Tips for Concert Photography

Kent Sangster.  Please visit his site at www.kentsangster.com

Introduction

Concerts are among the most difficult situations a photographer will find themselves in.  There are constant changes in light.  And we're not talking a about just light intensity, we're talking about the color of light as well.  Not only do the different light sources (LED, halogen, fluorescent, etc.) cause different color casts, but quite often stages will deliberately throw different colors on the stage for lighting effects.  Plus, the light we do get is dark, inconsistent, and the performers are always moving, making it near impossible to keep a fast enough shutter speed to get a sharp image.  So how can we get good concert shots?


Tip 1 - Shoot in Manual Mode

It is a mode that is feared by many.  But it is almost a necessity while shooting concerts.  When the camera is metering for a scene, it will average out exposure across everything on stage, including the black background, the bright lights, the reflections off of instruments, the visual effects that are going on around the performers....  Most of the time, the camera's metering works fairly well, or at least well enough.  But when you are dealing with the constantly changing lighting conditions, the camera will get confused.  Ever picture will have a different exposure, even though all that matters is the performers themselves.  Chances are, if all that is lit on stage is the performer, and the background is black, then the camera will try to over-expose the performer's face.  If you simply try to compensate by using "exposure compensation" then you may get a few good shots, but changing your angle or changes in light during the performance will mess up your settings again.

The only way to prevent slight changes of lighting in the scene from changing your exposure is by using manual mode.  This way, you make the decisions, not the camera.  Once you get the exposure dialed in, you can shoot all night!  Just occasionally check your LCD screen and histogram to make sure your exposure hasn't changed, and adjust accordingly.


Tip 2 - Arrive Early and Meter!

Arriving early is a no-brainer.  But it is what you spend that time doing before the concert that matters.

Try to meet with the lighting technician when you arrive.  Ask him what special effects are planned for the concert, and see if you can get him to dim the house lights and set the stage lights to what he expects to set them to during the concert.  Then, if you have an incident light meter, get on stage and take a reading.  Otherwise, ask a stage hand to stand on stage and take a few test shots to figure out what your exposure will need to be set at as a starting point.  This will make let you start getting great shots right from the start, instead of wasting the first several shots trying to get a good exposure.


Tip 3 - Shoot Raw!

Shooting RAW (as opposed to JPEG) gives you a lot more of a chance to salvage a poorly exposed shot.  So if you need to pull a stop of exposure out of the picture in post, you can!  Plus, white balance is something you don't even have to worry about, since you have 100% control of white balance in post with a RAW file, unlike JPEG where you can only perform minor adjustments.  JPEGs throw away the majority of data before it even reaches your memory card, so what you capture when you press the shutter button is pretty much what you are stuck with.


Tip 4 - Use Silent Shutter Mode

Many of the DSLRs available today have a "Silent Shutter" mode.  Effectively, what this does is slow down the speed of the mirror.  Instead of slamming the mirror up as fast as possible, releasing the shutter, and then slamming the mirror back down (which does make a loud noise), the slower moving mirror makes the entire action much quieter.  The downside however, is there is more shutter lag (takes longer between pressing the shutter button and capturing the picture) and you have a much slower rapid-fire (the 5D Mark 3 goes from 6 frames/second to 3 frames/second in silent mode).

Depending on the concert and venue, this may not matter.  For example, with a rock or hip hop concert where there are a lot of screaming fans, or in a bar, it probably doesn't matter as much.  But in a concert where things can get quiet, or in a venue that has world class accoustics, the sounds of a mirror flapping around can be very distracting and annoying for the audience.


Tip 5 - How Fast Can Your Shutter Go?

This is where your technical skill comes in.  As discussed previously, lighting is going to be a challenge.  It will be hard to get enough light to properly expose.  But at the same time, everyone is moving around on stage and you need to keep a fast shutter speed.  How can you do this?

This is very dependant on your camera (high ISO performance), your lens (aperture), and your skill (capturing sharp images with a slow shutter on a moving subject).  Ideally, you want as fast of a shutter speed as your gear can handle, so that the moving performers will be sharp.  Yes, this is difficult, but this is where having a high technical knowledge and skill comes in handy!  Know the exposure triangle, and know your gear.  After that, practice makes perfect!


Tip 6 - How Slow Can Your Shutter Go?

Contrary to Tip 5, capturing percussionists while dragging your shutter can lead to very interesting effects.  In most cases, you want to freeze motion.  However with drums, a fast moving drum stick can give a completely different feel to the picture.

So when shooting a drum kit, give dragging the shutter a try.


Tip 7 - Focus Stacking

Chances are, when you are shooting in dark environments, you will be forced to use very wide aperture, probably around f/2.8.  Of course, when shooting that wide, you will have a hard time getting more than one person in focus, since the focus plain will be so narrow.  A way to combat this to quickly focus on multiple people and capture them each in focus, and then stack the pictures in post.  It takes a lot of practice to be able to get multiple pictures that can be stacked, while changing your focal point, all while things are changing in the scene, but if you can get this to work out (even once!) then it will make a big difference in the shot.


Tip 8 - Shoot Everyone

Depending on the size of the band you are shooting, try to get at least a few good pictures of everyone on stage.  Everyone on stage is as important as the next, and each of those performers may come back looking for a picture of themselves performing.  You never know what exposure may come up from having a shot of them in your portfolio!


Conclusion

If anyone gets the opportunity to shoot a concert, they should jump on it.  It is one of the best ways to challenge your skills.  If you can pull off a concert, you will likely do well in most any situation.