Concert Photography Tips

Learn some basic concert photography tips and you'll be able to take some great live music photography. Stage lighting provides you with many unique challenges. Here are some digital photography tutorials that will help you overcome those challenges.

Lenses

While I like the effect of stage lighting, I have to admit that concerts don't provide the best lighting situations for photography. Here are some concert photography tips that will help you deal with stage lighting. Choosing the right lens for the job will make taking pictures in low light concert situations that much easier.

Many concert photographers use a 70-200/2.8 zoom. This lens allows you to zoom in far enough to get close-ups of the band if you are sitting near the stage and opens up wide enough to let a lot of light into your camera. These lenses are expensive though, so don't feel pressured to run out and get one.

If you're able to get very close to the stage or even better take pictures from the stage area you should use a 50/1.4. This fast prime lens will take beautiful sharp pictures in low light situations. Prime lenses are quite a bit cheaper than good zoom lenses too.

When you're just starting out you can just use what you have. I do quite a bit of photography at small jazz concerts. Right now I'm using a 28-300/3.5-6.3 lens. I wish I had something better to use, but I like being able to zoom in on the musicans and until I can afford something better this will do.

Camera Settings

When I first started taking concert photos I had a hard time figuring out how to get good pictures. I even tried shooting in auto-mode and still the shutter stayed open for way too long giving me blurry images. Here's what I do now to remedy that situation.

Crank up your ISO to as high as you need it. That may mean setting to 3200 or higher. Granted that will cause noise in your pictures depending on how well your camera deals with high ISO speeds. Take some test pictures to try to determine noise levels.

I find that I get the best live music pictures when I use my camera in shutter priority mode. You need to have a fast shutter speed to freeze all the action on stage. I set my shutter speed at about 1/100 or 1/125. Depending on the situation you may be able to set it as low as 1/60 and still get good pictures.

Other Tips

Like I said before, I take pictures of jazz concerts at small venues. Here are some concert photography tips that I use in these venues to make sure I get good pictures.

Show up early to claim your space and introduce yourself. If you don't know the band introduce yourself to them and get permission to photograph their gig. You can offer to email them the photos to use. Bands like to have lots of pictures of their gigs. If you're planning on selling the pictures you take you'll have to get them to sign releases and you may have to compensate them in some way.

If you're able to get into the venue during sound check that's a great time to take some practice photos to get your settings right.

Introduce yourself to the person in charge of the venue. Let them know that you're there to take pictures of the gig and find out where the best place for you to take pictures is. I like to be able to stand up and move around during the concert. Usually I sit in the front corner so I can stand to the side of the audience during the concert. I'll switch sides during the intermission to get pictures from another angle.

I hope these concert photography tips have helped you. As with all aspects of photography my philosophy is to have a good time. If you are interested in more photography tips and tricks check out my other digital photography tutorials.