Tips for Shooting at a concert

[harrysixtie7]

Great job, you lucked out with a place that has decent lighting. I shot my first concert/show for a local band a few days ago and the place was a dungeon. I had my ISO all of the way up and still couldnt get anything on my f/1.8 prime. I ended up shooting with my flash the entire time, definitely just wanted to blend in too, but that wasn't an option. The hour flew by, and next thing I new it was their last song. In the end it was a learning experience and I will certainly do it again. I might post some pics later, I was decently happy with the turn out.

[NetG]

I saw the link to this thread, and have to resurrect it!

Originally Posted by OeterB

Personally, I would've slapped the professional photographer across the back of the head. If he can't take live music photos without a speedlite, he doesn't deserve to call himself a pro. It's the easy way out, takes away all the atmosphere of the concert, irritates the audience and the band (with the flash flash flash), and would result in him getting punted out of a big concert photography pit.

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuge pet peeve of mine!

That ties in to advice I wanted to give for future concertgoers which Peter definitely hinted at, but didn't state explicitly: lighting isn't perfect at concerts, but it's not perfect for the people there, either. Good concert photography captures the feel of the event, not just an image - so play with what you've got.

At this concert, I only had a point and shoot, and there was a pro photographer getting flash. Sure, she may have captured the image of the musicians, but she annoyed a lot of people, and missed out on part of the ambience. The guys in the band were complaining to me after the show that they couldn't see their guitars to tune them because it was so dark. So I captured the rough outline of them illuminated by one red light:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...e/IMG_9374.jpg

For this shot, again with the point and shoot, Joey from Calexico was backlit with a lot of fog. I couldn't capture his facial features here, but the light sure gave a neat effect. In this case, I think the noise adds to the photo, rather than detracts.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...o/IMG_8633.jpg

This weekend (using the dSLR) I was shoved up against the stage at a music festival. I didn't want to be so close, because I was using a borrowed 85mm f/1.8. However, I looked over, and saw the interesting underside to a vibraphone above me, and had to get the shot:


With experience you can get a little more tricky. I had enough light to lower my ISO to 800 here, and raised my f/# to 2.2. That let me set shutter speed at 1/125 seconds, which meant I had the rapidly moving drummer in focus, but his drumstick had blur. I love to try for the same effect with a guitar player if I'm in position to do so. (And I haven't cropped this photo or done any editing yet, because I promised the drummer the originals)


Kate - you managed to get the drumstick and guitar hand blur on otherwise crisp photos - to me, that was perfect! Thanks for sharing your shots, and great job on your first try!


Concert photography can be tricky, and I've now managed a grand total of 4 concerts since getting my dSLR a few weeks ago, but it's also really rewarding. Technical perfection isn't always necessary, there can be many happy mistakes, and it's very much art - in the eye of the beholder, and no one can truly claim their photos are better than yours once you can get your basic shots; you can merely claim you prefer one style over another.

(Also, Peter - thanks! Your posts were great and informative, and I loved the shots you shared!)

[Chip]

NetG - Well written and helpful post. And I really like the noisy one with the green backlighting!

[OeterB]

Cheers NetG

I might get around to writing up a further guide sometime. I'm still very much learning, myself, though. So I don't want to make out that I'm a pro or anything! But glad I could help somewhat

By the way; the underside of that vibraphone --- great capture. Always great to think outside the box and get something unique.

And completely agree with you. Don't always have to capture a nice, crisp image to have a great photo. Sometimes, a silhouette or a blur is just as fascinating. But I shan't post more examples.