I've been asked by a band to photograph one of their concerts, but I've never really done anything like that before. I tried once and couldn't get shit without using the flash, and the photos looked like crap. Anyone got some good tips? Or even better, how I should be setting the ISO, F number etc.

I'm using a Fujifilm S5800, if it helps at all.

Thanks.

concert photography is really one of the most difficult photographic situations. Preferably, someone should be using a dslr with excellent low light performance like this
http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/d3/img/downloads/D3_1_1600x1200.jpg
but most of us are stuck with normal cameras. I'll say here that the best thing you have going for you is dragging the shutter with a second curtain flash, but even that will look funky.

honkymahfah, pictures like that should be in the porn thread, not here -_-

concerts are hard for so many reasons:
- cant get near to the performer
- performer moving around fast
- dark, with 'random' lighting effects moving around
and you can pretty much forget being in the crowd (unless the concert is a recital of beethovan's sixth...)

to get decent photos at concerts, youll either need to be on the stage, and with a flashgun (built in flash wont cut it) - many artists dont like this because its distracting or have either a wide or telephoto, very fast bit of glass (f2.8)

with your camera....get to as good a vantage point as you can, find something to rest the camera on, and shoot with a fairly long shutter speed? else, you could be a front warrior and shoot constantly with the hope of a pic of the lead singer...

It will be difficult with a camera like that. As already said, you'll need to be one of the closet people to the band, and have room to move. I wouldn't recommend setting your camera on too much of a high ISO because the noise will give you terrible picture quality. As far as your F stop goes, you're going to want to let as much light as possible in, so using the lowest number possible would be best. This in turn will mean you will have a smaller depth of field, so you better watch out for your focusing (auto-focus might help, but it depends on how much you trust your camera to auto-focus, it may just pick the wrong object).
If your camera can do it, set it to some form of bulb function, get the movement of the performers and lights and then fire the flash off at the end of the exposure to freeze them in their final 'pose'. I don't know if the flash on your camera will be powerful enough - the couple of times I've photographed a concert I've had a dedicated flash on the top of my DSLR.

I was using one of those DSLR hybrids at a show, a Sony with some nice Zeiss glass up front. Flash wouldn't have blown over too well and I even turned off the LCD. I couldn't tell if they were blurry through the viewfinder and I still haven't seen them, but my friend said there were some good ones. But because of the nature of the venue I was only a few feet away from the bands and there was some pretty gnarly lighting making everything look cool for me.

Either way, though, the built in flash on that camera ain't gonna give you the purtiest pictures, so unless it has low enough noise at high ISOs to use it without the flash you're going to want a DSLR with a flash unit.

I don't have much advice camera wise. Though I'd suggest going to the venue for a previous show and trying taking some pictures, then seeing what you can improve on and how to improve it.

www.ryanrussell.net/

check him out. thats all he does.
theres a ton of fan sites that say what sttings he uses and things like that

Turn up the aperture a bit, lengthen the shutter speed to maybe a second or two, and lower the ISO value.

www.nickydigital.com

It really depends on the lighting, atmosphere and mood you are trying to capture.

My advice to you is to set your ISO to around 800, if the lighting conditions are bad, don't be afraid to go to 1600. Slightly grainy pictures are better than underexposed or blurred out ones. (Grainy + Black and white always gives a raw and powerful atmosphere to your images)

You will probably be using the widest aperture. Choose a lens (If you have more than one) that can take in the most light, since you will need it.

Change the metering on your camera to spot lighting, to get an accurate reading in those difficult lighting situations.

Now, the shutter speed; you'll want to set the shutter speed as high as you can without underexposing. No 1/40th's or lower. I'm saying; try to get around 1/100th+ of a second (if possible.)

The reason I'm saying this is that you'll want to be moving around taking vantage points of the band, you may have to zoom into their faces which makes having a steady hand much harder. Ask to get a spot in the front row or even to the sides of the stage. You won't have time to set up a tripod and the like; unless you have hands of steel, you will have blurry images. The band will be moving too so keep that into consideration.

If you have an underexposed photo or two, just remember you can touch it up in Photoshop.

Also look at the lighting, when you get to the venue, check around where the performer will be lit, understanding the situation and lighting conditions can give you a great handicap.

Lastly, try not to use flash. Even if you have an external one, which would work much better, try to keep it at an absolute minimum.

Anyway, good luck!

-slightly grainy pictures? If you go to 1600 with a bridge camera you'll have quite alot more then "slightly" grainy pictures

-if he uses (or anybody) a shutter time of 1/40 it's gonna be blured unless the person is standing pretty still, or maybe slight movement, so unless it's a concert of moby or a orchestra, I doubt 1/40 or even 1/50 will cut it.

-if you have a proper flash (such as the SB800 from Nikon which I use) it only adds to the flavour. Though I must admit, before I actually had the SB800, I also thought of Flashing as the devil, but a good flash really can make your picture alot better.

He's got a bridge camera, so he can't change lenses. Also, the lens that is on there has a F-stop range from 3.5 to freaking 13.6! So I would strongly advise against zooming in.
To be perfectly honest, I'd be surprised if you can take any pictures at all.
Also, in my experiance with Fuji...they're horrible with ISO, go 400 or above and you'll have a hard time making out what is what if you have a dark picture.

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