Taking Pictures at Shows

MayDay10

Whats the secret? I have a Canon camera, a SD1000. Whenever Im at a show, (happens at wedding ceremonies too), I cant take a picture.

They are very blurry and/or very dark. I cant get a good picture to save my life. Its really frustrating and I dont like to take a ton of pictures at the show as it is, so I cant really practice.

So what are the secrets/tips of taking a decent picture from a distance at a show with a consumer-level camera?

dustinpardue

Turn off your flash, stay from snapping when PJ has the red lights behind them. put your beer in your mouth and use two hands to stay steady

ereeper1

I was having trouble in Chicago due to the stage lights. I figured out if I could get a picture when the lights were not changing it would come out. Look for the house lights on, the green light, or the purple light. Those were my best results with my digital.

Brisk.

Dont be fucking retarded and use a flash if your right at the back of the venue or not even in the first few rows. All the light you have is on the stage already anyway! If you have manuel mode then try the ISO settings and adjusting the amount of light that is letting through. I tend to find the best pictures is when the light is stable i.e not flashing) and its well lit up and you just use automatic normal mode with no flash.

Ridin The Wave

dustinpardue wrote:

Turn off your flash, stay from snapping when PJ has the red lights behind them. put your beer in your mouth and use two hands to stay steady

Awesome. My favorite post of the day so far!

DonegalJam

Brisk. wrote:

I tend to find the best pictures is when the light is stable i.e not flashing) and its well lit up and you just use automatic normal mode with no flash.

- agree with this.. i took loads of pics that came out crap and had to delete, just ended up taking as many as i could within reason and fortunately got a few really good ones when the lighting was good on stage (no flashing lights etc..)

takin_punches

This was my first time taking photos at a show and I agree that the best advice is to just take a ton of pictures and go with the ones that turn out later. I made sure to turn the flash off as dustinpardue suggested already and made sure the focus distance was on the band. I was also surprised with how well some shots of the video board turned out. You might want to try taking some photos of the board if your seats are along the side.

Here is the set I took from Chicago 1:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41774791@N ... 002859883/

Hinn

Unless you're in the first 5 rows or have a camera with an optical zoom of like 12x, don't bother.

Stable lights, no flash, steady hands, etc etc.

groovyf

Have to repeat the part about turning off the flash if you're more than 3 metres away from the front (and if you're that close you don't need it anyway due to stage lights.)

With flash on, you're only going to light up the heads of people in front of you.

MayDay10

yeah, I never have flash on.

My problem is possibly I only attempt to take a small handful of pics at each show. I should take m0re. Thanks for some of the tips here. Maybe I should look into getting a better camera?

Like I might have said, my 10c number normally lands me about 30 rows back.

But the same issue seems to happen to me at other shows, weddings, etc...

Wobbie

takin_punches wrote:

Here is the set I took from Chicago 1:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41774791@N ... 002859883/

You're just showing off, huh?

Great pics.

groovyf

Just wish I could take my Canon 5D Mark II into a concert... I'd be in photo-shoot heaven!

icemanap

Just wait until something like Eldery Woman comes on where there's not much jumping around. In my experience, blurred photos don't look good.

Or take the lens cap off, that's a good start...