A very common question from a variety of people is how to best shoot a concert with only a point & shoot camera. First let’s break it down into the facts of the situation:
- Most venues will not allow cameras with detachable lenses, meaning you are limited to a compact camera
- If you are attending a rock concert, you will want to have a smaller camera anyway just for ease of carrying
- No matter how bright the lights appear on stage, you are shooting in a low light situation
- In addition to low light, you are also shooting in lights that are constantly changing
- You want to avoid using flash whenever possible
- You are shooting what are often fast moving targets
- In the pit, you are going to be bumped and pushed around
The reality is that your average point & shoot camera, which usually works on automatic settings only, isn’t going to cut the mustard. In order to stand a chance at getting some decent shots, you will need to step it up to a point & shoot with manual settings. These cameras will at minimum run in the $200-400 range. Examples of these types of cameras are the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5, some of the newer Canon PowerShots and the Nikon P100.
A point & shoot with manual options will have a dial with the letters M, S, A, P plus whatever other features that particular model offers. Why do you need manual setting? Because in a concert setting the automatic functions will either make your camera go hey there’s no light, I need to use a super slow shutter speed! Or it will get hit with a random spot light and say , wait! I need to close up that aperture! As a result, you will usually get crummy photos.
Here we go. Camera instruction book in hand, set your camera to M. Pick something in your surroundings, preferably in low light that you can use to test it out as you go. Use the instructions to find where on the camera you can adjust the F-Stop (also known as the Aperture), shutter speed and ISO. The F-Stop defines how much light gets to the camera’s sensors. A lower number means MORE light. A higher number means LESS light. The shutter speed is exactly what it says and it will always be depicted in seconds, i.e. 1/125 seconds. The ISO is how sensitive the camera will be to light. A high ISO means greater sensitivity to light, but it also means more grain (those ugly little spots all over the image).
For the average concert, try using the following settings: F/3 or 4 (as low a number as I can go), 1/125 shutter speed and ISO 1600. I would also choose to force the flash off. Check the instructions on your camera for how to do this. Now, play with your chosen subject matter and see what happens when you adjust one setting at a time. Try taking the aperture to f/5 or f/6. What happens when you drop the shutter speed to 1/60 or raise it to 1/200. What about ISO? When you change it, how big is the difference in the brightness of your photo and how much grain can you see?
For the most part, I would recommend jacking up the ISO as high as it will go (usually 1600 on a point & shoot) and leave it there. Unless you’re trying for a photo worth blowing up to poster size, you won’t mind a little grain. You’ll usually find that you will also keep the aperture as wide open as possible. Most point & shoots go to F/4 or if you’re lucky F/3.5. That leaves your main adjustment at show time to shutter speed. Some of that will be personal opinion. Do you want to get as bright a photo as possible with motion blur or do you want to capture a clearer shot that is darker? It’s a tough call and I recommend doing some of both at a show. You couod try to shoot at a range between 1/80 and 1/160, depending on light and movement. Practice using your camera beforehand so you know how to adjust those settings quickly, even in partial darkness.
A more advanced tip: Many cameras will also have a setting for metering. Simply put, this is a measure of the color and light present in the view finder. The standard setting usually samples the whole field of view, which will vary greatly at a concert. If possible, set your camera to “spot meter” mode. Then center that spot on something close to flesh tone as you take the shot. It will help how your color balance turns out. Good examples are the artist’s face or an acoustic guitar. But part of a concert is the cool light show so there’s no harm in capturing that as well.
An important basic technique is to make sure you rest your arms on the barricade (or your friend) and hold the camera as close to your body as possible. This limits camera shake. And make sure your camera comes with a wrist strap. If you just shelled out $400 for a new camera, you don’t want it to go crashing to the ground when a crowd surfer lands on your head.
If you are shooting in a club with very low lighting, or worst of all the evil red lighting, you’re going to have a hard time. If the venue or artist will let you get away with using flash, use it sparingly. It’s distracting to the rest of the audience and it’s blinding to the band.
As always with photography, practice makes perfect! Longer term, if you are passionate about photography, we would always recommend stepping up into the DSLR category of cameras.