Picture taking at a music concert?

Question:What's the best way to take a picture with a digital camera at a music concert? I know not to use flash when I am far away, but my hand is not steady so sometimes the pictures come out blurry. I am planning on going to many concerts this summer and I want to be prepared, so please help me out!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: What's the best way to take a picture with a digital camera at a music concert? I know not to use flash when I am far away, but my hand is not steady so sometimes the pictures come out blurry. I am planning on going to many concerts this summer and I want to be prepared, so please help me out!

If you will be among the spectators, espeically if they will be standing, some can and will likely trip on your tripod--and the whole thing will crash onto the floor (ouch!).

Forget using flash. Either it will not reach the stage, or it will destroy the mood of whatever the set up they have. And it might upset the musicians, too.

Fast lens, f 2.8 if you can buy / rent / beg / borrow.

High ISO, at least 1,600. (It will be grainy--but I would rather have it in focus and sharp v.s. grainless and blurry).

IS - if available.

I don't have the concert photos to show you now--but here is one from a play in Glendale.

ISO 1,600, Canon 24-70 mm f 2.8 L zoom. Hand held.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2149/2267...

Above was pretty well lit.

Now below, was inside a large church. I stood about half way, right in the middle of the building.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2344/2267... Canon 100-400 mm f 4.5-5.6 IS L zoom.

Shot at ISO 3,200 at 400 mm f 5.6 at 1/125, hand held. It's quite grainy--but I fixed that with Kodak plug-in filter for photoshop.

Canon 5D

He is right about holding the camera 'away' from the body which will worsen the shakiness-I take it that it's a DSLR, so hold it like a real camera--right up to your face. Forget using live LCD for focusing and composition. If the whole set up weighs 5 lbs, it will take more than 2 strong arms to hold that.

Beg, buy or borrow a camera with an anti-shake feature.

You need:
1. Fast lens - wide aperture (f2.8 minimum preferably).
2. To use the widest aperture setting.
3. You may need a tripod - or IS lenses (but beware of subject movement).
4. You may need to go for the highest ISO setting to give you a suitable shutter speed to get your exposure right / enable you to hand hold the camera.

When people say that their hand(s) are not steady, I am guessing that you are using your camera at "arms length" because you have to use the LCD to compose your image rather than using a viewfinder in the camera. Using a viewfinder helps steady the camera using your two hands and face.

So that said, you need a camera that can be adjusted manually (you can get the light reading of the stage and then shoot using it for the whole time), one with a viewfinder and SI. That should do it.

Either you're going to need a digital SLR and a working knowledge of the shutter settings and aperture, or a lot of space on your memory card. I would also suggest turning your quality rating to lower than best, as it takes less time to process and save the pic in the camera.

Take as many shots as you can. It's not like you're wasting film...just batteries. My experience is to try and get a few of the same shot with a cheap camera for redundancy's sake.

I recommend using a Tripod cause it is best when you have shakey hands!:) TC Your friend In Christ Tina

I would set a higher ISO on your camera.. it will make for a slightly grainier picture but it won't be shaky :)

Blurry or full of digital noise -- take your pick.

You'll need 1/250 shutter speed or faster to stop any motion at all, especially rock musicians.

That will send your camera into Grainyland.

Unfortunately, small cameras are poorly suited to this task and you'll need one like Pooky's.

HTH
V