My first concert photos. Comments Welcome

NEPats37 · Apr 9, 2007

Here is my first attempt at concert photos. It was a challenge because it was very dark and the band requested the flash not aim right at them so I had to bounce off the ceiling. I had my aperture open to either 2 or 1.4 for all of these. my scanner is horrible so some of these look a little grainy. i used a bounce card for some of them but it was so dark in there not enough light bounced off the card.
any suggestions are welcome.
thanks

NEPats37 · Apr 10, 2007

bump ....any suggestions?

The_Traveler · Apr 10, 2007

NEPats37 said:
bump ....any suggestions?

yes, post larger pictures - and the best rather than a lot.

Funky · Apr 10, 2007

you cant really get a good solid picture with a scanner, all of them are ok but extreamly washed out. bad lighting eh?

NEPats37 · Apr 10, 2007

The_Traveler said:
yes, post larger pictures - and the best rather than a lot.

better now tough guy?

EOS_JD · Apr 10, 2007

I remember saying not to use that flash

I appreciate though that the light was pretty poor looking.

You could have gone with a slightly slower shutter speed (to get some motion in the hands) and used 2nd sync flash which would bring in the ambient light and only freeze the subjects at the end of the exposure.

What sort of shutter speeds were you getting and what speed film did you end up using?

NEPats37 · Apr 10, 2007

EOS_JD said:
I remember saying not to use that flash

I appreciate though that the light was pretty poor looking.

You could have gone with a slightly slower shutter speed (to get some motion in the hands) and used 2nd sync flash which would bring in the ambient light and only freeze the subjects at the end of the exposure.

What sort of shutter speeds were you getting and what speed film did you end up using?

the first one was 1/60th,the other 2 were 1/125. i actually did use slow shutter speed on a few (1/30th). but i didnt scan them....ill do that tomorrow. it seems this scanner ruins pictures.
i used 400 speed film, when i was there though i was curious to see what would happen if a pushed the film. without taking any pictures I bumped it up to 1600 and still the pictures were underexposed.
next time i do a concert im gonna use my canon with my other canon flash. its way more powerful and easier to use.
thanks

EOS_JD · Apr 11, 2007

What mode was your camera in? Were those shutter speeds ambient light or using set to use flash as the main light?

NEPats37 · Apr 11, 2007

EOS_JD said:
What mode was your camera in? Were those shutter speeds ambient light or using set to use flash as the main light?

well 1/125 was the flash sync speed, i tired 1/60th to get more light. its a completely manual flash that I have no user manual for, so it's all trial and error. im gonna use my canon auto flash from now on.

EOS_JD · Apr 11, 2007

Light has blasted all the atmosphere from the shots. I'd still say no flash unless you can't. Even then shoot in Av and second curtain synch if you can.

manaheim · Apr 11, 2007

EOS_JD said:
Light has blasted all the atmosphere from the shots. I'd still say no flash unless you can't. Even then shoot in Av and second curtain synch if you can.

Well you don't necessarily have to do NO flash, but a bounce flash here would really help a lot. Check out the harsh shadows in the background against the wall and harsh highlights- thats a dead giveaway of a dead-on-straight-in-the-face flash.

If you can get a flash with a pivot head and bounce it off a ceiling you should have some much better results. Also in a concert situation you probably have a darker room so turn the flash strength down a bit as well and it should give you a bit moodier of an effect.

Combine that with some really fast shutter times and you can probably get the cool effect of just the outline of the subject closest to the light source... that's always neat.

NEPats37 · Apr 12, 2007

manaheim said:
Well you don't necessarily have to do NO flash, but a bounce flash here would really help a lot. Check out the harsh shadows in the background against the wall and harsh highlights- thats a dead giveaway of a dead-on-straight-in-the-face flash.

If you can get a flash with a pivot head and bounce it off a ceiling you should have some much better results. Also in a concert situation you probably have a darker room so turn the flash strength down a bit as well and it should give you a bit moodier of an effect.

Combine that with some really fast shutter times and you can probably get the cool effect of just the outline of the subject closest to the light source... that's always neat.

i actually did use bounce flash on 2 of those. however i had a hard time because i was using my fully manual sunpak. from now on im using my much easier to use canon

EOS_JD · Apr 12, 2007

manaheim said:
Well you don't necessarily have to do NO flash, but a bounce flash here would really help a lot. Check out the harsh shadows in the background against the wall and harsh highlights- thats a dead giveaway of a dead-on-straight-in-the-face flash.

If you can get a flash with a pivot head and bounce it off a ceiling you should have some much better results. Also in a concert situation you probably have a darker room so turn the flash strength down a bit as well and it should give you a bit moodier of an effect.

Combine that with some really fast shutter times and you can probably get the cool effect of just the outline of the subject closest to the light source... that's always neat.

Yes flash when used creatively can work well, that's why I suggested Av mode (to let the ambient light in) which would be probably a longish shutter speed and the second curtain flash to freeze the subject. This also is a cool effect.

There's lots of possibilities but when using a peice of equipment that you don't know much about, faster lens without flash may have provided more atmospheric and more useable shots.

Did you use flash on them all?

NEPats37 · Apr 12, 2007

EOS_JD said:
Yes flash when used creatively can work well, that's why I suggested Av mode (to let the ambient light in) which would be probably a longish shutter speed and the second curtain flash to freeze the subject. This also is a cool effect.

There's lots of possibilities but when using a peice of equipment that you don't know much about, faster lens without flash may have provided more atmospheric and more useable shots.

Did you use flash on them all?

yes i had to, i had a fast lens (f1.4) but even opened up i would have needed about 1/15th shuter speed. i even tried pusing the film but the best i could get was about 1/60th and that was pushed up wayyyyyyyy to far. 400-1600