I need advice on good indoor concert settings.

I need advice on the best settings I can use for an Indoor concert. I recently bought a Canon T2i with the 18-55mm lens and I have a lot of learning to do on it. Im attending a concert next week that I won a photo pass to, so, parts of the concert I will be in the photographer pit. This is the perfect chance to take some great photos, hopefully, if I learn how to use the camera properly. If any of you have any wonderful advice....send some my way. Thanks.

-Lysette

 

Your main problems are blur and low light. To deal with them you should put your camera in shutter priority mode or manual mode.

You'll need at least a moderate shutter speed to avoid blur, 1/200 second or more.

Once your shutter speed is right, the camera can probably handle the lighting situation on its own. If your camera is in shutter priority mode, the camera will select the proper aperture - probably the widest one possible considering the low light level available. If you choose to shoot in manual mode, select the widest possible aperture. You can either let the camera select the ISO (set it to auto) or select it yourself - anything through 3200 ISO, depending on the amount of light you need for your picture to look good.

 

What camera are you using on the first place, if I may ask?

 

I'm envious. The T2i is a great camera, especially for low light situations.

From what I've read, you can just really crank up the ISO on that camera and you'll get nice shots.

My advice, take tons of pictures with various shutter speeds and ISO settings. Sometimes a bit of blur can look cool in concert photos.

If you're in the photog pit, you should have no problem getting great shots.

 

aperture priority and set your auto ISO limit to the maximum clean iso

 

Most camera lenses slow down when you zoom. If you have lots of megapixels you will be able to get away with not zooming and then cropping the picture after uploading and still have enough pixels left.

If the camera is on a support (a monopod will probably not do) and the subject is still then you can use ISO 100 and any amount of zoom and let the shutter do what it wants.

Larger apertures need more careful focusing although in most concert situations you will be using infinity or near infinity as focus.