right whats the best way to take pictures at a gig ?? as i guess it needs the expoisure time to be high to let the light in but this causes problems with subjects bouncing around so they blur also im not a very steady hand :(. obvious fix is use flash but then it removes all the light colours so it looks like its day light not good :(

i want to be able to do things like this (pic of my brothers band taken by a friend of mine )

Depends what camera you have?

That was taken on a canon EOS 10D (bloody decent camera) with a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second, which is quite slow @ ISO 800, taken on the 19/03/04 @ 22:48?

Depends what camera you have?

That was taken on a canon EOS 10D (bloody decent camera) with a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second' date=' which is quite slow @ ISO 800, taken on the 19/03/04 @ 22:48? [/quote']

With what looks like the 50mm prime lens (an excellent choice for low light) at maximum aperture

You can tell a lot from the EXIF info embedded in digital camera images.....

This sort of shot is very tricky as you say and sadly a decent one falls outside of the capabilities of most compact digicams. My 10d SLR struggles a little in low light, even with the 50mm prime. :(

To get the best results from a compact needs a bit of work. Firstly you want to get the maximum amount of light into the lens so shoot in aperture priority mode (aV) if your camera has it. Set the aperture to as small a number as possible - this allows the most light into the lens. The next thing you need to do is set the ISO equivalent to a fairly high value - this will make your shots a bit noisy (or grainy) but software like Noiseware or NoiseNinja should clean them up to a point where they're acceptable.

When shooting this way you need to be spot on with your focus so aim to focus on one of your subjects eyes if possible; this makes for a pleasing shot as it's the first think you're drawn to when you look at a portrait of a person.

Hope this makes sense and helps a bit. Feel free to ask any questions if I've not explained anything right....

Nice picture by the way, I'd be pleased if I'd taken that.

yeah its a good picture it was taken by a good friend of mine who sadly broke both his wrists in a car crash a bit back so i abit hard to get hold of at the mo. yeah his was a good camera much better than mine but hey ho i whall give it a go and see how they come out at the next gig

he really wasnt happy with any of the shots kept going on about it been the wrong lense and other bits lol he takes it very seriously.

and another

Second is better than the first IMO, it's a crisper shot. Hope your mate gets fixed up soon, must be a nightmare with broken wrists. He certainly wouldn't be able to hold the 10d, it's a heavy wossname!

yeah its a pain as he is self employed as a photographer so he is suffering:(