I recently was asked to review some concert photos that a fan from Flickr had posted. I noticed that he was shooting at ISO 2000, which gave him noisy and under saturated grayish tones to his photos. I think one myth that people think about shooting concerts is that you have to have the fastest lens so you can shoot at f/1.2-1.8 and 1/250th, or shoot at high ISOs. Not True.
My standard setting for a concert before it even starts is (usually) around ISO 250, f/4 and 1/160 if I’m using my 50mm (which is on the majority of a show). I’m ALWAYS in manual mode at a concert, (whereas almost any other time I shoot with natural light I’m on Aperture priority). One of the most important skills you need to getting good concert shots is knowing how to change your camera settings without taking your eye away from the viewfinder. That means being able to change every setting from ISO, to White balance, to aperture and shutter speed.
I am constantly changing settings based upon what I’m seeing on stage. If the light guy is shining bright lights into the audience and there is a chance I’ll get some cool star-bursts I’ll bump the aperture as high as I think I can get it without being underexposed.
In this photo, I noticed the light reflecting off of the sequins on this dancer’s hat. I took a few shots at different apertures, checked my display, saw that f/5 was giving me a good exposure and still getting a nice star-burst, and then I did a nice burst of about 20 photos while the dancer held this pose at the end of a song.
This was taken at ISO 250, f/5, 1/200th