Author Topic: Club Concert Photos? (Read 1051 times)

pretzston · « **on:** January 22, 2011, 06:14:41 AM »

I'm stopping over at a local club to take a few rock band concert shots. Never shot indoors at night before with stage lights etc. Lens thoughts?

I am plannin on taking my Pana 20mm 1.7 and my 9-18mm which is only like a 4.5 or something.

Best camera settings for a newb who still uses a lot of auto mode?

lisandra · « **Reply #1 on:** January 23, 2011, 08:57:03 PM »

the panny all the way (Im assuming very low light). Shoot RAW at at least ISO 1600. Shoot in A mode and see what shutter speeds that combination gives you, if its lower than 1/25 of a sec you need a higher ISO (noisy is better than blurry). Sometimes there no light on the club but some illumination on the band, if that's the case and you end up getting 1/80 of a second then you can dial the ISO down to 800 (1/40 of a sec freezes most slow movements). Do a few test shots and check for sharpness and adjust accordingly. Dont use auto ISO as it will 99.9% of the time choose the highest ISO in low light and what you want is balance. Go home and crop.
One radical method Ive seen is using S mode and setting a shutter speed youre comfortable with (the lowest in which things dont come out blurry) but since light in clubs changes you might get a bunch of well lit and another bunch underexposed. Then go home and brighten up the underexposed ones.

count_zero · « **Reply #2 on:** January 23, 2011, 10:56:48 PM »

This is a little off topic, but last night I was at a concert and security came up to me and asked if I had a press pass. I said my camera wasn't pro. He came back with "does it have interchangeable lens?". I lied and said no, but it looks like security bone heads are catching on to the mirrorless trend. No more sneaking in good cameras. I'm actually debating buying a Fuji-X100 instead of E-P3 (whenever that is released) or GH2 because of this incident. And use that until security/promoters realize that banning "pro" cameras is a useless battle.

voyager · « **Reply #3 on:** January 23, 2011, 11:35:23 PM »

What makes you think they will let you have a x100? It looks quite a bit more pro than Micro Four Thirds.

pretzston · « **Reply #4 on:** January 24, 2011, 07:15:51 AM »

Thanks for the info Lisa! I posted a couple of pics. It was a learning experience and I will certainly invoke your advice next time out! They are in the flickr below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathansproject/

count_zero · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2011, 06:17:53 PM »

Quote

What makes you think they will let you have a x100? It looks quite a bit more pro than Micro Four Thirds.

Because it's fixed lens. Venues are defining "pro" camera as one with interchangeable lenses rather than using the term DSLR.

voyager · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2011, 08:53:53 PM »

Ah, well I doubt they're going to be able to distinguish the two though. Like you did you can easily just say that it's not one.

Club Concert Photos?