Concert pictures...

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I took close to 200 pictures at a concert on Saturday... many different performers. I should mention this was my first ever actual event. They were outside on a small stage that was about 3 feet above the ground. I had a really difficult time with these pictures. I wasn't able to get on the stage, so a lot of the close-ups are looking UP at them. And then the lighting was awful/difficult, I don't know. I think I ended up with close to 30 shots that I was happy with. I'd like to post some and get some feedback, if that is ok.

1. First performers on stage:


2. I tried to get some "off-stage" shots... sucks I cut his head off like this to get the guitar.


3. These were prizes! Signed by all of the musicians that played.


4. On stage...


5. Waiting to get on.


6. On stage... she was a great performer!


7.


8. The venue / crowd...


9. Performers


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17. Lights blown... not sure how to have overcome some of these (aside from having off camera lighting - which I didn't). And I wanted to get the action on the sticks.


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THANK YOU!

The rest are here: http://ajpace.smugmug.com/gallery/3528061/1/199862545 password is jammin

HiSPL

Concert photography is all about over shooting and then culling your shots to get a few good ones. I am a sound engineer so I always have access to the stage. It's still hard to get consistant results because the lighting is always so tough. Daytime concerts are in some ways more difficult because there is always busy, distracting backgrounds. I try to shoot wide open to blur the BG as much as possible, but you are usually too far away to get really good bokeh. I usually try to wait until the sun goes down and the lights come up. I then shoot only RAW and somewhere around iso 800-1600, wide open aperture, and anywhere from a 60th to 200th/sec. shutter speed. this will obliterate any background mess that may be around and exposes the stage lighting very well. Your subjects might be a little dark so adjustment in your RAW converter can bring up the shadow region enough to see faces. This process seems to work pretty well for me....

The last part of the process is to go to more concerts and take more pictures!

HTH!

adpace

HiSPL wrote:

Concert photography is all about over shooting and then culling your shots to get a few good ones. I am a sound engineer so I always have access to the stage. It's still hard to get consistant results because the lighting is always so tough. Daytime concerts are in some ways more difficult because there is always busy, distracting backgrounds. I try to shoot wide open to blur the BG as much as possible, but you are usually too far away to get really good bokeh. I usually try to wait until the sun goes down and the lights come up. I then shoot only RAW and somewhere around iso 800-1600, wide open aperture, and anywhere from a 60th to 200th/sec. shutter speed. this will obliterate any background mess that may be around and exposes the stage lighting very well. Your subjects might be a little dark so adjustment in your RAW converter can bring up the shadow region enough to see faces. This process seems to work pretty well for me....

The last part of the process is to go to more concerts and take more pictures!

HTH!

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it! You're right... practice, practice, practice!!!!!! I'm working on it, !