How to get the best photos at gigs?

isofa

Wide aperture, higher ISO, and the longest exposure you can get away with without blurring/camera shake. The higher you take the ISO, the more grainy the image will be (unless you are using a pro camera where the effects are less obvious up to 800 to 1600ish). Oh flash off too, it'll have no effect from such a tiny camera.

Red_Rose_Exile

Use curves or levels in post processing. As has been mentioned forget flash, bung up the ISO to 400, maybe 800 though you will have very grainy images at that level unless you are using a Dslr

Try avoid using too much zoom as you'll end up with camera shake, though a bit of blur can be quite arty

If you can turn off the camera autofocus, do so, low light tends to confuse autofocus

Try and capture the artist when they are most into their song, as they are frequently more intense, but follow the lighting. Invariably the lighting moves in patterns, so if you know the pattern you can take just as the light hits your subject

Also if you have a continuous mode, use it, take loads of photos. I reckon on getting about 2% close to usable out of all taken

Turn off the face recognition, and also make sure that the white balance is set to custom. It might be worth turning the EV up to +0.7 or even +1 ,

josha007

Yeah I've got Photoshop on my computer, and adjusting the levels is vital when post processing.There is a lot that you can't see when the levels are high. The continuous shot setting is a good idea, even if you get one photo out of the five that is doing well

isofa

If you get the exposure right in the first place, you wouldn't need to rely on levels so much, a small tweak here and there is fine, but a large tweak will result in a poor image, as they will be little detail left if you've got rid of a significant range of the light or dark zone. If an image if too dark, it's underexposed, so increase the ISO (sensitivity), the aperture or and/or decrease the shutter speed. If it's too bright, it's over exposed so do the opposite. The ISO change should really be the last you make.

If your camera can display a histogram after each shot, then you can see how to adjust the exposure to maximise your image.

Auto-levelling can ruin many an image which has been correctly shot, properly balanced photos of seaside views for example can be ruined.

Curves can be used to boost the contrast or shadow detail, but again careful use only.

This is why people need to learn about photography! Master the basics of exposure and depth of field and you'll be on the road to taking great photos.