Hi all,

I finally managed to get around to sorting out my pics from the Hyde Park, London UK show on 13 July 2013.

You can find the pics here -

Sonic Dreamer Flickr Photostream Link

They are in the album called -

The Rolling Stones - Hyde Park, London UK - 13.07.2013

Cheers,
SonicD

Thanks guys for the 63,000 odd Flickr views and counting since the 18th April. ><

Cheers,
SonicD



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-04-19 13:44 by SonicDreamer.

Hey these are great SonicD, thanks for sharing. Not just for the Stones content either. What a pleasant surprise to see Aimee Mann among others. Curious how was her show? Thanks.

peace

These are nice shots. What was the venue with Ian Hunter and Mott? I have an
Excellent Bluray with Procal Harum in the same Chapel - really a lovely
historical place for a concert. Would enjoy knowing more about the venue.

You must have been up against the rail at Hyde Park?

Wow! You shot some absolute gems at Hyde park! Thumbs up on your O2 2012 pics as well. Thanks so much for posting them for all to see. Also, your photos of India are outstanding w/ wonderful portraits of animals.

For HP, were you a press photographer or audience member? If the latter, would you mind sharing the make/model of the camera you used, as well as recommended settings info and any other useful tips pertaining to digital photography @ concerts? I’m planning to attend a Stones gig this summer and, if I can get close enough, I’d love to take pictures and would be interested in buying a digital camera ideal for that purpose. Any help would be greatly appreciated .

Quote
Naturalust
Hey these are great SonicD, thanks for sharing. Not just for the Stones content either. What a pleasant surprise to see Aimee Mann among others. Curious how was her show? Thanks.

peace

I'm a huge Aimee Mann fan, saw her on most tours she has done since around Lost in Space. This time she was with a low-key band, no electric guitar, kinda a forerunner for The Both stuff she is doing now. if you love her studio work, you will adore her live. She's a good raconteur and always works with top flight musicians. The last few tours she has adopted a mellow approach, eschewing electric guitar.

I'd recommend @#%&*! Smilers if you wanna get a more recent album of hers, otherwise Bachelor No. 2.

Cheers,
SonicD

Quote
swimtothemoon
These are nice shots. What was the venue with Ian Hunter and Mott? I have an
Excellent Bluray with Procal Harum in the same Chapel - really a lovely
historical place for a concert. Would enjoy knowing more about the venue.

You must have been up against the rail at Hyde Park?

Thanks man. I have two sets of Mott photo albums on Flickr, one from the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009, but the ones I uploaded yesterday were from the O2 Arena in 2013.

Union Chapel is an unusual venue and is a working Church most of the time. This does not lend itself to good lighting, hence the dim colours on the pics. I didn't have an external flash unit so didn't try to take many shots. The acoustic work best with acoustic bands, though can work with electric; you only need a few small amps as the sound carries.

Yes, I was two rows back at the rail (with a few other IORR luminaries), stage right, hence how I could get such close shots. All of it courtesy of a free upgrade (quite a story) from a delightful woman who was working for Live Nation.

Cheers,
SonicD

Quote
Plink
Wow! You shot some absolute gems at Hyde park! Thumbs up on your O2 2012 pics as well. Thanks so much for posting them for all to see. Also, your photos of India are outstanding w/ wonderful portraits of animals.

For HP, were you a press photographer or audience member? If the latter, would you mind sharing the make/model of the camera you used, as well as recommended settings info and any other useful tips pertaining to digital photography @ concerts? I’m planning to attend a Stones gig this summer and, if I can get close enough, I’d love to take pictures and would be interested in buying a digital camera ideal for that purpose. Any help would be greatly appreciated .

----------------

I was an audience member. I used my baby compact camera - Canon PowerShot SX260HS mainly coz of the x 20 optical zoom. If it is a gig at a smaller venue I know I can get near to the stage with, I use a digital Canon PowerShot G10 (if there is risk of it being rougher crowd, as it is an older camera) or a Canon PowerShot G16. The trouble with the Gs is you only get x 5 optical zoom, but the overall lens and processor quality is far superior to something like a SX260HS.

The Gs are known as "bridge" cameras, between a digital compact camera and a full digital SLR. The main advantage is you can easily get them into ever gigs as they don’t have full, detachable zoom lens as per the SLRs. The disadvantage of them is the considerably slower shutter and reset speed performance compared to a full digital SLR, due to the significantly small processors that power them.
So what shots you get tends to be a lottery if the performers move around a lot, (Mick is a nightmare to capture as he moves so fast most of the time) unless you use the “sports” action setting which shoots continuously. The Gs do struggle with low or variable light levels if you don’t attach an external flash unit on top, which is another beneficial feature capability you won’t get with a smaller digital compact.

Back in the day Nikon was the brand of choice for serious photography, but their mantle has been somewhat usurped by Canon over the last decade and many pro photographers prefer Canon these days, as the lens quality is on par with Nikon but a bit cheaper.

Sony and Panasonic digital compact and bridge cameras get a lot of good reviews,but predominantly as they have lots of practical and clever performance features. The Canon and Nikon lens, as well as some other specifications are broadly superior, which arguably delivers better image quality. Just coz a camera says it has a Carl Zeiss or Leica lens on it does not automatically mean it is a top grade lens. These manufacturers produces lower calibre lens they supply to brands like Sony and Panasonic, sometimes under licence. They are not the same quality as Carl Zeiss or Leica lens made by these companies in their own factories for their own equipment. As with all technical kit you get what you pay for.

If you are buying the camera for gigs only, I would suggest steering clear of digital bridge cameras, e.g. a Nikon 1 S2, Canon EOS M3 or Sony A5000 (all excellent for other usage), which have interchangeable lens capability. This is for practical reasons - it takes time to change the lens, along with the risk of dust getting on the lens when you change them and you need to carry more kit around.

You normally only get one battery with compact cameras and it is always a good idea to buy two spares to take with you, so you have three fully charged batteries with you. I would recommend buying genuine brand batteries, as the much cheaper OEM versions are not made to the same specification and can invalidate the manufacturer’s warranty if they damage your camera.

With memory cards, if you can afford it go for SanDisk SDHC Extreme PRO, Extreme Plus or Extreme, these come in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and upwards. The larger the memory card GB size it is less likely it is you will have to bother changing the card during a gig.

This is a great website to compare any cameras you are thinking of purchasing -

Digital Camera Reviews - DPR


Cheers,
SonicD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-04-19 13:40 by SonicDreamer.

A million thanks, SonicDreamer for your very thorough and helpful guide to digital concert photography! It will surely guide me in the right direction and, no doubt, be very helpful to others as well. BTW, I know what you mean about Mick. I photographed the Stones ages ago w/ a manual focus 35mm w/ no motor drive. When Mick would run by I'd struggle to zoom, frame, manually focus and hope capture a decent pose. Definitely a recipe for some useless shots! Do you have plans to photograph any of the zip code shows?

Quote
Plink
A million thanks, SonicDreamer for your very thorough and helpful guide to digital concert photography! It will surely guide me in the right direction and, no doubt, be very helpful to others as well. BTW, I know what you mean about Mick. I photographed the Stones ages ago w/ a manual focus 35mm w/ no motor drive. When Mick would run by I'd struggle to zoom, frame, manually focus and hope capture a decent pose. Definitely a recipe for some useless shots! Do you have plans to photograph any of the zip code shows?

Nope, coz my ZipCode is London!!

Oh and another helpful gig pic taking aspect is I'm tall so don't often get my line of sight blocked.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-04-19 14:17 by SonicDreamer.

Quote
SonicDreamer

Quote
Plink
A million thanks, SonicDreamer for your very thorough and helpful guide to digital concert photography! It will surely guide me in the right direction and, no doubt, be very helpful to others as well. BTW, I know what you mean about Mick. I photographed the Stones ages ago w/ a manual focus 35mm w/ no motor drive. When Mick would run by I'd struggle to zoom, frame, manually focus and hope capture a decent pose. Definitely a recipe for some useless shots! Do you have plans to photograph any of the zip code shows?

Nope, coz my ZipCode is London!!

Oh and another helpful gig pic taking aspect is I'm tall so don't often get my line of sight blocked.

Well, I assume the Stones will come home to London at some point for another gig and I hope to see more of your pics. Lucky you for being tall - all I can do is wear the highest heels I can tolerate and hope there isn't a gaggle of giants in front of me!

edited: I forgot to ask - did you use the SX260HS built-in flash for any of the HP shots? Also, did you use manual or auto f-stop & shutter speed settings?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-04-19 14:46 by Plink.

Quote
Plink

Quote
SonicDreamer

Quote
Plink
A million thanks, SonicDreamer for your very thorough and helpful guide to digital concert photography! It will surely guide me in the right direction and, no doubt, be very helpful to others as well. BTW, I know what you mean about Mick. I photographed the Stones ages ago w/ a manual focus 35mm w/ no motor drive. When Mick would run by I'd struggle to zoom, frame, manually focus and hope capture a decent pose. Definitely a recipe for some useless shots! Do you have plans to photograph any of the zip code shows?

Nope, coz my ZipCode is London!!

Oh and another helpful gig pic taking aspect is I'm tall so don't often get my line of sight blocked.

Well, I assume the Stones will come home to London at some point for another gig and I hope to see more of your pics. Lucky you for being tall - all I can do is wear the highest heels I can tolerate and hope there isn't a gaggle of giants in front of me!

edited: I forgot to ask - did you use the SX260HS built-in flash for any of the HP shots? Also, did you use manual or auto f-stop & shutter speed settings?

No, coz strangely enough you get better tonality of colour without the flash.
I do everything on "auto" as whilst the down side is you get averaging of everything it is fast, like your earlier comment if you mess around with manual settings you miss shot opportunities in a gig setting.

Oh another major plus with the Canon G10 and G16 is you can shoot in RAW.

Cheers,
SonicD