Any advice on taking ourdoor concert photos?

[maggithemagpie]

I'm going to a concert in August and I've been playing around with my camera, trying to figure out how to take the best pictures possible outdoors. I was also practicing towards nighttime when the light is less, so that I can figure out what to do in low light. The concert will be outdoors and I'll only be in the 8th row, so luckily I'll be kind of close. I have a Vivitar camera with 3.3 mega pixels. It's called a "ViviCam" and only has a 4X zoom (but it still takes better pictures...MUCH better pictures then my regular camera).

When taking concert pictures outdoors, should I change the exposure? I don't know if I should highten the exposure (say, around +.06 or +.09 or if I should lessen it by changing it to something like -.06). Also, what is ISO? I took a picture with ISO at 100 and another at 400 and the 400 picture came out better I believe. I wasn't sure if maybe I should change that as well. I know that obviously it'll be dark outside and I'm guessing the concert show will be using florescent lights, so I'm not exactly sure what to do. I took pictures from the 3rd row indoors at a concert recently and while the performer actually came out fine and he looks really close and clear in the photos, NOTHING came out in the background. It actually looks like he's standing on a stage with nothing but blackness behind him. I'm wondering if maybe that had something to do with not enough lighting and I'm wondering if I could have done something to make the pictures not as dark.

As you can tell, I know nothing about digital cameras but I definitely have fun playing around with it. I just wasn't exactly sure what ISO was and whether or not to change the exposure or to keep it where it originally was at.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Maggi

[digcamfan]

Hi Maggie,

Welcome to the forum

In your well written inquiry you have already identified techniques you can use for your concert photos.

Your flash probably does not go much beyond 10' so that is why the background was dark in your photo that you mentioned.

You also mentioned using +/- exposure and varying the ISO (the higher the ISO the less light is needed for the photo. However, as ISO increases, usually you will see more noise (graininess) in your photo.

What I might suggest you do is:

1. If you can shoot the stage empty before the concert then you can find out what works.

2. Otherwise, practice shooting in another location.

Take extra batteries, memory

Good luck!

P.S. If you have a good photo, please post in one of the Post Your Photos forum.

It would be great to see your work

[KCan]

I have some shots that may have condition close to your situation to come:

http://www.pbase.com/image/3886745
http://www.pbase.com/image/3886746

Take a look at the exif, it give you a starting point for exposure. Both are taken hand held, no tripod,no monopod.
Flash is quite useless , and not welcome in a classic concert I guess:|. But a monopod is your best bet to allow you a lower speed.
Good luck

[maggithemagpie]

Thanks guys! Luckily this isn't a classic concert (its a pop concert) BUT I still don't want to drive the performer crazy with my flashes as I'm sure tons of others will be going off. I actually had someone else tell me that pictures tend to come out better WITHOUT flash which was always interesting to me. I figured that you needed flash for anything to come out. Shows you how much I know, lol.

Anyway, thanks again and I look forward to playing around with my camera some more. I just got my batteries recharged and I'm all ready to go again, hehe.

[cowboy43]

Hi maggie,

I am enclosing a concert pic I took and the info also, But remeber this was taken with a nikon D-100 no flash and held very very still.. also was hired by this group to do the pics so I was very close.

Nikon D-100

75mm

f-2.8

1/25 sec

-1.0 ex

Iso 200

2.8 ap and a very fast lens is the key.. good Luck Dale

[maggithemagpie]

So, if I were to change the exposure, should I go with a negative number? I thought I should do a positive number like +1.2 because it would give more light, wouldn't it? But I see that a lot of people are using negative numbers like -1.0.

[thkn777]

Depends on what you are aiming for.

Imagine a spot light on a performer on the stage. Bright light there, other places quite dark. If your camera chooses exposure it will do right for the bright lit performer. But everything else will be... black/dark. Ok? So a -1 or -2 exposure will OVERexposure the performer but give also more detail of the stage.

I wouldnt worry in your case. I was at the theatre performance of my daughter sitting in last row. Oly C-770 hand held. There was ENOUGH light for pics like this:

[thkn777]

You have to live with motion blur though. Trythe exposure modes on your cam. SPOT and AREA is what you need. AREA for the whole scene, SPOT for a performer.

Good luck!