Cold bitter truth please.

KmH · May 4, 2011

redlazer said:
]

Do your composition in the camera as much as possible, because cropping means throwing away pixels.

Your original with a Rule of Thirds (ROT) overlay. The top ROT line is called the 'eye line'. The white spots where the line interesect are known as 'power points'.

I cropped to put his eye on the eye line and on a power point:

and the crop with a ROT overlay

KKJUN · May 4, 2011

Second pic could've been shot at higher ISO, seems to have motion blur in ist from a too low shutter speed.
A 7D can handle more than ISO 400.

gsgary · May 4, 2011

If you take a look at the exif data it will tell you straight away what is wrong, take a look at shutter speed then take a look at focal length

vtf · May 4, 2011

Keith....Did you change the color any, the reddish tint seems less?
The image is better with the crop but the stark look on the face bothers me and for some reason the blurred background (not sure why). I know what it is, he's looking at something seriously and I can't see it, it bothers me!

Erose86 might be able to help you, she shoots indoor concerts and bands.
There should be numerous threads on here to help you.

redlazer · May 4, 2011

Sounds good thanks for the help. here in Iraq we have the Marshall Tucker Band coming soon so I want to learn as much as possible so I will have better photos. I'll take all the help I can get.

redlazer · May 4, 2011

Hey question what what lens the 18-55mm, or 75-300mm would be best to use for this concert? It will be dark same as in these pics. I was wanting to use the lowest aperture I can probably 5.6, turn the shutter speed to 1/250, keep the ISO around 200-400. Would this be best to take better quality pics or should I do different settings?

KmH · May 4, 2011

vtf said:
Keith....Did you change the color any, the reddish tint seems less?

Only indirectly. I first opened the photo in ACR, which I have set to use the ProPhoto RGB color space, at a 16-bit depth.

I played with some quick adjustments, but because it wasn't a Raw file they didn't work well so I left it original and opened it in CS5.

When I saved the CS5 edits (adding the red lines, 2 white spots, and cropping only) I did not convert the color space profile to sRGB for web display, so technically the slight de-saturation of the reds is because a color space error.

c.cloudwalker · May 4, 2011

The_Traveler said:
(and eliminate that blob below his lip.)

Really? Whether or not you like his facial hair you have no right to give him a shave.

vtf · May 4, 2011

redlazer said:
Hey question what what lens the 18-55mm, or 75-300mm would be best to use for this concert? It will be dark same as in these pics. I was wanting to use the lowest aperture I can probably 5.6, turn the shutter speed to 1/250, keep the ISO around 200-400. Would this be best to take better quality pics or should I do different settings?

Neither will do great. I would suggest the 18-55 if close up over the 75-300 zoomed.
If it's indoors and dark such as your second photo, you will get the same results. To get a shot using f5.6 at 1/250 the iso will need to be at set at 1600 or above I would believe, 400 sounds too low. This will begin to introduce noise, if you're ok with that then it will be fine. It's really hard to guesstimate because of not knowing the actual lighting that will be used.
In any case you will most likely have to use manual focus.

redlazer · May 4, 2011

Both pics were taken outside at the same concert. the lighting will be the same for this concert. I hope there will be less people so I can get in close to get a few shots.

KevinPutman · May 4, 2011

Took a little advice from what everyone was posting,
eh?

subscuck · May 4, 2011

redlazer said:
Both pics were taken outside at the same concert. the lighting will be the same for this concert. I hope there will be less people so I can get in close to get a few shots.

If it's a concert for GI's (thanks, btw and stay safe if I'm right in assuming you're a GI), then I'm guessing it's general admission. Get there as early as your duty schedule allows and try to get upfront. If you can get in range for it, the 18-55 is the lens to use. The IS will let you cheat a little, but at lower shutter speeds, it won't stop subject motion, only camera shake. Kick your ISO to 1600 and see what you get for a ss at 5.6. You can always download some freeware for noise reduction. Noiseware Community Edition works well, and preserves more detail than some of the others. There are others out there as good as Noiseware. In the test reports I've looked at, the 7D has considerable noise at 1600, but is also still reasonably sharp, important for noise reduction, so I'm not sure I'd get too hung up on noise. Proper exposure will keep noise to a minimum as well.

redlazer · May 5, 2011

Yes I'm GI. Thank you I will try that, and see how the pics come out. I have CS5 so I can reduce the noise in the photos. Anyone have any other suggestions that may help me out?

fokker · May 5, 2011

Crank that ISO, the 7D can handle. No point *****ing around at ISO400 and getting blurry shots at 1/60s, when you could be all the way up at 3200 and 1/500s. The amount of noise at 3200 ISO on a 7D is nothing, especially with a little bit of noise reduction in post, and it sure as hell beats camera shake.