should be in there.

[Pink Floyd Veteran]

well if you can use flash, that will fix your problem. I thought you couldnt use one.

Usually, you don't want to be viewed while shooting. So flashes aren't an option.

[shrm03]

I've shot a lot of concerts with my XT. Just put it on TV (Shutter Speed Prefered) and set the shutter speed as slow as it will go without lots of blur. Set your ISO to 1600 assuming the lighting is low. Make sure your friend stays close to the band.