Advice on Concert Photography

[Supermoth]

I recently took some shots at a concert I attended and was disappointed that they came out poorly. They all appear very grainy and many were blurry.

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m...ermoth/169.jpg
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m...ermoth/248.jpg

I was using a Canon S3 IS with 12x optical zoom. The digital zoom is disabled, so I know that is not a contributor to the grainy-ness. Due to not having much time to get used to the camera beforehand, I simply set it on the "Sports/Action" setting and didn't adjust anything. That used a shutter speed of 1/125 s, but I'm unsure of the other settings it used. No flash was used. Fog machines were used profusely and I believe that may have contributed to the grainy-ness.

I will be attending this same concert again in a few weeks and hope to get some better shots at it. I know I should probably use a faster shutter speed, but worry that I would have to use a flash then (fairly slow recovery time when it is used). Does anyone have any recommendations for settings I should use at a fast moving concert to obtain better pictures?

[photophorous]

I recently took some shots at a concert I attended and was disappointed that they came out poorly. They all appear very grainy and many were blurry.

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m...ermoth/169.jpg
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m...ermoth/248.jpg

I was using a Canon S3 IS with 12x optical zoom. The digital zoom is disabled, so I know that is not a contributor to the grainy-ness. Due to not having much time to get used to the camera beforehand, I simply set it on the "Sports/Action" setting and didn't adjust anything. That used a shutter speed of 1/125 s, but I'm unsure of the other settings it used. No flash was used. Fog machines were used profusely and I believe that may have contributed to the grainy-ness.

I will be attending this same concert again in a few weeks and hope to get some better shots at it. I know I should probably use a faster shutter speed, but worry that I would have to use a flash then (fairly slow recovery time when it is used). Does anyone have any recommendations for settings I should use at a fast moving concert to obtain better pictures?

This is one of those situations where a better camera would really help, but all things considered, I think you did very well. Concert photography is hard. I'm no expert, but you have two basic problems here. In low light, your camera can either open the lens aperture more or crank up the ISO sensitivity. Increasing the ISO setting will increase noise (grain). The lens on that camera may not have a very fast max aperture, which means the camera is probably forced to increase the ISO setting. Additionally, the max aperture on most zoom lenses is variable, meaning as you zoom in, the lens allows less light through to the image sensor. Less light to the sensor means the sensor must increase sensitivity, which gives you more noise. So,...

You should try to get as close to the band as possible so you don't have to zoom in as much. That will allow the camera to use a slightly lower ISO setting. In that situation, you could also use a slower shutter speed, if the subjects are still. If you're zoomed all the way out (wide), the IS is turned on, and the band is still for a split second, you can get away with a shutter speed much slower than 1/125...probably as low as 1/15. That would also allow the camera to use a lower ISO setting.

If all else fails, put it on Night Portrait mode and use the flash (assuming it's allowed).

Paul

[xystren]

I was using a Canon S3 IS with 12x optical zoom. The digital zoom is disabled, so I know that is not a contributor to the grainy-ness. Due to not having much time to get used to the camera beforehand, I simply set it on the "Sports/Action" setting and didn't adjust anything. That used a shutter speed of 1/125 s, but I'm unsure of the other settings it used. No flash was used. Fog machines were used profusely and I believe that may have contributed to the grainy-ness.

I checked the EXIF data, and the camera was shooting @ F3.4 1/30s, but I wasn't able to retrieve the ISO setting.

When you look at it and zoom in, there is a lot of noise, which is usually associated with a high ISO value. Do you recall the ISO setting on the camera at the time or was it set to auto?

I'm gathering due to the low light/excessive fog caused the shutter speed to kicked down to 1/30s. Also, when you look closer (zoomed in) you can see the "shadow" is in fact motion blur. So that 1/30s is confirmed.

Motion blur can typically be minimized by a faster shutter speed. Also using a flash can sometimes help, but particular in low light situations, sometimes it can make foreground/subject seem too bright and washed out and loose the ambiance of the environment.

Since this is a low light shooting, there are going to be compromises. Some graininess if you go with a higher ISO, or some loss of ambiance if you use a flash with your ISO settings. The same with the aperture, having it open enough to let the light in yet loosing some depth of field. Shutter speed affects how long the available light hits the sensor, too long you get motion blur, too short, you get a very dark picture. Add a flash in there? even more combinations of compromises. This pretty much sums up what photography is all about.

What I would suggest, and I hope others chime in as I am by no means an expert.

As a base, this is what start out with:

ISO 400 (or 800) - It's low light, going to have to give on this somewhat.
Aperture wide open (smallest # possible) - Let in as much light to the sensor as possible.
Shutter speed at least 1/60s (to try and minimize motion blur)
Try with and without a flash.

You will have to play around with the setting and see what works best. My understanding is there is no one magic formula; but if you find one, please let me know

Oh yeah, also get to know your histogram and how to read it and make adjustments accordingly.

Hope it helps some,

Cheers,
Greg

PS: I didn't even get into flash levels and/or exposure values compensation, or even post-production (ie Photoshop/GIMP/Lightroom)

[freygr]

Low light photography needs fast lenses, and the stage lighting gave you the fog in the first photo and the second photo is good. Like the other posters to get better photos you need a low noise high ISO camera and a faster lens. To get a low noise ISO camera you need a larger sensor and most cameras unless you get a DSLR will not have either.