Bad concert pictures using iPhone

[tobindia]

When I take pictures at a concert using my iPhone, the stage lighting seems to be emphasized. The stage is very red or blue. If a white spotlight is on the star, the star in the picture is totally washed out. What am I doing wrong?

[IWT]

Hi and welcome.

It's not necessarily something you are doing wrong.

There are so many factors involved in taking stage-lit pictures within a dark surround.

Do you use flash? Probably a waste of time trying.

You can do two important things: first you can force the iPhone's camera to focus on the stage, and when so done, you can increase or diminish the exposure before you take the photo.

To do this, set up your shot, hold the phone steady and press firmly on the subject. That selects the focus. Now you will see to the right of the box, a semicircle in yellow. This is the exposure setting - up or down - till you see an image which captures what you're after. Then touch the exposure button.

Of course, you can also post-process the images; either on your iPhone or on your computer in, say, the Photos app.

If I can be more specific, please ask.

Ian

[badshoehabit]

My iPhone 7 is lousy at this. I see others getting great resolution on their screens and mine shows blobs. Slightly better video but stills are dreadful.

[IWT]

I agree, Sue.

I've never found it an easy job in any similar circumstance - I have the iPhone X. Neither the camera nor the occasion lend themselves to a decent photograph.

But I've done the little, but best, I can to suggest some ideas to the OP.

Ian

[swandy]

I have the iPhone X and while it is better at this type of photography than my past iPhones, it is not ideal. The main reason is that the iPhone camera (1) was not really designed for this type of lighting and (2) not really great in low lighting. So unless you are really close to the stage/artist, the darker backgrounds will throw off the sensor of the camera. (Same thing happens on most cameras unless you can change to spot metering.) Also the digital zoom on most phones works pretty well in good light, but image quality falls off quickly when used indoors.
The app I prefer is Pro Camera when the lighting is not good/balanced. It has a lot of controls that the basic camera app does not provide - including a better spot metering and better control of high ISO settings.
However, aside from either getting a "real" camera or learning a new app, in the iPhone camera you can at least tap the person/object you wish to have the exposure set for and that will help greatly.