Seeking Advice For Concert Photography

[kittenbreath]

One of my friends asked me if I would take pictures of him on stage with his band in a couple of weeks. The stage will be outdoors. I'm pretty nervous because I don't want to let him down. Can anyone offer me some advice? I don't have too much experience with this kind of thing.

 

[postalkitty]

Have fun! This is one of my favorite things to shoot. Here are a few things I've learned doing a few.

Stay right next to the stage and take the shots from there. Shift sides and feel free to wander as much as possible at the base of the stage to get better shots. DON'T BE SHY
If its night and there are stage lights, time the shots so that when the person moves forward into the lighted spot, you can capture the picture at the right moment, when they are visible in the light.
Try to get shots where the mic does not obscure the singers mouth.

Good luck!

 

[kittenbreath]

Have fun! This is one of my favorite things to shoot. Here are a few things I've learned doing a few.

Stay right next to the stage and take the shots from there. Shift sides and feel free to wander as much as possible at the base of the stage to get better shots. DON'T BE SHY
If its night and there are stage lights, time the shots so that when the person moves forward into the lighted spot, you can capture the picture at the right moment, when they are visible in the light.
Try to get shots where the mic does not obscure the singers mouth.

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice! He will only be playing a couple of songs so hopefully I can get good pictures in such limited time. Ahh.
Also, he requested "action shots" so hopefully I can capture what he is looking for?

 

[kittenbreath]

Any more advice? D:
Would it be a big mistake to stick to my cameras auto mode?

 

[e.rose]

Would it be a big mistake to stick to my cameras auto mode?

Yes.

If you're not comfortable with full manual, try going at it with Aperture... but even then, if the venue is super dark you may have some issues with the shutter speed slowing down too much, so keep an eye on that.

As Kitty something or other (there are too many kitties in here now... ) said... stay close to the stage. Don't get shots where the mic is completely covering the singer's face. Singers are best shot at from an angle, rather than straight on because of the mic...

Don't be afraid of high ISOs... You're probably going to need to be *at least* at ISO1600... and that's if the lighting is decent. If it's during the day time (just realized you said the stage will be outside), then you probably won't need to go as high.

It's really kind of hard to give you advice on what to do without having any specific questions to answer. I'm just trying to think of what I had issues with before...

Something that came up in another thread was matrix metering vs. spot metering...

If the stage is evenly lit, you can go for matrix, but if it's really spotty or dark, spot metering is going to be your friend.

S'all I got for now.

 

[D-B-J]

Take a million photo's!