December 29, 2008
whats the best way of taking photos at a concert with a digital camera?
saqistani asked:
what should be the settings for the camera? should it be set on auto or manual? I have a sony p-10. I took pictures at the recently held bryan adams concert here in pakistan on auto focus with varying settings like spot and multi metering, different EVs,etc but to no avail. most of the pics came blurred although i was standing less than 30m away.
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No clue about photography except to make sure you have permission to take the pictures, as I have known some concerts to confiscate cameras taken in with no return guarantee.
p-10 should be able to handle auto focus. i dont think it was the focus blurring the photos. do you have the stablizer turned on? if you move at all (like i imagine you would in a concert enviroment) the image will be blurry. you could set it to the Action setting but i thing the images would turn out too dark. i cant remember but is there a shutter speed setting on it? that should help.oh and by the way… is digital zoom turned on? if so you might want to turn it off. digital zoom is lke blowing up a pixel larger than it was meant to be. this will cause distorted images and blurr as well. just remember the closer you zoom, the more shakey the camera will be.
the best way of taking photos in a dark enviroment (or any environment) has three important factors:
1- ISO sensitivity: The higher the ISO the more grain and light there is. Choose wisely.
2- Aperture: The lower the F the more light there is.
3- Shutter speed: The higher the shutter speed, the lower camera shake and motion blur there is. At the cost of low light intake.
So, you could do this: Set ISO to 400, Shutter to 30, F to lowest and try not to shake. I don’t know if your camera supports manual/half auto controls though.
30 meters? thats pretty far away. yours best bet is with a dslr with high ISO and fast aperature like f1.8 or f2.8 the stats on that sony p10 is giving you f5.6 at the 3x zoom end. that means longer shutter speed = blurry pics. you would have to shoot at 1x zoom at f2.8 and crop the image hard. this camera is only good for pics taken at 6 feet at best.. sorry
at 30m the flash is useless ,you can try to use iso 400,spot metering and supporting the camera using tripod or monopod if possible
For the best results, you really need to set the camera on Auto — this will allow you to have the highest ISO rating (1000 or more). If you can use a tripod, use it. I’ve brought my Nikon Coolpix camera to a LOT of concerts and have gotten very few good images out of it. I would have better results with my DSLR camera, but I’m not going to risk it being confiscated.