15 ways to improve you live music photos

  

                       By ELLIOT TONKS on May 9th 2013

This post is about giving some tips and useful advice to our thriving base of young and aspiring live music photographers. Many will see this as a very niche area of work , though the amount of blooming photographers wanting to shoot the stage is on the rise. Our ever so growing base of artistic youth love their music and photography just to name a couple. They're incorporating both of these art forms to their life and work and essentially, killing two birds with one stone.

I've also included in this post a quick 'what's in the bag' photo and breakdown of all the gear which I use to get the work done.

What's in the bag?

As a live music photographer I often get asked what camera/lens setups I take and to worry about weight and do I even carry my bag during the whole show. Many photographers think it can be a bit over kill. Why? because I never know what's going to happen upon arrival.

The above image is what I take to a gig when a big named artist is playing because, I'm not going to be caught under equipped and unprepared.


-You're going to want a bag that you can fit in all your needed gear and make it all accessible 

- At least one camera (Preferably full frame to handle low light situations well with high ISO). My other camera was used to take this photo. I use 2 Canon 5d MK II's

- A mono pod can be extremely helpful to get that steady shot when you're shooting at least 200m away from the action with a Tele lens. A monopod is preferred over a tripod because of space and setup time.

- Have a flash in your back pocket or even on the camera (If you want to make friends, don't let it fire during the show. The flash is vital for some quick backstage photos.


- Tamron Shoulder Bag
- 2x Canon 5d MK II's
- 70-200mm f/2.8 IS
- 50mm f/1.4
- 24-70mm f/2.8
- 17-40mm f/4
- Canon Teleconverter x2 MK III. This comes in extremely helpful when the photo pass permits me only to the sound desk
- Canon 580ex II Speedlite
- Manfrotto Monopod
- SPARE memory cards, camera and flash batteries.
- A pen, (sadly not every box office will have a pen for you to sign the contract).

15 tips

1  - Pack your bag long before the gig, check everything works and is full battery.

2  -You’ll probably want to set your ISO level to 800 or 1600 (for a cropped frame camera). At 1600 the images will be getting grainy with digital noise, but that’s sometimes unavoidable. If you’re in a venue with plenty of light set your ISO lower, you’ll get less noise

3  - Have everything at your side and know what pocket it is in

4  - If your camera allows you to change the type of light metering you should set it to spot mode. Always try and focus on the face or sometimes the hair of the artist is backlit and you can get a good focus on that (only use this technique when atleast 10m away from the subject as focusing on the hair while using a wide aperture will soften the sharpness of the face).

5  - You’ll want a lens that has a wide aperture, f2.8 or lower. There are 50mm f1.8 lenses that are quite good and cheap these days.

6  - In a low light situation you’re going to need to shoot at reasonably low shutterspeeds in order to get enough light in the camera. But remember the slower your shutterspeed the more likely your shots won’t be sharp, either because the subject moves or your hands move. (I try and keep above 1/200 at all times and 1/400 if I'm using the 70-200mm with the teleconverter.

7  - You can be technically adept but still take crap photos, the trick is knowing when to click the shutter. Watch the performance for a moment, where is the light on stage? You may have to wait for the performer to move into the light.
My favourite shots are ones that show emotion and energy. Go for a shot when the singer steps away from the mic, you don’t want it obscuring your shot. Try and get one when the singer is “in the moment”, reaching for a high note.

8  - After you’ve taken hundreds of shots at a show, cull them down to the best 20 or 30. Then cull that down to the best 3. If you’re going to show other people your photos don’t show them everything, just the very best. They’ll assume all your shots are that good.

9  -Be nice to those around you. Don’t shove your way to the front, if you want to get closer tap someone on the shoulder, smile and ask if they mind you moving forward to take some photos. If you need to stand right in front of someone ask them if they mind and promise you’ll only be there for a minute. Keep that promise and move on.
Don’t use flash, or if you have to, use it very sparingly. It’s distracting to others and will probably make your photos look crap anyway.

10 - I use one shot focusing for my work because I can get my focus and then reframe the image so 40% of the photo isn't black nothing-ness above the artists head. Sometimes the lighting can have a very eye pleasing effect through the settled smoke so that unwanted 40% could become a whole framed filled and colour saturated photo.

11 - Get creative and try and think of the readers perspective of where the photos will be displayed. If you didn't go to an event but want to read and see the review, would you just want to see a few headshot photos? No, you want to see the atmosphere of the event. The lighting, full stage shot, silhouettes, photos of the backdrop and the set. Capture everything that's there and what had effort put in to be there. Avoid getting up nose shots of the lead singer, get atleast 50 degrees side on.

12 - Try get as much experience at lower level events where it's even darker but you will probably be allowed to shoot for the whole set.

13 - Bring backups of your backups, ALWAYS BE PREPARED FOR THE WORSE.  (Only two weeks ago I went to shoot a big named act only to find out my camera didn't work even though I was using it that same afternoon)

14 - The drummer is well lit 1% of the time, Work with it.

15 -  ENJOY IT, Many times i've been able to stay for the free show, been given drink vouchers and even given extra passes for friends to come along for free. Don't see it as an office.

Conclusion

Some of the above tactics may not work for you but this is my experience in my field of work and how I get by. be prepared to fail in some circumstances. Last week when my camera failed I was only able to get about 8 photos of a 5 piece band in thick green lighting with my battery grip parts between the fold back monitors on the stage. The editor was more worried about my camera being okay compared to giving them about 3 crappy photos in the end.



What other ways do you have to help you shoot live?