Ryan has already written up some tips for taking concert shots. Over the second half of this year, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot at a bunch of shows so I thought I would also weigh in with some of the things that I’ve managed to figure out so far. I concur with him that it’s an interesting kind of challenge. You’re in very low light, and if you’re shooting rock shows as I have been, the subjects are typically moving pretty fast. So, without further delay, here are some pointers that you may find useful if you’re in a similar situation.
Number One: Put the camera in manual mode
It took me longer than it should have to realize how much this simple adjustment would impact the pictures. A lot of times I’ll put my Canon 30D in aperture priority mode to let it figure out what the various levels should be. I tell the camera what aperture I want, and it selects the shutter speed. In a concert though, this just won’t work. Why you ask? Well, just read what we noted already… the people on stage may well be running around like banshees, and that means you need a fast shutter if you want to get clear shots.
With this in mind, I will typically start out a show using my 24-70L f/2.8 lens opened up all the way to f/2.8, ISO 1600, and a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second. Depending on the lighting at the venue and the song, I may try and bring the shutter speed down a bit, or lower the ISO if I can get away with it. The result of this is that the images tend to come out dark. But, and I cannot stress this enough, that’s really just fine. Look around you when you’re at the club… it’s dark right? Of course it is. And so if your images are dark, that just means you’re doing what you’re supposed to do as a photographer, namely capture what’s really going on. Futhermore, you can get some really great high contrast images shooting this way that have a lot of impact.
Number Two: Stop and have a good look around before shooting
This one is just SO obvious, but truth be told I didn’t do it the first few shows I shot. Put the camera down, get back from the stage, and try to let things sink in a little bit. What kind of band is it? What kind of crowd is it? Is it a loud rock show or is it something more intimate? Are there big smoke blowers behind the drum kit or is it a small spotlight on the singer for an acoustic show? Taking note of these sorts of things will help give you some direction when you’re picking out which things to shoot. There’s music, there’s a crowd, there’s a certain energy, and you’re there to try and capture that all. So it’s worthwhile to have a look at it away from the shutter to really get a sense of what you’re going for.
Number Three: Beware the spotlights, they can be your enemy
This is one I learned the hard way. You’re looking up at your subject, he makes a big rockstar movement when the chorus kicks in, the spotlights flare up accordingly behind him, and you snap the frame. Sounds pretty much like the goal right?
Here’s where there can be a problem. You likely have your lens open as wide as it will go. In that state, if you get a bright point light behind your subject but in the frame, the intensity can basically burn a white area into your image, where by “burn” I mean that you can’t color correct it out. The luminance is so high that there’s no image information in that area, just “all white.” The sad result is that you end up with a perfectly good image except for the fact that there’s this seared white area next to the subject’s head that you can’t dim out in any way.
The best way around this of course is just to pay attention to how the lights are working, and make sure that you don’t have any beaming directly into your lens when you press the shutter. Additionally, if you see that you have a ton of backlighting, you can probably get away with tightening up the aperture which will keep the lights from burning white holes into your images. I’ve personally found that at f/4 and above I don’t have to worry too much. You still get a point light in the shot, but it’s not seared in so you can get it to look how you want afterwards in your post-processing software of choice.
Number Four: Love the spotlights, they can be your best friend
So tossing what I said in “Number Three” aside, the spotlights are ultimately a lot of the reason that concerts are so much fun. If you’re at a venue with good lighting, then you are basically taking pictures of things that have big, bright, multicolored lights pointing at them all the time. And honestly, that’s pretty hard to beat.
I could, and at some point probably will, write an entire post about just this topic. It’s like a photographer’s dream. Other people are sitting there illuminating your subjects with (hopefully) lots of light. All you have to do is pay attention and click away.
Remember that the lighting patterns are often cyclical. If you see the lights doing a certain thing during the first chorus of a given song, they’re probably going to do the exact same thing during the second chorus. You can use this to your advantage when composing shots. I’ve personally spent plenty of time trying to stay very still, aiming directly at somebody on stage, and just waiting for the lighting to turn on exactly the way I want it to. The lights are usually moving, so you’ll often only have about a second to capture the shot you want, but that’s usually enough if you’re there waiting for it.
Number Five: Try and get familiar with the band’s music before you shoot
This one really just goes hand in hand with everything else here. If you know the songs ahead of time, then you’ll know where the breaks are. You’ll know what the mellow tunes are, when they might not be moving so fast and you can get away with a slower shutter. You’ll know when the big breaks are in a song so you can track the singer’s movements. You’ll know what the big crowd favorites are so you can be ready to capture high energy moments.
The list goes on and on really, but the point is always the same. The better you know about the music the band is playing, the better you can anticipate what they’re going to do on stage. And in an environment when things are moving as quickly as they do in a concert setting, being able to anticipate well can have a huge impact on the number of good shots you have at the end of the night.
And finally: Have fun!
I’ve had an enormous amount of fun this year taking concert pictures. Now, I live in Los Angeles, and I have friends in bands, so my opportunities to take pictures like these are pretty ample. I realize that may not be the case for everybody, but if you can get in there and get up to that stage, the results can be very rewarding. I hope you all get the chance to enjoy it as much as I do.
I do agree on certain aspects of your article but I have by now quite a good experience with shooting all kinds of concerts. Check my portfolio at http://www.flickr.com/photos/loneblackrider/collections/72157594588583825/
Number One: Put the camera in manual mode
I don’t agree on this one, for the simple reason, the lights change to fast to adjust your settings. If it is a gig with slow lights and a lot of the same density of lighting you probably get away with it.
I would suggest use AF (Aperture priority) in combination with one point focus. Just focus on the part of the face that is illuminated and let the camera figure out the shutter speed.
You don’t need to use a very high iso, I always shoot fixed at 400 iso with AF mode and correct with AV -1 (a bit more or less depending on the amount of light)
Number Two: Stop and have a good look around before shooting
Completely true, but also while shooting try to move around. You’ll get other lighting and better angles.
Keep in mind most guitar players are playing with the guitar point to the left. So try to get to the right of the performer, you’ll get better light and easier shots, no guitar neck blocking the artists face.
Number Three: Beware the spotlights, they can be your enemy
Number Four: Love the spotlights, they can be your best friend
The spotlights are not your enemy but your best friend. Let me explain, when using AF-mode, your camera will very fast adjust your light setting to the sudden very bright lights, this gives you a silhouette, if you don’t want to take pictures like that all the time, shoot at an angle, and put the artist of center focus. You’ll probably get a nicely illuminated person with crisp edges.
Don’t burst but time. If you burst, You’ll get one good picture and while your camera is recovering from the burst, you probably missed that one magnificent shot every gig has like 2 times in the whole set. The trick is like you said to get to know the lighting, they mostly work on a scheme with an interval of 4 ticks.
Number Five: Try and get familiar with the band’s music before you shoot
good tip but more important, arrive early at a concert and have chat with the light-operator. If he is nice, he’ll probably gives you one or two songs with nice and quite steady light. Go and thank him afterwards, and let him know where to look for your pictures. They also need a portfolio and the best promotion is when they can use pictures of actual concerts.
I’ll add another and last tip.
Go to small gigs in bars, you can’t have any better school than a poorly lighted stage where you are forced to get to know the limits of your camera. If you manage to get some nice shoots at the small venues, you’ll probably get some really kick ass pictures at the big ones.
You don’t need very expensive equipment. I use a canon 400D with a 50mm f1.8, a 85mm f1.8 and a EF-S 18-55mm 3.5-5.6.
If you have some questions feel free to drop me a note and I’m happy to answer them.
Awesome tips & inspiring shots. Thanks!
Bunker: You make some excellent points! Personally, I still stay stick with manual mode, at least for the kinds of bands that I’ve been shooting. It’s not the speed of the lights moving that I’m trying to deal with, it’s the speed of the people running around on the stage. For the L.A. type rock shows that I’ve been doing, there’s just no way to get a clear shot of one of the band members during a song with a shutter speed of about 1/80th second or slower, because they’re usually moving quickly themselves. And, at least at these shows on my Canon 30D, that’s where aperture priority puts my shutter most of the time (between 1/40th and 1/60th of a second.) So, my general technique is to lock in the fast shutter in manual mode and then adjust around that.
Having said that, you’re absolutely correct that I can’t shoot as quickly as I might otherwise want to with the lights changing. I generally see something that I want, change settings as needed, and then sit there waiting for the lights to move to where I want them to hit the shutter.
Your shots look great, thanks for the feedback!
chl, if the artists are very active, it can indeed be a good thing to put your camera in manual mode. Also use the AV to your advantage, this makes the overall pic a bit darker but you can compensate that with Lightroom or whatever program you use to process pics.
I forgot to mention 1 thing because of all the coloured lights and especially if they are red or blue, always shoot in raw. This leaves you with the option of correcting the white balance so that all red/blue shots don’t get completely blown out in red or blue.
I’m glad you like my shots. BTW I totally dig your shot you placed at point five.
wonderful pictures to illustrate the tips!
I’m the Creative Dir./C.O.O. for Cooper Screen Printing. I also do a lot of image editing for Photographers( mostly Fashion/glam) I was sent here by one of my podcasts. These are all great images, but dude the one you put on tip #5 is just awsome!!
Bunker, that’s one of the reasons I’m surprised Pentax is the only one to think of TAv mode (shutter and aperture priority) that I know of. It can be great for those situations. You can lock in both aperture and shutter speed, but still have several stops of correction if the light changes unexpectedly.
It’s strange, many of the little things my K10D does make me wish I could use it for work…but the studio is Nikon, Pentax doesn’t have a “pro” level camera (let alone full frame), and the future upgrade path of Pentax is entirely uncertain. So I suppose I’ll be stuck shooting Pentax for fun/art, Nikon for money for a while.
I recently picked up a 40D for the sole purpose of better concert shots (my previous point and shoot photos were never too terrible, but it usually meant taking 100 pictures to get 1-2 good ones).
I appreciate the tips as I haven’t had a chance to try out the new guy at any concerts yet. I’m hoping the 50mm f/1.4 will be enough (I’ve since learned that a 50mm lens + 1.6x crop factor makes for a huge difference from a point and shoot).
Incidentally, one thing I was surprised that my camera doesn’t let me do is have a mode to say “don’t go slower than 1/30, but faster is OK.” Is this something I’ve missed or has no one thought this would be a good idea? I know Nikon lets you pick an ISO range, but why not shutter and aperture too?
hey…this was really good tips!! I played around with my camera for hours and I got the look and feel that I want……I read all the comments on here…and well ok, I use a Nikon D40x and Nikon N65….I am not completely sure of how I go about adjusting the shutter speed….does anyone know if this is possible on the camera? cause I was testing these tips in a dark setting…but with no movement….it got the perfect lighting and whatnot….but I’m not sure if the shutter speed is going to be fast enough to not blur out the musicians when I actually go to concerts…I suppose the only way i can tell is by going and experimenting…but I’m just wondering, is there a way and I just happened to miss it? cause I’ve read a LOT about my D40x and I can’t seem to find it….
anyways responses would be nice
-Heidi
I really appreciate this posting. I have been fighting with nasty, fill-flash shots for years now - I will try this tonight!
Rob
Hey all
Love the posting and tips, some heated ideas. You hit the scene perfectly, but i reckon there’s a certain passion that separates photographers, you need to feel the music, the rush that comes with being there, moshing in the crowd, or looking back from the press pit, capturing moments of art, a reflection of addiction.
I still claim, once you know you’re camera, manual is the way to go!
Image on Post 5: Great stuff!