Surviving Concert Photography

When people ask me what the most difficult scenario is to photograph, 360 days a year my answer will be concert photography. (The other 5 days I’m busy shooting aliens at Area 51.) There is no constant here, no venue is the same with lighting (all of it is low light) and no band ever has the same lighting setup or effects. Not only is the light changing all the time, but so do the rules at each venue.

Let us first take a look at some of the factors that make this so difficult.

1. At this time, no venue that I have been to, allows you to use a flash.
2. The light is constantly changing.
3. Most venues only allow you to shoot for the first three songs.
4. Musicians move fast, and you have no light for high shutter speeds.
5. Usually you are stuck in the pit, dealing with screaming, flailing crowds.
6. There is no time to think about your shot.
7. Timing is key, you have to be on the trigger as the musicians pause their motion.

No flash means a high ISO speed and low shutter speed to compensate, usually 800 or 1600 (CCD sensor cameras don’t do well with high ISO speeds) and a grainy final product. The odds are, with the current technology, you wont be making posters or double page spreads out of concert images.

If you use an automatic mode you will severely decrease you chances of getting the shot you want, so I highly suggest working in manual. The automatic modes adjust their settings for every shot you take and with the light changing (sometimes every second) your exposure settings will change as well. For example, if the singer has a tungsten spotlight on him that suddenly switches to a color, and the lights behind him come on, your camera will instantly try to correct the exposure of the subject by adjusting to a longer shutter speed. This will highly over expose the background lighting and create motion blur of the subject… and you just lost your shot.

When a photographer has just three songs to complete the assignment, he or she has to determine the exposure as fast as possible. In order to freeze the motion of the show, I will usually start with a base of ISO 800, ƒ3.5, and 1/200th of a second. At The House Of Blues in Las Vegas for The Great Pit Ball benefit concert, the camera was struggling. One would think a venue like The House Of Blues would have better lighting, but it just doesn’t. (which doesn’t matter if your just there to see the show). During the show my settings were ISO 1600, ƒ2.8, and 1/60th of a second (with image stabilization on).

White balance, the other concert nightmare. Behind all of those fancy colored filters is either white or tungsten light. In my experience some cool results have come from shooting in daylight mode under these tungsten lamps, however most stage lamps are of tungsten balance. Always use either the tungsten or daylight setting for consistency, you can always tweak the RAW file later and synchronize the rest.

Once you have an acceptable shutter speed and white balance, bring your discipline to the table and get ready to rock. The hardest part is capturing the moment where the musicians aren’t moving, this moment lasts only fractions of a second, and you have to predict it. (Hint: Some of the best shots come from high points in the song where the singer is carrying a long note.)

This is the only situation where I will work my fingers to death changing which focus point I use. Since my subjects are in constant motion, the focus mode of the 1Ds Mark III is set to AI Servo. Your drive mode should be set to the fastest frame rate possible (5 fps in my case), if you have a gentle enough touch, you can take one shot at a time in this mode anyway. Compose, wait for the moment, depress the shutter and hold until you think you have the shot. Do not look at your LCD after you have a good exposure number, you don’t have time for that, recompose and go for the next moment. By the time you are here… the first song is over, two songs left to get the shot you want.

There is no using a tripod or monopod in larger venues, time to turn yourself into a monument of steadiness. Chances are, if your like me, you are breaking the hell out of the “shutter speed rule of thumb” at this point. Steady yourself, put your dominant foot forward, lean against something, lock one of your elbows, ANYTHING to make your body more steady. If you are close enough to the stage, rest your camera or lens on something and fire like crazy.

In some smaller venues, you may be allowed to use a tripod or a monopod but considering the motion of your subjects you will still have to be conscious of your timing. For film, experiment with high ISO films to see what you like, Ilford Delta 3200 for example. Shoot sharp and have fun.

Happy shooting!

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