Concert photography

[Cap'n Keel]

Love TSO, but it is loud close up and they use a lot of very powerful strobe effects. Bring earplugs if you are up close to the stage - you'll hear just fine even with them - and go deaf without them. Agree with others, the venue usually dictates the use of recording equipment. I snuck in a P&S and got some cool shots. Dark? Not at a TSO concert. Blown out is more like it. I do wish they'd come out with some new music.

 

[DopeyDave]

I'm a DSLR newbie attending an Elton John/Billy Joel concert this Thursday (7/30) evening at a baseball stadium and need some camera advice...

First off, will I even be allowed to take my camera/bag in?

If so, what I've got is:
....Canon Rebel XSI
....18-55mm Kit Lens
....55-250 Lens

What lens/settings should I use for my best chances at getting some decent pics, or shouldn't I even bother? Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

PS: We're sitting in the nose-bleed section somewhere between Home and First Base.

 

[Chikabowa]

Most venues and professional musicians will NOT let you bring your camera in. Especially an SLR. I would forgo the entire thought. From where you are located, you probably will get terrible pictures anyway as you don't have the length from nosebleed to get anything super decent. I would just go and enjoy the music and have a good time. If you have a little PnS that you can put in your pocket to record memories (such as you and your friends together) that would be best.

 

[Frantasmic]

If you do get to bring your camera in, use the 55-250. Set your ISO to 800. Set white balance as required. Shoot in RAW and you should have some keepers in the bunch.

 

[MICKEY88]

I agree 100% with Chikabowa, my expeience has been , that the only musicians /bands that allow slrs or dlsrs ar country musicians playing small venues..country musicians seem to be more fan friendly..I have a friend who attends a lot of country shows,with her 100-300 lens and numerous times performers.. have commented on it between songss,, a few have gone so far as to come down off stage take her camera, go back up on stage and take a picture from their perspective, then return her camera..

 

[spinetnglr]

I agree with Chikabowa and Mickey88. Most bands will not allow pics especially dslr's with long lenses or anything that might even remotely resemble a "professional" camera. I went to the Chesapeake Blues Festival in May and emailed them ahead of time to make sure I would be able to take pictures and got a response back of .... "no problem" take as many photos as you like. The festival is a yearly charity event and held in the Sandy Point State Park. I got there early and was able to place my chair about 20 feet from the stage. I had rented a 300mm f4 lens for the occasion. It was a day long event with 7 acts performing. No one had a problem with my camera until about the time the 5th act was on stage and then a security person approached me and told me the camera and lens had to "disappear" for the final two acts. He also told another guy not far from me with a dslr and medium telephoto lens the same thing. That guy told security his camera was not a professional camera and he was only taking picture for himself and he was not putting his camera away. I went over and talked to him to find out what he had said to the security guy. After finding out what he had said I then went to the security guy and told him I would put the big lens away but I was still going to take pics with my much smaller and less professional looking 55-200mm. I was able to get some really awesome pictures of the last act (the one I really went there to see) despite not be able to use the 300mm. The act that was most adamant about no pictures was Blood Sweat and Tears ... they performed next to last ... none of the members are the originals and they were kind of a disappointment anyway and I ended up taking very few pics of them anyway. I guess my point is even if you would get permission ahead of time dont be surprised to find out the info is wrong and you are not allowed to take pics.

 

[Chikabowa]

The ONLY time I've ever gotten a camera into a big-named venue was 2005 when we were seeing Dave Matthews Band at Red Rocks in Denver, CO. It was the fourth night of concerts, and I carefully took apart our camera (Nikon D100 at the time) and quadruple bagged it in ziplocs. Same with the lens (70-300mm at the time). Since they allowed soft-sided coolers into the venue (the ONLY time I've EVER seen that!) we placed all the camera components on the bottom, filled ice over them, and then placed bottle watered on top of the ice, and then more ice around the bottled water (also the ONLY time I've ever been able to bring our own bottled water into a venue).

The people around us were very helpful in hiding the equipment from security while we shot the band from row 29. The pictures were ok, but nothing I'd think were stellar... just couldn't zoom in close enough and we were only 29 rows back in a fairly small venue.

Oh and the only way I came up with the plan was that we had been to three consecutive nights of concerts (they were doing a 4-night stand there) and I had viewed the security process enough that I was able to find a hole and exploit it.

But unless you are willing to go to that level... I suggest leaving the camera at home.

It is my dream to photograph DMB at a great venue. Someday... I swear I will make it happen!

And I should mention that I had a HUGE opportunity to photograph Blues Traveler at convention last year and totally messed up! Nikon hosted Blues Traveler at the MGM Arena in Las Vegas and I was lucky enough to score some tickets to the pre-concert party which afforded us front row center seats. Dumb me... I thought that since it was a concert, there was no way they'd allow cameras at there, so I left mine up in the room. Well... turns out when Blues Traveler is playing for a private PHOTOGRAPHY conference, cameras area allowed...

When we realized that we could have brought our cameras, it was too late to run back up to the room, as we would have lost our prime location. So instead, we were the only photographers, at a photographers convention, at a concert hosted by Nikon, that didn't have cameras... Yeah... I suck.

 

[cinmell]

Hi everyone! This is my first time on the photography board.

I'm looking for camera that will take good pictures at concerts and my kid's shows and sporting activities. What should I look for? Someone told me optical zoom is important but I have no idea what that really is. Also, which mode is best to take pictures in if the pictures are of people not really standing still a lot? My daughter's soccer pictures are blurry but I'm not sure which mode would be best. I've been told kids mode and sports mode but I don't have those on my camera.

I was looking at the Canon G10 but I'm not sure if that's good.

Thanks in advance.

 

[maddmike]

I don't think you can go wrong by purchasing any Canon or Nikon DSLR. You can find some good prices on some of them too.

Also not sure what you mean by concerts, but if you are talking about attending a concert of a major star I would not advise you take a camera unless you have a press credentials. Most acts strickly prohibit cameras at their shows and if you were able to sneak one in and were to get caught, it wouldn't be a good thing.

 

[Frantasmic]

It sounds like you want a camera more suitable for shots in low light conditions (concerts and kids' shows) and action shots (kids' sports).

Your question about optical zoom also indicates you're basically considering a point and shoot camera.

There are ultra-zoom point and shoot cameras that will probably give you what you are looking for in outdoor conditions in good sunlight. Concerts and indoor events are another matter. The sensors on most point and shoots in low-light, high iso conditions just aren't as compatible.

You could consider a point and shoot that allows pictures in RAW, but that requires some post-processing.

So, you can google ultra-zoom digital cameras, review what some other sites say about these cameras (steve's digicams.com and cnet.com are some good sites) and then decide if you would like to look at some of these types of cameras at your local store.

Or, you could consider a dslr which has better sensors, better ISO capability, as well as lenses that allow the type of crisp, low-light pictures I think you are looking for.

 

[cinmell]

Also not sure what you mean by concerts, but if you are talking about attending a concert of a major star I would not advise you take a camera unless you have a press credentials. Most acts strickly prohibit cameras at their shows and if you were able to sneak one in and were to get caught, it wouldn't be a good thing.

I've taken my camera to several concerts and a lot of the pictures come out fuzzy b/c of the zoom. As long as the camera doesn't have the big lense attached they are ok to take into concerts, at least in my experience. I won't something that won't blur the pictures if I zoom or if the object in the picture is moving. I also don't want anything really big.

It sounds like you want a camera more suitable for shots in low light conditions (concerts and kids' shows) and action shots (kids' sports).

Your question about optical zoom also indicates you're basically considering a point and shoot camera.

There are ultra-zoom point and shoot cameras that will probably give you what you are looking for in outdoor conditions in good sunlight. Concerts and indoor events are another matter. The sensors on most point and shoots in low-light, high iso conditions just aren't as compatible.

You could consider a point and shoot that allows pictures in RAW, but that requires some post-processing.

So, you can google ultra-zoom digital cameras, review what some other sites say about these cameras (steve's digicams.com and cnet.com are some good sites) and then decide if you would like to look at some of these types of cameras at your local store.

Or, you could consider a dslr which has better sensors, better ISO capability, as well as lenses that allow the type of crisp, low-light pictures I think you are looking for.

Thank you for the info. I'll check out the links you provided.

 

[BattyMcDoon]

I'm going to a show on Thursday and I was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on concert photography. I've never really done it with my good cameras before and I finally have a chance at what seems like a small crowd. Any tips would be awesome.

 

[wenrob]

What kind of camera do you have? Do you have any fast lenses? Will it be dim or will it be dark? If you let people know what you have to work with they'll be better able to help you out.

My DH has been asking me to come and shoot some of the shows he puts on. I've been waiting for a smaller one to practice. My plan is to use my Sigma 30, opened up and the ISO cranked high. I'm thinking Spot Metering but we'll have to see.

 

[AndrewWG]

Most likely this will be very challenging. I have attended and shot at smaller local band shows alot. My best advice is to use something like the 50mm f1.8 or 30mm 1.4 and have the ISO set at 1000 or above with NO flash. Even with this setup, I have had a hard time some nights. Lighting is (obviously) your top concern. Try shooting when something like a strobe light is on the performers. Using this formula, I still have come home with about 20% keepers out of hundreds of shots. When I say "keepers" I mean ANYTHING that is usable. This is not to be confused with "excellent". I also have found that I need to run the photos through noiseware afterward due to the high ISO and post processing needs (boosting exposure, fill light, etc) causing a lot of noise in the pics.

Good luck and have fun with it! It is surely a challenge.

 

[sdshutterbug]

I went to a Billy Joel & Elton John concert over the summer armed with just my Sony a200 and a 75-300 f/4-5.6 lens. I have a 50 1.7 but I was traveling light and I knew that would not bring me close enough to my subjects even though I had very good seats. I wouldn't suggest using a fast prime with little reach like a 30 or 50 unless you have front row seats, unless you are more concerned with getting the ambiance than actually seeing the performers' faces. Even though I used a very slow (and cheap) telephoto, I came away with plenty of very usable (though not superb) shots. Here are a few tips:
-Shoot at a variety of shutter speed and ISO combinations (I think it goes without saying that you should shoot wide open! So keep it on Manual or Av mode). Although most of your shots at 400 or 800 will be blurry, you'll probably have one or two that come out sharp, and these ones will have less grain too.
-Overexpose by 1/3 stop or 1/2 stop - it reduces the noise a bit.
-Shoot RAW! It's hard to get a properly exposed shot a lot of the time when the subject is so bright and the background is so dark, so I did a lot of Camera Raw tweaking on my photos.
-Right now I use Sony which has sensor-based image stabilization. I wouldn't suggest shooting without some form of IS, especially if your lens is slow like mine.
-Shoot in burst mode! I took waaaay more pictures than I needed.

I hope these help! Here is my album of the concert on Flickr, and you can look at the EXIF data on the pictures to get an idea of what settings I used. Some of them are cropped.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sammers05/sets/72157621591197237/

 

[wenrob]

I went to a Billy Joel & Elton John concert over the summer armed with just my Sony a200 and a 75-300 f/4-5.6 lens. I have a 50 1.7 but I was traveling light and I knew that would not bring me close enough to my subjects even though I had very good seats. I wouldn't suggest using a fast prime with little reach like a 30 or 50 unless you have front row seats, unless you are more concerned with getting the ambiance than actually seeing the performers' faces. Even though I used a very slow (and cheap) telephoto, I came away with plenty of very usable (though not superb) shots. Here are a few tips:
-Shoot at a variety of shutter speed and ISO combinations (I think it goes without saying that you should shoot wide open! So keep it on Manual or Av mode). Although most of your shots at 400 or 800 will be blurry, you'll probably have one or two that come out sharp, and these ones will have less grain too.
-Overexpose by 1/3 stop or 1/2 stop - it reduces the noise a bit.
-Shoot RAW! It's hard to get a properly exposed shot a lot of the time when the subject is so bright and the background is so dark, so I did a lot of Camera Raw tweaking on my photos.
-Right now I use Sony which has sensor-based image stabilization. I wouldn't suggest shooting without some form of IS, especially if your lens is slow like mine.
-Shoot in burst mode! I took waaaay more pictures than I needed.

I hope these help! Here is my album of the concert on Flickr, and you can look at the EXIF data on the pictures to get an idea of what settings I used. Some of them are cropped.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sammers05/sets/72157621591197237/

Nice! Man, would I love to see that show but I keep thinking, "I saw Elton John for $17.50 in 1982..." Just can bring myself to drop the cash. I bet you're going to tell me it was totally worth it huh?

I 100% agree w/slight over exposure and multiple shots.

 

[boBQuincy]

Stage production photography is not that different from concert photography, similar lighting issues and challenges. I recently photographed Cary Players production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and just before the dress rehearsal the producer told me "we have a lot of scenes with really low lighting". Wonderful. A lot of my shutter speeds were down around 1/8 second. Btw, I used Program mode for the photos!

I used my 24-105 f/4 instead of the 50 f/1.8 for the versatility, I felt I would need the zoom (and I did). The ISO was usually at 1600, sometimes 800 for the brighter scenes. I used a monopod for all the photos except for 4 where I used a tripod so flimsy I kept a grip on the camera strap for insurance!

So: use a high ISO and plan to use noise reduction software; avoid under exposure; use a monopod if you can; take a lot of photos (rapid fire to increase your chances of good ones); try to anticipate when the performers will not be moving much; use RAW and expect to do a lot of processing.

If anyone is interested in the photos of the play, they are at:
http://www.suzieandbob.com/caryplayers/midsummer

I am going through them and processing them as I get time. Most people on this board will have little trouble noting which ones have been done.

 

[GvilleDisneyDad]

I shot the band Fuel last night and had a fairly tough time with it. I made 440 exposures and have only about 15 shots that I'm going to keep.

Anyone have some tips or suggestions for shooting concerts?

Here's 2 examples of the better shots I got:

Manual, f4, 1/60", ISO 2500

Manual, f1.8, 1/60", ISO 2000

 

[Frantasmic]

What lens and camera were you using?

 

[MICKEY88]

live bands are tough to shoot, since there lighting is constantly changing,

RAW can be your friend