Live concert photo advice?

[talon1189]

I have owned my V20 since last October. I am an inexperienced photographer at live concerts. I am very fortunate to have tickets to Paul MacCartney from the 3rd row from the stage. Should I just shoot photos in automatic mode or manual? With a flash or without? I shoot most of my photos now in manual mode but they are just "still" pictures. This is a live concert with the lighting constantly changing. Any advice for shooting live concerts is greatly appreciated

 

[SpaceyO]

Try not to shoot when there's red lighting...a smartphone just isn't equipped to handle it. No flash, especially from 3rd row (Don't wanna blind Sir Paul).

If you're comfortable in manual mode, bump up the ISO a bit and the speed up the shutter speed to match.

Here are a few I took with my S7 last year seeing Sean Lennon and Les Claypool, probably similar distance you'll be from Sir Paul...









Have fun!

 

[Agent3]

Shoot without flash and in manual mode to get the best quality. The higher the ISO, the higher the noise/grains you'll have on your photos. You want to keep the ISO as low as possible (50-100 being the best) but you also want a fast shutter speed. How long can you hold a camera without moving? I would set the shutter speed no slower than 1/4 sec. Next, you can let the camera to auto focus but to get a better focus shot, manually scroll up but not all the way up. Lastly, the WB. Add more or less blue or red.

So, set the WB once, then the ISO, Shutter speed, maybe readjust the ISO and finally manual focus.

 

[Mike Dee]

Shoot without flash and in manual mode to get the best quality. The higher the ISO, the higher the noise/grains you'll have on your photos. You want to keep the ISO as low as possible (50-100 being the best) but you also want a fast shutter speed. How long can you hold a camera without moving? I would set the shutter speed no slower than 1/4 sec. Next, you can let the camera to auto focus but to get a better focus shot, manually scroll up but not all the way up. Lastly, the WB. Add more or less blue or red.

So, set the WB once, then the ISO, Shutter speed, maybe readjust the ISO and finally manual focus.

I agree... Use a fairly fast shutter and keep the ISO as low as possible which may be difficult. 50 to 100 ISO is a bit of a challenge with a small sensor. I would try to keep to 400 or less. Best thing to do is preview the image in manual mode and take a test shot. If you get to much motion blur bump up the shutter speed and adjust the ISO to brighten. You could also underexpose the shot and edit later. Only use real high ISO if you have to settle for noise to get the shot.

My real preference is not to use a phone at all if they allow dedicated cameras. Sometimes they won't allow DSLRs but I have a small frame Sony that gets in because it's as small as a point and shoot.