Newbie Please Help!!!

[Mikeg1283]

Ok, I just bought my first dSLR. I purchased the canon 50d with 18-135mm lens. I have recently had a spark of interest in photography. I'm still in school and plan to take some courses at the university next semester, but until then... can anyone give me some advice on how to better shots at concerts. What kinda lens? Setting?

Thank you in advance

[kmb]

I guess there are multiple threads about this, but the terse version, I suppose, is this:
- Get a 50/1.8 (USD ~100), or a 50/1.4 / a Tamron 17-50/2.8 if you can afford it. I personally would not get a lens slower than f2.8 for club/bar concerts. I would leave your current lens at home.
- Settings. Depends on the smoke, backlight etc. Maybe a basic starting setting would be Shutter priority, 1/250s, "safe shift" feature on, evaluative metering, -1 EC, manual focus point selection, AI Servo.

Hardest thing to learn is creativity. That you'll learn through trial and error, being critical about your own work, looking at other peoples phtoographs (I'd recommend film era books, both concert photography and "street photography" - Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt are my favorites in the latter genre - and especially going to exhibitions).

[AmandaMarie]

I'm sorry, but did you say a 50mm f1.8 is about 100 us dollars?

[e02937]

Yes a nifty fifty these days is between $90-100 new US. Typically closer to $100. As of this post, Amazon is at $98 and change.

To the OP, I would recommend strongly getting a book called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It will help you understand the basics of exposure and set you up nicely for your classes next semester. Generally with dark situations you want to shoot with a wide aperture (small f number), higher iso, and as long as shutter speed as you can get away with in order to get enough light for a proper exposure. If flash is allowed, that may help as well. There aren't any magic formulas as everywhere and every venue can be different.

[LostShootingStar]

Yes a nifty fifty these days is between $90-100 new US. Typically closer to $100. As of this post, Amazon is at $98 and change.

To the OP, I would recommend strongly getting a book called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It will help you understand the basics of exposure and set you up nicely for your classes next semester. Generally with dark situations you want to shoot with a wide aperture (small f number), higher iso, and as long as shutter speed as you can get away with in order to get enough light for a proper exposure. If flash is allowed, that may help as well. There aren't any magic formulas as everywhere and every venue can be different.

Excellent recommendation on the book http://stats.fm/uploads/G/w.gifhttp://stats.fm/uploads/B/P.gif OP you should find very useful info in there.