Concert photo

[Nickcanada]

Hi guys, got back from the show last night. Here are a few pics. I would love to hear what you guys think.

[Nickcanada]

Here is another

[Nickcanada]

And another

[Nickcanada]

and another

[Nickcanada]

here is one more

[coldrain]

I like them all except the last one (just not interesting to me). The colour seems to be stop on, very good. What white balance did you use?
I also like that you do not care about freezing everything, sharpness is often overrated and unnecessary. The photo of the bass player is great.

[24Peter]

I like 'em Nick. I think you did a good job. I've never shot a concert before. I'm sure it must be challenging. :)

[Sorinev]

Very nice. I agree with Cold about not going for totally stopping the action. Having the blur from the motion makes it more concert-ish for me.

What camera was this? Lens? exif data? Real curious because I think those are good pictures, considering typical concert condiitions of low light and usually no flash.

[noyjimi]

Nice shots! Liked #3 the most but maybe crop out the OOF stand on the right side. One thing I like about shooting concerts and other events with lotsa different lights is not having to fix white balance... :D

[Nickcanada]

Thanks for the kind words! sorry about no info on the pics I did it up quick this morning. I used auto white balance. I shot them all in RAW at ISO1600 on a Rebel XT with the 50mm 1.8. This was my first time shooting a concert. I shot them all in Av mode. I ran them all through NeatImage but other than that the crop and settings are what came out of the camera.
Pic 1: 1/15 F2.2 ISO 1600
Pic 2: 1/25 F1.8 ISO 1600
Pic 3: 1/160 F2.0 ISO 1600
Pic 4: 1/320 F2.0 ISO 1600
Pic 5: 1/320 F2.0 ISO 1600

This gig was a battle of the bands deal. The winners got $50 000 and a chance to play for $300 000. The lead singer of the band who had won had lost one of his good friends earlier that same day. Here are a few pics of his acceptance speech...

1/160 F2.2 ISO 1600

[Nickcanada]

1/320 F2.2 Iso 1600

[Nickcanada]

1/400 F2.2 Iso 1600

[Sorinev]

I never would have thought those were ISO 1600 (but then, I'm no expert. Or amateur for that matter). I guess my impression of high ISOs like that is a bit skewed, considering my reference is the reviews of this site that show the same nighttime san francisco shot at differen't ISOs. Is that some sort of torture test for ISO or something? Because I can't imagine what a lower ISO shot would look like of that concert, since the 1600 looks great.

[Phill D]

Nick
I think they're great. My son is just starting to do a few gigs with a band & I've tried to do some concert shots for them & didn't get anything like as good a shots as you have. I struggled with my FZ20 sometimes down as low as 1/4s to get some shots so motion blur was a given. You have given me a good idea what a dslr can do just need to save up for one with a long lens.

[Nickcanada]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I think the cheapest way to get into doing low light stuff like this would be to get a Rebel XT and the "thrifty fifty" 50mm 1.8. I wasn't sure if I would like the focal length of the 50mm, but it turned out well. I was able to get right next to the stage which helped alot.

I used NeatImage to clean up the noisey images here is an example of a before and after.

1/125 F2.2 ISO 1600

[Nickcanada]

1/125 F2.2 ISO 1600 NeatImage