Paul's Photo Blog

I just started sifting through and processing some of the first concert photos I've taken since becoming serious about photography. I snapped some photos back in high school or junior high at a Beach Boys' concert once, but I had both a crappy camera and a lack of knowledge about photography.

Tonight, however, I grabbed my Panasonic FZ-10 point-and-shoot camera (okay, so it's probably closer to a hybrid dSLR/Point-and-shoot) and played with it during the Steven Curtis Chapman/Michael W. Smith concert. I switched to manual mode, initially started at ISO 400, but remembered how noisy the camera was at 400, so I cranked it down to 200. I set the shutter speed to 1/80th for most of the photos, slowing it down to 1/50th when I wanted more of the lighting (keeping the aperture set at f/2.8). They wouldn't let me bring my dSLR in, and I didn't want to risk having my dSLR confiscated, so I stuck with this camera.

I'm honestly blown away by how these photos turned out. Granted, having front-row seats (thanks to my totally awesome brother-in-law, Dave, who bought those tickets for my birthday present) helped, but I was amazed at how clear the photos were. A skosh of Noise Reduction and a bit of both level adjustment and warming filter (depending on photo), and that's pretty much all the processing. Granted, had I had my dSLR they probably would've been better, but these are pretty decent.

Labels: Concert photography, Michael W. Smith, Panasonic FZ-10, Point-and-shoot, Steven Curtis Chapman