Last night I went and saw Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire in concert at the local amphitheater. First off, if you're a fan of either band or just good music in general I would suggest going to see them. They are incredible musicians and sound amazing live. I wanted to take some photos at the show but the venue's policy on cameras is:
"Recording devices are permitted. however no Flash photography, video recording, or removable lens devices are permitted. Unless otherwise approved by the venue."
For those that don't know, this is a pretty standard policy when it comes to cameras at concerts. I didn't want just my iPhone to take photos because I knew it wouldn't be able to take the photos I wanted so I broke out my Canon G12 point and shoot to take to the show.
I've used it to shoot a concert before but I was right up next to the stage and the concert was outdoors in the afternoon so there was plenty of light. The show yesterday was also outdoors, but it was night time and I was about 200 feet away from the stage.
I ended up putting the G12 into Shutter Priority mode and Auto ISO (80-1600). I started out with a shutter speed of 1/80 but realized it was just maxing out the aperture because the lighting on the stage was actually really good and there was giant LED screens behind the band. I ended up shooting 1/125, Auto ISO, with the exposure compensation at -1 to try and limit the effects from the giant LED screens.
Overall I was impressed with the results I got. The G12 did a very good job choosing an exposure that didn't really over or under expose any parts of the stage and from 200 feet the autofocus performed surprisingly well.
Here are the shots straight of out camera only converted from RAW to JPG.
