concert / night shots

hey pplz

i m a beginner in the world of photography and have recently bought

a Sony DSC T33... i bought it only to hear later on that sony is not

that great..

well i've been to two concerts now with this camera n everytime i

take photos they turn out to be like a dark reddish colour. i tried

the slow synchro flash option but most photos turn out blurry. this

camera has the highest ISO option of 400. its also got EV from -2 to

+2 but i have no idea wat that is. theres an option for white

balance as well..but again i have no idea on that..

it 'd b greatly appreciated if you could help me.. coz i m startin

to get angry at myself for wastin money on such a camera... thanks!

cheers!

i shoot concerts every week and i wouldn't be able to do it without having 800iso for big venues with good lighting and 1600/32ooiso for small dark venues. sorry to say, it's not suitable in almost any way as a music photography camera

The redness comes from the camera's AUTO white balance not picking the correct color temperature in tungsten light situations, a common problem ...set the white balance to the indicator which looks like a domestic light bulb. You have five settings. Remember to return to AUTO after the show! Otherwise you daylight shots will come out very blue.

 

The blurred result comes from two probable causes. Firstly when you press the trigger the camera does not take the photo until after it has checked out the focus and exposure ... often rather longer in low light situations than in bright sunlight. Secondly the digital cameras when working in auto seen to pick a slower shutter speed rather than upping the ISO from 100ISO ... the slow shutter speed results in a blurred result as your hand moves even slightly.

 

My suggestion is to always wherever you are to take 'half-pressure' on the trigger until the camera indicates to you it is ready to take the shot, then complete pressure. another is to support the camera on something .... get up the front and rest it on the stage :-) and point the front up at the performers .... else organise yourself a walking stick with some means of fixing the camera to it.

 

I would not say you have wasted your money on the camera, with 5Mp it is capable of good work, but sadly it does not have any means of adjusting exposure manually which would help with your concert photos.

 

The difference between 400 and 800 ISo is not worth worrying about and unless you go to expensive DSLRs you will not get more than 400ISO these days. People went hysterical about the noise from 800ISO and so the makers stopped including it, all rather silly.

 

Normally if your results came out rather dark consistently you could use a plus EV to tell the camera to give more exposure. Minus EV does the reverse.

 

You may be able to trick the camera into using a faster shutter speed by setting the EV to minus 2EV ... that effectively means you are working at 1600ISO but the results will be dark and you will need an editing programme to lift the results. That f/3.3--f/4.4 on the front of the camera tells you that you loose some light gathering power when you zoom out, about 2/3 of an f/stop, which also helps to make the shot darker or conversely makes the camera use a slower shutter speed.

 

For that I suggest you download from www.jasc.com a 30-day trial copy of Paint Shop Pro and use it's 'adjustment layer' and firstly 'Levels' or secondly 'Curves' to adjust the file if it is dark. It is possible to effectively give yourself a ISO rating of 1600ISO or better this way. The results will be noisy but if you managed to get the the shots sharp and steady it is probably worth the effort, a personal choice. PSP will be a good investment for your future efforts as a photographer, relatively easy to learn to use if you keep at it. There is a users group at www.pspug.com with very helpful folk.

 

An adjustment layer holds the adjustments you make to the photo without touching your original. If you make a mistake you can undo and if you over-do that you can undo that correction ... a very powerful tool which only the best editing programmes have. PSP is the best of the lesser costly ones.

Another think which could help ... your camera has five manual focus positions. Often it is the camera trying to focus which delays the taking of a shot ... with the best of cameras too :-( ... so if you work out what those settings are and if they are suitable for the shots you want it would be worth using manual focus so the camera has merely to organise the exposure which it probably does quite quickly.

as Goulden says, unless you're right next to the stage and taking close ups, this camera won't cut it. Slow sync flash can give you fantastic creative results - if you dial in, say ISO 400 and 1/3 sec shutter speed and let the camera do the rest, you'll freeze the action at the start of the shot and get cool lines from the flash. Try that one!

If you want to shoot this kind of thing with a digicam (rather than an SLR which might get you thrown out of the concert ebfore you get into it), you need something like the Fuji F10 - or possibly (depending on size constraints and reviews) one of the newly announced Fujis - see the 28 July press releases here:

 

http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/presscentre/news/index.php

 

No other manufacturer has anything that challenges Fuji for low light digicams.

thanks heaps pplz... greatly appreciated!

just a small question... JC u mentioned adjust the shutter speed... would you have any idea on how to do that .. the stuff about f/3 something...

as you can tell i m really a beginner and really thank u for helpin me

cheers!

have you read the manual that came with the camera?<br>

look in it for a section on changing the shutter speed and aperture as it may or may not be possible with your camera<br>

<br>

then read this, which explains what shutter speed and aperture are and what they do<br>

<a href = "http://www.photo.net/learn/making-photographs/">http://www.photo.net/learn/making-photographs/</a>

Ignore all these comments about selecting a shutter speed by folk who cannot be bothered to check out just what your camera can or cannot do ... quite simple ... just go to dpreview.com guys and gals.

 

I gave you my suggestions based on finding out what your camera can do .. you cannot adjust the shutter or aperture, only the focus, white balance and EV

 

But to follow my suggestions of under-exposing by using the minus 2 EV setting, you have to have an editing programme capable of lifting the results, or a camera store/freind willing to do it for you. Elements or PSP are the two cheapest ones capable of doing that. Around $100<$130 US dollars but cheaper at some discount places if you can find them. Both a good investment if you intend to stay in our fascinating pastime.

 

Remember that no camera can do everything, which is why there is such a wide range made. The crux is to learn what your camera can do and work within it's limits. You have a good camera and you need to read the manual and try to work out what it means. I've been photoging for over fifty years and I miss obvious things in current manuals so I appreciate you could have trouble, so come back and ask questions ... that is what this forum is for. :-)