F31fd settings for concert shots?

[metalliholic07]

Hi, recently got the F31fd mainly for the great reviews on it's low light capabilities, and am taking it to a concert saturday night that will be outdoors from dusk until dark, and because I don't know this camera at all, and am not a photograpy expert or even close, can anyone give me a good general setting for this. I am 5th row, may be upgrading to possibly as close as front row, but regardless, I'm pretty close, and don't expect perfection, but don't want to necessarily learn the camera while at the show, more or less. I know I may mess with it a bit, but looking for suggestions on a good starting point.Hoping for a "you can't go wrong with this" setting, if that makes sense. Thanks in advance, and greatly appreciated!

[tim11]

Personally, I will use A/S mode. Put aperture to maximum (i.e. smallest number F2.8).
At F2.8 if you can't get shutter of 1/40sec, raise ISO. The higher the shutter speed the better chance you will get sharp pictures.
You should anticipe where the subjects and pre focus. It will be a lot of hits and miss to start with. Good luck.

[BiPolarBear]

What he ^ said, and if you have to use the zoom, the aperture will get smaller (F5 at max zoom) so ISO will have to increase accordingly.

[metalliholic07]

Personally, I will use A/S mode. Put aperture to maximum (i.e. smallest number F2.8).
At F2.8 if you can't get shutter of 1/40sec, raise ISO. The higher the shutter speed the better chance you will get sharp pictures.


Oh, I guess I should have mentioned that I probably can't use flash, but maybe you already took that into consideration, I don't know............just wanted to mention that. Anyway, I found how to put the aperature to maximum,but I'm still confused about how you know/set the shutter speed. What ISO would you recommend for the conditions I'll be in. Like I said, it's starts at 5:30 pm, and will most likely be cloudy, but still daylight, so maybe just auto mode will work fine for the first band, but the headliner will be on in the dark.........on a well lt stage(obviously), so that's when it will be a little more tricky for me, mainly because this is pretty foreign to me. Any more info in simple terms greatly appreciated, if I'm not being a pest. Thanks for the help so far, by the way.

[tim11]

Thanks PolarBear. I completely forgot that aperture closes down at longer focal.

metalliholic07: I know that flash won't have much effect (if any) for type of shooting. I doubt flash power will reach that far anyway. I suggest you read the user manual to get to know your camera and for better understanding, read some books on photography basics. But I will give you a crash course anyway since I don't think you will have time for all that reading.

For one thing, I can't tell what ISO to use since it really depends on the quality of light you have at any given concert. I guess nothing lower than ISO400 will work, but it won't surprise me if you have to use 800 or 1600.

At the image I attached you see the back of my F30. If you point the camera to certain position you will see a number on the left bottom of the LCD; that's the shutter speed. 25 means 1/25sec, 50 means 1/50sec..... Now raise ISO or change aperture and point to the same position you will see shutter number changes. If it shows 4 in red it means not enough shutter speed to get a good shot.

Just a tip... if you use ISO400 on a given lighting condition, let's say at aperture F2.8 you get 1/30sec. Raise to ISO800 at the same shutter will give you 1/60sec and ISO1600 will give you 1/120sec. Each step will double the shutter.

I suggest you play with the controls and gauge the situation before the concert starts. Remember to test different spots on stage. You mentioned it is a well lit stage so that's good news.

Have a look at a concert shot by Stephanie using her F30 from a few rows from the front if I remember correctly. It is capable of taking such shots, it's up to you to make it happens.
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=166504&postcount=21

Good luck and have fun.

[sysadmin64]

I think using spot metering (instead of multi- or average) will help (photometry setting).

[tom s]

ISO800
photometry: spot
aperture priority: f/4 or shutter priority: 1/80s:)

[Dave Dilks]

There's several different ways that you can get to the same solution. My approach for poorly lit concert shots with my F30 is:
1. Use shutter priority to set the slowest speed at which you can capture a sharp photo, say 1/40s.
2. Adjust the ISO upwards until the picture is acceptably bright. I try to keep the pictures slightly under-exposed, since: a) this forces the camera to use the widest possible aperture, and b) it is easier to tweak the brightness up a little in post-processing than it is to fix a shot made blurry by a too-slow shutter speed.
3. If there still isn't enough light at the highest ISO you care to use, go back to step 1 and try a slower shutter speed. Plan to shoot a lot of pictures if using a slower shutter speed, because most will be blurry. However, if you shoot enough, some subset of them will come out fine.

[metalliholic07]

Thanks PolarBear. I completely forgot that aperture closes down at longer focal.

metalliholic07: I know that flash won't have much effect (if any) for type of shooting. I doubt flash power will reach that far anyway. I suggest you read the user manual to get to know your camera and for better understanding, read some books on photography basics. But I will give you a crash course anyway since I don't think you will have time for all that reading.

For one thing, I can't tell what ISO to use since it really depends on the quality of light you have at any given concert. I guess nothing lower than ISO400 will work, but it won't surprise me if you have to use 800 or 1600.

At the image I attached you see the back of my F30. If you point the camera to certain position you will see a number on the left bottom of the LCD; that's the shutter speed. 25 means 1/25sec, 50 means 1/50sec..... Now raise ISO or change aperture and point to the same position you will see shutter number changes. If it shows 4 in red it means not enough shutter speed to get a good shot.

Just a tip... if you use ISO400 on a given lighting condition, let's say at aperture F2.8 you get 1/30sec. Raise to ISO800 at the same shutter will give you 1/60sec and ISO1600 will give you 1/120sec. Each step will double the shutter.

I suggest you play with the controls and gauge the situation before the concert starts. Remember to test different spots on stage. You mentioned it is a well lit stage so that's good news.

Have a look at a concert shot by Stephanie using her F30 from a few rows from the front if I remember correctly. It is capable of taking such shots, it's up to you to make it happens.
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=166504&postcount=21

Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the crash course! Yes, I do need to learn some of the basics. I'm thinking of maybe taking a digital camera class at night. Maybe just a good book. I tried to remember some of what you told me, and tried the settings you suggested, as well as several different ones, just to compare, and learn a little by trial and error, if you will. I told my self not take it too serious, or I would forget to have fun haha! Anyway, I got mixed results(obviously), but overall, I had a much better outcome than last time I was right in front of one of my favorite musicians with my Finepix A340, which led me to get the camera I got. I'm intrigued by this stuff, and want to learn at least the basics, so I know how to get different types of pictures when I want to. Anyway, here's a bunch of links to some of the better ones(at least to me), if you(or anyone else) cares to look at any, and tell me how I did. I had it on auto while it was still daylight, and zoomed in on a guitar player, and it's not bad until you click on "actual size" on the computer, and then it's REALLY grainy. But, I noticed the ISO is 1600 at F/4.9. Now, This stuff is still brand new to me, but higher ISO helps you in low light, but you're asking for more grainyness, correct. and, the shutter speed is adjusted according to whether or not it is a moving object, right??? Aperature is how much light you let in???? Told you I was a beginner lol. Anyway, don't know if uploading these to photobucket changes anything, but feel free to tell the person that has never done much more than point and shoot, how I did, especially with the night/low light shots. Thanks for the help!
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j161/metalliholic06/DSCF0019.jpg
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j161/metalliholic06/DSCF0021.jpg
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[sysadmin64]

Good job, metalliholic07! I hoped you would post some of the photos. I think you did a great job using the F31 for the first time at a concert. The ISO800 images look very clean (not surprising with the F31). If you're concerned about noise in the ISO1600 images, you might want to try NeatImage or Noiseware to clean them up a bit. They do work very well.

[tim11]

metalliholic07: That's great result.


higher ISO helps you in low light, but you're asking for more grainyness,
Yes. High ISO is more sensitive to light. With higher ISO you can shoot with less light at higher shutter speed, reducing motion blur. The price you pay is more noise.



..... the shutter speed is adjusted according to whether or not it is a moving object, right??? Aperature is how much light you let in????

There is a relationship between aperture and shutter duration for each shot.
* If you open the aperture wider (smaller number) more light can come in and the shutter can close in less time to get ideal exposure.
* If you turn aperture down smaller (larger number) less light can come in and you need more time (longer shutter duration).

Think of filling a glass with water tap. Think of a full cup of water as a well exposed shot. As you turn the tap widest, the cup will be filled faster. Turning down the tap, you still fill the cup but it will take longer.

Larger aperture can also give you narrow depth of field such as blurring out objects in front or behind your main subject.

[metalliholic07]

Thanks for the compliments tim11 and sysadmin64! I was pretty happy with the turnout, considering I don't much about settings on cameras. Your advice helped immensely, and I will keep learning and improving!

[Sirotnikov]

wow those are quite sharp photos, with very good focus, especially for a concert environment requiring 800 / 1600 ISO

I really like the exposure, focus and color of all of them.

I'm also amazed at how close you got to the stage. Either you had front row, or you're a technical worker on site ;)

Some of the photos were very good in composition, giving good energy and feeling alive, while some were a little bit more boring, and did not express the ... uhm.... feeling of a metal concert.

Very good work on most of them!

And btw, I really love the bands. I hope the show rocked :)

[metalliholic07]

wow those are quite sharp photos, with very good focus, especially for a concert environment requiring 800 / 1600 ISO

I really like the exposure, focus and color of all of them.

I'm also amazed at how close you got to the stage. Either you had front row, or you're a technical worker on site ;)

Some of the photos were very good in composition, giving good energy and feeling alive, while some were a little bit more boring, and did not express the ... uhm.... feeling of a metal concert.

Very good work on most of them!

And btw, I really love the bands. I hope the show rocked :)

Well, thank you also! I did have front row, as a matter of fact:) Yeah, like i said, I winged it on quite a few.......there are quite a few I didn't post as well. I tried to remember the tips I got here, and just set it at different settings to see what would happen......trial and error kind of thing. The show definitely rocked.......out of the 3, Queensryche is my favorite. Too bad they were the opener and only got about 20 minutes:(
Thanks again!