Picture in dark venue with spot lamps

[Andy]

I was shooting pictures at a concert and was wondering what is the best way to shoot pictures without flash in a dark room which has very bright lights on the performer. I was also trying to ensure that the focus boxes were over the subject.

Here is one of the best quality shots I took on the night:



I was using my Canon A620 on a tripod and adjusting the shutter speed to get the face of the performer looking ok without being washed out by the strong light. I was on maximum zoom since I was behind the audience. You can see that there is a huge contrast range in the scene.

[Hope]

Most cameras now have the ability to turn off the flash and set the F stop. You might want to look to see if your camera has this ability.

[SensoVision]

such conditions are most hard to take pictures IMHO. Personally when I was on the concert I've set my camera to highest available ISO, and used tripod(I've also was far from scene so have to use zoom).
BTW your picture come out very well, so I think you can use same settings as you probably wouldn't get much better results with raising ISO as it bring more noise to picture.

[Andy]

Thanks for the tips.

I still haven't used the full manual mode. I don't think I ever will since one manual adjustment is plenty for me in a live situation. But with a laptop attached it is fun to manually control the camera with the software when it's on a tripod. This is useful when photographing objects at home or in a studio. The software lets you get a big preview on the laptop screen whereas the camera preview window is too poor quality to be very useful for fine adjustments I find.

[SensoVision]

this should be really handy to use laptop as monitor, this could let you build perfect composition without big hassle and control light and the rest in a more comfort way.
as for using manual controls it's really not that hard, and you don't have to use full manual control anyway, e.g. after setting ISO to desired level camera keep work automatically but have better sensivity and choose lower shutter speed or use more closed aperture.

[Andy]

Thanks for the tips.

Actually, one big thing I noticed is that professional cameras are black bodied and amateur cameras are silver - a dead give away! Even my laptop is silver 

[SensoVision]

Actually, one big thing I noticed is that professional cameras are black bodied and amateur cameras are silver - a dead give away! Even my laptop is silver 

that's right Although camera manufacturers break this tradition novadays and some consumer cameras are also black painted these days.
Anyway color isn't important IMHO as long as camera do quality photographs, isn't it?

[Andy]

Thats right, but human models may respond differently. I just thought about this issue when I was in the concert with my silver camera on a tripod. At least the press photographer with a Nikon pro camera carefully stepped around my tripod rather than kicking it over in disgust 

[SensoVision]

At least the press photographer with a Nikon pro camera carefully stepped around my tripod rather than kicking it over in disgust  Wink

maybe he was just afraid to be kicked in responce?