Evolving Photographer: May 2015

After realizing that even a cell phone can snag halfway decent concert pictures, I started thinking about getting a "real" camera into a concert venue to get some shots. All of my reading and experimenting with basic lighting had me seeing the real magic of concert images - where else can you get the entire rainbow of color, mixed with true passion, and have a picture look REAL?

So, I started reading about on the web, and finding a camera that met the following criteria:

Would be allowed into the venue I had tickets for.

Some places will let you bring in a full DSLR, no questions asked. Most will not.

Had a viewfinder.

I've grown resistant to shooting via LCD screen, and it's annoying for other folks at a show.

Did good work in low light situations.

You need a fast enough shutter speed to freeze performers, but also a camera that will give you low noise pictures at higher ISOs.

As you can tell from the title, I settled on renting Sony's RX100M III - a nice point and shoot that easily fit into my pocket and met all of the above criteria.

Naturally, I played with settings for a full day before the show, and made sure that I was familiar with the camera. After all, there is nothing worse than fiddling with a camera in the dark while you're trying to enjoy some music!

How I made my shots

Before the bands came out, I took a couple of test shots of the stage to dial in the right ISO setting. I started at ISO 2000, but brought it down to 1600 after the first few shots.
Most of my shots were at 1/125. I dropped a few down to 1/100 and even 1/80, but I was happiest with my 1/125 shots.
The RX100M III has a very nice Zeiss f/1.8-2.8 lens that shoots at 24-70mm. I spent a lot of time zoomed in, so I was at the slower end of things.
At a general admission show, I tried to frame as best I could and get the performers in focus. But I did a decent amount of spraying and praying. I'll let you judge how that worked.

I've got the final versions of my shots below, and have the untouched originals after that. Lightroom is a pretty powerful tool, and I'm getting to enjoy it more and more.