Need Help ASAP...What Am I Doing Wrong??

[qmoon]

I desperately need some advice on using my camera...it's fairly new to me and I can't seem to find the right settings for concerts. I'm going to a show on Tuesday and I'd like for my pictures to come out better than they have been.

I have a Panasonic DMC-TZ3. I chose the camera because of the 10x optical zoom, but never realized I'd have this much trouble getting decent pictures. On my old one I just set it to sports and that was it. I just can't get this camera to work for me and I'd appreciate any help. I don't use the flash.

I know a DSLR is best for concerts, but I'm not a professional, so there's no way any venue would let me take one in. Is there any hope?

Here are some samples...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/qmoon/SlaughterQuietRiotandVinceNeil124fo.jpg
Most of my pictures were like this...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/qmoon/SlaughterQuietRiotandVinceNeil210wh.jpg
Or this.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/qmoon/SlaughterQuietRiotandVinceNeil168ok.jpg
And some were fine.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/qmoon/SlaughterQuietRiotandVinceNeil136ok.jpg
I don't expect them to all come out, but I do want more than I've been getting.

Thanks!!

[David Metsky]

There's not enough light, and the camera is setting the shutter speed slow enough to gather enough light. Being at full zoom is the worst since that will reduce the amount of light that makes it to the CCD and any movement will be amplified.

The main thing you can do is set the ISO to 200 or even 400. That will let the camera use a slower shutter speed with the same amount of light, but the problem is that it will increase noise. These shots won't be great for blowing up very large.

There's not too much else you can do with this camera, since it doesn't have any manual controls. But even with them, you'd be hard pressed to get good low light shots at full zoom with a moving subject with any small P&S (except for some Fujis which are pretty good).

So, you're not doing anything wrong, but the camera is limited in what it can do in this situation. Set the ISO and take lots of shots, some will turn out OK as you learned, but a lot will still be useless.

[Mike63]

If you do use a higher iso and find the noise to excessive you can try some noise removal software, either Neat Image, or Noise Ninja. They can't do miracles but will help.

You might try some testing before your show to find the best iso that is acceptable. With noise removal software you may find that you can go a step higher and still have a usable pic.

[qmoon]

I'm not worried about making large prints...maybe 5x7 at the most. I will try 200 ISO. Sounds like I'm better off not zooming in so close?

There's no way to get this camera to adjust to low light? (Without having to use a tripod)

Thanks y'all!!

[genece]

The difference in the photos you posted is the first 2 were shot at ISO400 with a long shutterspeed 1/10th & 1/15 sec I think.

The third was shot at ISo 800 and 1/80 sec and the 4th at ISO1250 and 1/60th of a second.

So I would suggest you use no ISO less than 800 and that seems it will work in the better light,but you will need an ISO of 1200 for a lot of the photos.

Now I do not have a tizzy but if you can set the ISo at 1000 or higher for your next concert you should get results similar to the last 2 photos.

You would like to strive for a SS of at least 1/Th to get motion free photos.
Set the ISO to give you the fastest SS combined with the amount of noise you can tolerate.

I do not like using the modes on a camera as they take liberties with the focus and metering styles used. I like to set the camera to a small area for the focus and CW for the metering.... but that does not work for everyone. It will but it takes some practice, but once you become accustom to it you know what to expect.

I think the tizzy has the intelligent ISO ...that may work, but I have never used it.

[David Metsky]

There's no way to get this camera to adjust to low light? (Without having to use a tripod)
You have three things to adjust; ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. The only one you can control on this camera is ISO. The camera is going to choose the fastest shutter speed it can use to still gather enough light. Some of the scene modes may help by opening up the aperture some more.

[qmoon]

The lowest ISO on this camera is 400, the highest is 1250. From what I'm reading, I should use the 1250? It won't make my pictures grainy looking?

This camera does have intelligent ISO, and I almost always use that. There are a lot of scene modes, none that I've used so far have better results. I'm going to try the pet and baby mode. There are a lot of scene modes on this camera.

Do you have any idea which one would work best?

I truly appreciate the responses & suggestions...thank you! : )

[David Metsky]

ISO 1250 will make your shots look like they were taken through cheese cloth. I think 400 is as high as you can realistically go according to the review. I haven't used this camera so I don't have any experience with how bad the high ISO gets. You can set it at 100, 200, 400, 800, or 1250 or Auto. I'd set it by hand to 200 or 400 and see what you get. I have no idea about the scene modes, maybe John Reed and give you more pointers.

Experiment with it and decide what is acceptable to you. This is not the ideal application for this camera but with some practice and a lot of thrown away shots you probably can get some keepers.

[qmoon]

Thanks...all of my pictures so far have been experimental. I guess a lot has to do the the bands I'm photographing.....rockers move around a lot, and (most) country bands don't, therefore resulting in better shots.

I'm going to re-read my manual and see if there's something in there I missed.

[genece]

The 3rd and 4th photos were taken at the ISO I stated (800 and 1250) and you said they are OK. So that is what I would use, its better to have a photo with noise than a blurry photo.....the noise can be removed if necessary, but you are stuck with blurry.
Its your call but it takes light to take a photo and there are only 3 ways to increase the amount of light...slow the shutter down ( blurry photos) increase the aperture and you were already there,(F4.9)or raise the ISO.......
You can not force the camera to do something its not capable of...Raise the ISO or get a dslr and you will still need to raise the ISO.

Just to add.... we would all like to take all our photos at an ISO of 100 but even with a DSLR its not always possible

[David Metsky]

Have you looked at the shots taken at 800 and 1250 larger then the postcard sized ones you posted here? While they may look OK at that size, they probably show all sorts of JPG artifacts when viewed larger. It may be the only thing you can do with that camera, however.

Noise removal tools do great work, but they can't perform miracles.

Timing your shots for when the subject isn't moving may be key. Put it in burst mode and take lots, the subject is bound to be still in one of them. :)

[qmoon]

Actually, those last two pictures are pretty good larger.

I love the burst mode and use it all the time...like you said, out of a couple consecutive shots, one is bound to be ok. It's even better when they all come out...it's almost like watching a movie clip by clip.

[genece]

You can shoot a 50 photo burst at that concert, if the camera picks ISO 200 and a SS of 1/15th of a second they will all be blurry....Raise the ISO.

[tim11]

- - - -

The main thing you can do is set the ISO to 200 or even 400. That will let the camera use a slower shutter speed with the same amount of light, - - -

You meant to say 'faster' shutter speed; right?

qmoon: One thing you can do to get a good pix is focus and hold on the subject and hold still until he stayed still temporarily then click the shutter. A fraction of a second is all you need. Personally, I will use nothing lower than ISO800. Burst might help a little but the pain is not worth the gain, IMO. You will end up with 10 junks for the sake of 1 good shot. 1/15sec might work (if your hands are steady) for band performing slow songs, but the band you shot looks very energetic.

This thread reminds me of how I found DCRP. I was a newbie and frustrated with lowlight. :)

[David Metsky]

You meant to say 'faster' shutter speed; right?
That is correct, sir. :o

[qmoon]

I'm going to try the 800 ISO.

Will let you know how it goes.

Thank you all so much.:)

[qmoon]

Just wanted to stop in and say I'm pretty pleased with my pictures from the concert. I ended up taking around 220 shots, about 40 were total trash, some were ok, and some were excellent.

I thought I used ISO 800, but when I looked it said 400. If I use intelligent ISO, does it automatically adjust?

I love using 'burst'!

Here's the link, let me know what you think, and as always pointers & advice are welcome. Only editing I've done is sharpening, some fill light on a few and a few crops.

http://picasaweb.google.com/qmoon99/DefLeppardCharlotte

[genece]

You really have some nice photos there.....the ISO ranges from 100 to 400 and I am amazed how nice the 400 ones look.....I downloaded a couple and looked at them at the larger size and I am truely amazed.....

If I were you I believe I would lock the ISO to 400 the next time and I think your kepper rate will be even better.

If you keep examining the exif as you look at the photos , I think you will get a great idea of what you wish to do the next time.....But it seems to me I would use ISO 400 as it gave a good combination of a nice photo, with a pretty good shutter speed ( a few were 1/125 th of a second and that is what I would strive for.
I do not have a camera with I ISO so I am not sure how it works, perhaps someone else can help you.

Even if you are always better off to use the lowest ISO that will get you a good photo...if its too low there will be blurry photos.

The ISO 400 photos are very nice and if the lighting were any worse, I would not be afraid to try ISO 800.

ANd you are correct, burst mode is a valuable tool.

And you did a great job....you should be quite happy.

[tim11]

That's very high success rate at just over 80%. Well done!
Isn't digital marvelous? We can learn very fast and the only cost is time and patience.

[qmoon]

:)Thanks!

I get to play photographer again Monday because my Tuesday show had to be rescheduled due to some nasty, nasty weather. I learned that night to carry a sandwich bag in my camera case. I wanted pics of the weather, but it was just raining & blowing too hard to chance it.

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