Concert Photography.

[_Celenaaax]

I LOVE concerts and concert photography. A rock concert coming? Sign me up! I'm there. Although, I never had a photography pit pass, I have used a Olympus FE-115 5.0 megapixel a few years back then got a Olympus FE-370 8.0 megapixel. No photo pass, Can't bring anything bigger then a 'pocket' size camera in the venue.

I never figured out why my pictures where always blurry from indoor concerts or at a Night concert outside.Okay, not all photos but a lot of photos end up being distorted or blurry.
I usually have my cameras set to Auto and sometimes the flash would go off and other times it wouldn't. Depending on the lighting. The last concert I went to in November I couldn't use flash photography. I was leaning against the gate and everything was turning awful in the beginning. I than switched my camera to Night Scene and the pictures turned out pretty decent for the post part.
Here's some from my last concert on November 3rd 2010. My best pictures yet from an indoor concert.

Olympus FE-350 8.0 mega pixel No Flash.
Band : Chiodos with their new singer.
No Editing done to the photos. Au Natural.

Just to let you know, this band had EXTREME dark lighting the whole set through. A couple of the pictures I had taken, turned out extremely dark and it's a shame because they seem the they would be god pictures too.

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I hope the pictures work when you click on the thumbnail. I attached 4 photos.

I have another concert coming up on April 12th (Chiodos former singer, new band) and I would love to have some feed back and some tips :]! Also, sometimes at outdoor during the day festival concerts, some of my pictures turn out over exposed because the shutter is letting in to much sunlight.
How do you stop that?

[_Celenaaax]

I guess no one has any tips for me. =/

[Nicole Hanna]

I don't see a picture Sometimes, I've learned the forums are finicky unless you post via a flikr account. But maybe it's just me who can't see a picture.

[_Celenaaax]

Some where working and some wheren't working.
But they're all working for me now the pictures that I had posted. I clicked the links.

They should fix that up so that the attachment works properly.

Anyways, I'll post the four pictures again,

I don't really like, Flickr. Just for copyright purposes.
I uploaded the four pictures PLUS one extra one from an outdoor concert from summer 2009.

Flickr: xLena_Kaulitzx's Photostream

[RichardTaylor]

I think the distorted/blurry pics are due to 2 reasons.
Because you are shooting in low light.
(1) A high ISO (sensitivity) of 800 is being used. On a non DSLR this causes a lot of noise (gritiness - grain) to be present.
(2) A slow shutter speed, down to 1/15 second, is sometimes used. This will not freeze the subjects motion, or even possibly the effects of camera shake. Your camera lens is a "slow" lens which means it will not let in a lot of light when n needed.

The stage lighting is also sometimes confusing the cameras metering system causing the pics to be be to be under exposed, making the images even more noisy.

When I attend (classical music) concerts I leave my compact camera (P&S) at home.
If I am asked to take photographs I take a DSLR (good high ISO performance) and fast lenses (that allow me to shoot in low light).
I also do noise reduction when post processing.

[_Celenaaax]

the thing is, the concerts that I go to doesn't allowed Digital SLR camera's in the the venue unless you have a photo pit pass that'll allow you access in front of the barrier gate for media and press. Either way, I don't don't a Digital SLR Camera. My most high tech one I have is a Pentax x90 Digtial SR still. I know Fail! But I'm a beginner! I'm pretty sure I'm still not allowed to bring that one into venues because it's more 'high tech'

There's one picture there that turned out really clear that I posted. I guess it just happened to be the lighting at time and I caught it.
I have a couple of more clearer pictures from concerts (mostly from 2010, an outdoor concert that I attended)

Is there a way to change up the shutter speed on a point and shoot camera? I think in the settings? I know fail. I haven't really played around in the shutter speed.
Has to be fast and quick so I don't miss of the cocnert while playing around with my camera. What's usually a better shutter speed to use?

I have an indoor concert on the 12th of April and I would love to test new techniques out!

[RichardTaylor]

I am not familiar with that camera.

Have a look at your camera manual.

If you can shoot in other modes beside auto, try playing around in low light at home.

Try aperture priority and set the aperture wide open (low F number) and take what ever shutter speed you can get.
Keep the ISO up - you may just have live with the noise.

Also if possible, experiment in manual mode in low light (like inside). Learn how to read a histogram to be able to determine what a good exposure is. When at the concert if the stage lights are shining straight at the camera shoot in manual mode to stop the meter being fooled.

[_Celenaaax]

Oh! Thank-you! I'm charging my camera battery now so I'll play around with it later tonight.

the Last concert I went to (the indoor concert pictures I posted) I ended up putting my camera in night scene; no delays on the photos so the shutter speed seemed to be -decent- on that behalf.
I'll check what settings I have on the camera.
)!