For many, concert photography is one of the most difficult and complicated subjects to work on. I want to demystify this theme so today I bring you a series of tips and tricks that will make any concert, musician or band resist you from today
WHY DOES CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY SEEM SO DIFFICULT?
Taking concert photography seems complicated due to the fact that it is a situation in which, as photographers, we have no control over almost nothing. Unlike portrait photography , in a concert we cannot communicate with the artist, we cannot direct him to our whim through instructions, we have no control over the lighting sources which constantly change. We are not even able to change much the angle from which we shoot. Not to mention the fervent spectators and attendees who, ecstatic about music, raise their arms and elbows everywhere, totally oblivious to our desperate attempts to take a decent and crisp photograph.WHERE TO START
In photographic learning, you should start at the bottom, start with something simple and easy. If you start with the difficult thing you will get tired, you will be overwhelmed and you will end up selling your camera in a Second Hand store. In concert photography it is best to start by going to intimate concerts or of relatively small capacity. This will allow you to move around the room more easily and will save you the elbows and thrusts of macro-concerts.PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT
You can take concert photography with any camera. This is so and there is no more. The one who gets bad photos is never the fault of the camera, it is because he does not know we are not deceived. That said, it must be said that concert photography is much easier if we have a good photography team . It does not have to be an expensive professional team of 3,000 euros, but it is convenient to have 2 elements mainly: An SLR camera with good ISO levels:In concerts, light is usually scarce. One of the most effective remedies in these types of cases is to increase the ISO sensitivity. Normally at higher ISO levels, more light will capture the camera. But, it happens that generally the more ISO the camera captures, the more "noise" will appear in our photo. Unless we have a good camera. There are many cameras that allow you to raise the ISO (and therefore are able to capture a lot of light) without worrying about noise, here you have a careful selection recommended by a server . Luminous objective of great opening: We return to the same, it is necessary to capture a lot of light, for this it is convenient to have at hand a good objective of great opening, something between f / 1.4 and f / 2.8 would be phenomenal. For my part I would never go to a concert without my adorable King of the Objectives .SETTINGS
You already have a good SLR camera and a lens that offer a great aperture. And now that? Here are the necessary “most appropriate” settings to take a correct concert picture:- Turn off the flash completely.
- Select Manual mode.
- Set a rather high ISO value. If you have doubts, start from a value and go experimenting, you will gradually increase it. Once the photo is taken, review it on the camera screen by magnifying it with magnifying glass and verifying if the noise that appears in the photo is acceptable or not.
- Choose a large opening. One or two steps below the maximum aperture that your goal allows. For example in a target of f / 1.4 I would try to shoot af / 1.8.
- Choose a fast shooting speed. Since you are interested in freezing the movement and the artist comes out clear, you will have to adjust the shooting speed to a relatively fast value. There is no exact value here either, it depends on the lighting conditions but I would start for 1 / 400s for example and go down, to see what result I get. Based on that I would decide: what comes out dark? below the value at 1 / 300s, and so ... what goes out blurry? I climb a tad.
- Shoot in RAW. You don't know the freedom that RAW shooting gives you. This format present in all current digital SLR cameras allows you to play much more with the photo and get more out of it later when revealing it on a computer. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with retouching or makeup. When shooting in RAW you do not manipulate the photo, you simply leave part of the “pending” settings and then control them on the computer. For example, if the photo is underexposed in RAW, nothing would happen, then you can correct its exposure through any RAW photo editing program. (Don't miss my articles on the wonderful RAW world: here one , and here another ).
THE COMPOSITION
The "technical challenge" that represents the photography of concerts should not divert your attention from something without which your photos will not be worth much: the composition. It is an essential component. With the composition we tell a story, we convey a feeling, an idea, we tell something, we remove a sensation in who sees the photo. It's something you should not lose sight of when portraying a photographic concert: be creative, focus on secondary elements, I don't know, frame the half-bored drummer in the background and turn it into the star, focus on the strings of a guitar, look for details, portray a moment between two spectators ... In the end it depends on your tastes and the creativity you throw.THE GOLDEN RULE
Go to many concerts, don't despair. Shoot a lot, every time after a concert he studies the results and looks for possible solutions to the failed photographs. Over time you will get better and better photos.TRICKS
Then I leave, as a closing, 3 tricks that you can apply in your concert sessions:- Frame the artist or music band, focus them manually and stay on the prowl. Occasionally, the light bulbs will move towards them to illuminate them for a while. That is your chance, shoot as many photos as you can taking advantage of the time the artist is illuminated.
- If none of the tips I discuss throughout this article work for you, do not turn off the camera yet. There is something you haven't tried yet: shadow photography. Shadows are a very creative and different way of telling the story of a concert, and are generally much easier to capture. You just need a light source behind on stage. Use it in your favor.
- After the concert, the next day you get upset to see that a wonderful photo came out full of noise because of the high ISO. Nothing happens, it can still be saved. Turn it to black and white and you will see how good it is. Above you have an example.
- Do not stop practicing what you have learned. Print this article or write down the most relevant points and keep them handy. Then look for a music concert that will take place in your city in the next 2 months and get a couple of tickets. With the excuse of wanting to practice this article, take advantage and invite someone you like
- Help me spread this article through Facebook, Twitter or Google+. I will be infinitely grateful
