Concert Photography for beginners

[CMcBride2525]

Can anyone help me with any kind of tips, info or advice? I've only been shooting since February. I've done numerous local shows and I have one with a national ranking band coming up soon and I want to do the best I can. I'm shooting with a Nikon D5000. Of you want to check out my other stuff and give constructive criticism my Facebook page is http://www.Facebook.com/C.McBridePhotography Here's one of the pics I took at a show on Saturday in Greensboro NC.

 

[LizardKing]

Well... Concert photography is not that much different from other kinds... I mean, it's all about taking advantage of what you've got in front of you. Proper metering is key here. You can't get away in these conditions with matrix metering and fully auto modes... Have to really think about how much DoF you really want/need (and it's not gonna be that much by the way), take the ISO as higher as your camera permits w/o getting it too noisy and try not to lower your shutterspeed too slow, cause you'd only get blurry images.

Have no idea what gear you have, so can't really say much in that area. But you'll definitely need a fast lens to pull this out. Hopefully with VR or IS.

Now, composition tends to be trying to isolate musicians with cool gestures and lightning, or combine them together for group shots... But doing it knowing what you want and not just snapping away hundreds of shots in burst mode, hoping to get something good. So, pick your angle and perspective carefully and keep compositions tight and including what makes sense for the shot and, with some luck, nothing else. Now, if I were you I'd definitely shot in burst mode so that maybe I can get 3-5 different gestures from each shot, but you really need to think (and quick) the composition and exposure in advance.

I don't know, maybe I'm just confusing you more.

BTW, you never cut-off hands of musicians like that, or the instrument's headstock either.

 

[TCampbell]

Can anyone help me with any kind of tips, info or advice? I've only been shooting since February. I've done numerous local shows and I have one with a national ranking band coming up soon and I want to do the best I can. I'm shooting with a Nikon D5000. Of you want to check out my other stuff and give constructive criticism my Facebook page is C.McBride Photography | Facebook Here's one of the pics I took at a show on Saturday in Greensboro NC.

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His face & forehead is overexposed. But this is typical of how a camera would meter and shoot this situation.

The overall scene is dark. The light meter "assumes" that the scene should average a "middle gray". In concert photography the scenes have lots of very very dark tones and some very bright tones and they don't actually have much middle gray. This throws the light meter's accuracy. It boosts the scene to drive up detail in the shadows and that just ends up overexposing the critical parts.

When I shoot concerts I do one of two things:

1) Shoot on manual. Put the camera into a spot-metering mode. Target a critical part of the image (such as the highlighted areas of his face) and take a meter reading. Dial in those exposure settings and shoot with them. If the light changes (and concert lighting changes fairly frequently because variable lighting is part of the show) then you'll have to re-meter.

2) If the lighting is changes too quickly and you prefer to use a semi-automatic shooting mode (something on your PASM dial other than the "M") then return the camera to matrix-metering mode and set the exposure compensation to underexpose by at least 1 full stop... and try a few tests because you may find it requires more than a full stop. I've scene some situations where it's closer to 2 full stops. (Sometimes it's 1-1/3 stop or 1-2/3 stops, etc.). Just keep in mind that a camera generally meters the scene initially and will not re-meter. Some cameras have a button that will force the camera to re-meter on-demand. But this default behavior means that if the lighting is variable, you half-press the shutter to get your exposure and focus lock... then you wait a while for the decisive moment to take the shot. If the light changes between the time you did the half-press and the time you took the shot then you're metering will be inaccurate.

Capture the energy of the event. The camera can't hear the music... it can only capture the mood, tension, drama etc. being visually conveyed by the performers and the crowd. When the artist's face and body are really expressing that energy it's time to shoot -- this is your "decisive moment". Even shots of the crowd reacting are part of the energy. Don't just take nice properly composed and exposed shots of performers... take properly composed and exposed shots of performers doing something visually interesting.

I watch the artists for a while to get a feel for how they "play" to the audience. Some artists don't look out much.... some look out a lot. Look at how they hold or position a mic or mic-stand. I don't want those ruining the photo so once I get an idea for how they'll stand and where they'll position the gear, that'll suggest to me where I should stand. e.g. being in front might not offer the cleanest shots -- I often prefer to shoot from the sides, but I have to see how the artists perform to decide where I'll get the angles.

 

[uflraptor]

I don't have much experience shooting concerts. I did check out your FB page. Some nice images there. Blow is one that really stood out to me.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...93391811.62965.200945713337420&type=1&theater