S3 IS and shooting Live Bands

[alexb631]

Hey guys

I'm just wondering if you guys had any advice on any settings, effects, positioning, anything really about shooting live bands. I haven't tried it yet, and I'm fairly new to photography in general, but I'm sure with all of the moving around, and a lot of times with the poor lighting it could be a hassle. So if you guys had any tips on how to get a "good" picture while the band members are moving around and bad lighting and everything, or even in outdoor shows with good lighting, but a lot of moving around, just let me know.

Like I said I'm pretty new to the photography scene, so you may have to explain some expressions or terms you use, I'm trying to learn though!

And for some example of kind of what I'm looking for in concert a picture check out PunkRockPix.com

Thanks a lot!
-Alex

P.S.-I have photoshop, but haven't had that long either, any effects you know of that are used in a lot of band pics just let me know!...i'll probably post this in the photoshop thread as well!

[grazhopr]

Hi Alex,

This is not the easiest task but I'll try to be brief to get you started. Also, I would strongly suggest that you search around this forum for more technical info to take advantage of great capabilities the Canon S3IS has to offer. In your case, if you want to freeze a moment on stage, you have to start by setting your shutter speed as high as possible. As a starting point I'd set the camera in Shutter speed priority (Tv). What this does is allows you to set the shutter speed and the camera selects the best aperture to achieve a correct exposure. I would start with a speed of 1/400 - 1/500 secs. If you don't like the results, try increasing the shutter speed. Bear in mind that the results will be different whether you're a few feet away from stage or you're very far in the back of the venue. If you're close enough, you shouldn't have much problems to achieve clear images as long as you try shooting while there is enough light on stage. If you're far from the stage, try to find a place where you can setup a minitripod and shoot at much lower shutter speeds. At lower shutter speeds, the moving subject will apear blurry, and there's not much to do around that. In some cases, this may be a desirable effect in your pictures though. Play with your camera indoors and with low light conditions before going to the concert to have a better idea of what I'm saying. Try shooting from a room that is in complete darkness and shoot into a lit room to emulate the conditions of a concert. There's probably a lot more to take into account and I hope someone else can contribute. In the meantime, I encourage you to learn a little more about exposure, aperture and shutter speed. Then, check your S3 manual to learn a few cool features this camera has to let you get the best results possible. I hope that even if this wasn't much help, at least I motivated you to dig deeper. Good luck !