Tips for concert photography (please!)

[Burton15]

So I told this band I would take some shots of them playing next Saturday. The thing is, I've never taken concert shots before, so I'm asking for some tips.

I'll be shooting with my Canon Rebel XTi, and the standard lens that it comes with.

Its only a bar, so I won't be dealing with rapidly changing lights, but its still dimly lit, with a glass window behind the band.

Looks like a tripod is out of the question too, due to space.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[inkista]

Blow $90 on an EF 50mm f/1.8. That would be my advice. The 18-55 kit isn't nearly fast enough (i.e., its max aperture of f/3.5-5.6 isn't large enough) to get you shutter speeds you're going to need in low light.

[johnggow]

Absolutely, I agree with inkista. The important thing about shooting bands in low light is the aperture. You often need to shoot wide open, but watch out for the depth of field if shooting at 1.8. You often need to use a shutter speed of about 1/125 too, but it all depends on available light. I have a lot of luck with a 50mm, and for the outlay it's a must have lens. I rarely use a flash and whenever I do I'm always disappointed with the results, it removes all the atmosphere. Have fun shooting bands, it's a challenge, but worth it. I've only been taking pics of bands for a few months now, you can check them out at www.flickr.com/photos/johnggow2008/sets

[pfje photography]

Re-Canon Rebel XTi I don't have the knowledge of this Camera, but I had a look on the internet and on the camera there is a setting called 'Night Scene' with Auto Red-eye - (Allows for slow shutter speeds combined with flash to illuminate foreground and background.)
I'm sure you already knew this, if not, there should be more information in the Cannon Camera book that came with it when brought.
I agree with inkista and if you're not wanting to use the flash, be careful how you do it as there will be an blurr affect of the band.
You can use a monopod rather than the tripod.
Hope this helps and all the best!
Enjoy!

[OsmosisStudios]

im with the "buy a 50mm" group. It's a cheap lens, it works exceptionally well and will give you the ability to shoot in super low light without much problems or flash.

[Burton15]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I'll look into it. Maybe I'll rent (budget isn't in the best shape right now, heh)

[pfje photography]

What is the 'mm' of the standard lens that came with the Canon Rebel XTi ?

[OsmosisStudios]

My guess would be the 18-55 f/3.5-5.6, as inkista mentionned.

[humphreybc]

Actually I just took my first shots of a gig the other night. You can see a few of them on my flickr. I don't have any money to buy any more lenses so I had to work with what I had, which was basically a still hand and high ISOs.

As you can see in the photos, there is quite a bit of noise - but to be honest, noone has complained. I feel that the noise doesn't detract from the photo, because the subject of a rock band suits a wee bit of noise. If it was a photo of a curvaceous model or something, then noise would be bad.

Also, some movement with a low shutter speed is good. The bands I were shooting were very hard to capture, as they moved around a LOT. But to convey this movement I needed to have a wee bit of motion blur in there.

A good example of how motion blur can be effective:



As you can see, the lead singer is reasonably still but the crowd is going wild!

Most of these photos were taken at ISO 1600. I think the Canons have better noise reduction than my Sony a100.

P.S - Another tip, if you're going to use in built camera flash, make sure you drop the flash compensation right down. This way you can illuminate the subjects in the foreground and keep the nice lighting in the background without your flash drowning it out. If you're using a hotshoe flash, point it up and bounce if off the roof (once again, with a lower power setting).

Oh and one more tip - get as close as you can. This way you can be zoomed all the way out and have the widest aperture. Also, if you're using a wide-angle (say, 18mm) you'll get a bit of lens distortion which can look quite cool. It all depends on what sort of band you're taking photos of really.

An example of some lens distortion from a very wide angle:



Good luck!