Advice for taking photos in (very) poorly lit places

calex71

Ok ok i'm not much use with a camera, but recently i've been look through the photos i've taken over the last year or so. Some nice snaps and some that if i didnt have tagged i would not be able to say with any certainty where they where taken and what the picture was of.

I go to a lot of gigs and many of the photos i take are of bands on stage, as it always nice to get a few shot to remember the show.

I've got some great photos from gigs but about 90% of them are complete and utter recycle bin fodder.

To start the camera i use is a cheap ass HP M407 but i have intentions of getting something far better soon, Thing is i've used friends "better" cameras also and get similar results.

It seems to be hit or miss with the results maybe depending on where im standing or sitting at the show and the camera settings i use. Thing is i cant work out a setting that works every time for me, maybe due in a large part to a lack of understanding of the settings such as EV comp, when to use flash etc etc.

I realize by now that i'm nver going to get 100% pictures and that for every 10 i take only one or 2 might be any good, so i guess what i'm looking for are some pointers to improve the number of good pictures i get.

I can post some examples or check my flickr page, i've added some disasterously bad ones from the other night and there are some ok one's there also http://www.flickr.com/photos/81157760@N00/

Thanks for help

Zillah

Ok, first thing to understand is the reason that pictures look like blurry crap in the dark is because the shutter has to stay open for ages to let enough light in. Ways around this:

1 - Up the ISO. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the camera sensor is, but the more grain the images will have. Always choose lots of grain over even a tiny bit of camera shake.

2 - Flash. Simple enough. A blast of light that makes it so that the shutter only needs to be open for an instant. Camera mounted flash usually looks quite shite though, and the flash will only be effective at close range.

3 - Stabilise the camera. Ideally with a tripod, on the top of an amp if nothing else. This method will only stop blur caused by the camera moving. People in the photo that move will still come out blurry.

4 - Open the aperture as wide as it'll go. This lets in more light because the hole at the front of the camera is wide. Bizarrely, the smaller the number, the wider the hole; 2.8 is much much bigger than 22.

pete4130

Another useful tip is to keep an eye on the lighting, see if there is some rhythm to any of the lights and try to sync your shots with the brighter lights. This works really well with strobe lighting. In saying that, I think we all know that lots of venues have pretty generic and inanimate lighting rigs that leave alot to be desired.

calex71

this is all gold to me guys thanks for the tips