How To Take Concert Photos Like a Boss

corabell99 (53)in #photography • 8 years ago

I'm addicted to going to concerts.
I was raised on cheesy 90's Christian music and have seen Newsboys and DC Talk more times than I can count starting at about the age of 12. My taste in music has changed over the years, but not my love for going to concerts! I decided quite a few years ago to marry the two things I love doing and shoot photos at concerts. Man, was I in for a rude awakening. Nothing can make you feel quite as amateur as shooting a show for the first time. For one, it's dark. I mean, like darker than the darkest of dark chocolate. (Mmmm) Next, depending on the venue and popularity of the band, the lighting situation can be very good, or very bad. We concert photogs lovingly joke about the "red lights of hell" that smaller venues use which basically means all of your final edits will be black and white because there is just no coming back from that. I would rather have just a simple white spotlight over those terrible red mood lights!!! They are EVIL. Just trust me on that.

(Kari Jobe)

Now for some technical mumbo-jumbo.

Remember this trifecta of concert photography settings: High Shutter Speed - Low Aperture - Low ISO

1.) You're gonna need lenses with a low fstop. The 24-70 2.8ii is my favorite. I also use the 70-200 2.8ii for tighter shots. If you're just starting out, try one of your prime lenses! A 50mm 1.8 is better than nothing! You need a lens with a lower aperture because of the lighting situation. I started out with primes! Just automatically set your fstop as low at will go!

(David Rawlings and Gillian Welch)

2.) You want to use a high shutter speed. Unless you're seeing some really boring band who doesn't move around on stage, you're gonna want to crank your shutter speed. I use a minimum of 1/250. I don't want to miss that shot where the guitar player is tossing his luscious locks back because of a slow shutter speed. Crank it up!

(Polyphia)

3.) Use as low an ISO as possible. Remember this. The higher the ISO, the higher the grain and the only place you want grain is in your cereal or bread, not in photos. As long as you're using a very low fstop, you should be able to get away with an ISO between 1000-3200, depending on the lighting.

(NEEDTOBREATHE)