Concert Photography

The most important thing to remember is:
Concert photography is all about capturing emotion!

The rules of concert photography

  • First of all you need to get an accreditation to be able to enter a concert with your DSLR camera. This can be obtained by contacting the record label or through the management of the performing artist. You can always try to get your accreditation as a freelance photographer but the chance you will get one will be very low. So how do you get an accreditation? You can only take pictures for a medium like a magazine, newspaper or a website. This way both you and the artist will have a gain from handing out the accreditation. But keep in mind: getting an accreditation is the most difficult part of concert photography, which is non-photography related.

  • 3 first songs only. In the past you could shoot a whole concert from the beginning till the end but nowadays you are, most of the time, only allowed to shoot the first 3 songs of the concert. This main rule can be a real pain in the ass! Let me tell you why. It can happen that the main man of the band isn't even on stage yet during the first song, so you only have 2 songs left to get the photographs you need. Secondly, light. Light is one of the most important factors of concert photography. During the next concert you visit, watch the evolution of the lighting from the beginning till the end of the concert. Most of the time they start out with much less light. Thirdly, the artists need to get into their groove. Concert pictures need to show emotion, which is mostly about music which off course you can't hear :-). Most artists will only show their real emotions after a couple of songs and if you’re not allowed to shoot anymore, your missing out on a lot of nice pictures.

  • Last rule of concert photography: NO FLASH!! If there are 10 photographers in the pit (front stage) and they all use a flash and take 200 pictures during the first 3 songs, you can imagine it will be very distracting for the artists performing on stage.


    • How to start out with concert photography?

    Building up a portfolio is very important, that's why you need to start small. Why start small? Because this way you don't have to mess with accreditations, rules of concert photography and crazy wishes of the performers, enabling you to build your own portfolio. So how to start out? I think most of you know a friend that plays in a band, ask him if you can shoot his band. Most of those gigs will be in local bars so lighting won't be top notch but if you can make good pictures in low light situations, you will definitely be able to make great photographs with great stage light.

    Which setting to use?

    To only right answer here is, use the ones that work for you but I can give a couple of guidelines. Starting off with ISO, use the ISO setting that will give you acceptable shutter speeds. Remember that most artists will move quit a lot on stage so a fast shutter speed is needed. Remember this: better a sharp image with noise than an image low on noise but that isn't sharp due to motion blur. Aperture wise, you can shoot wide open to be able to use faster shutter speeds of lower ISOs, but your focusing needs to be more accurate. Remember different aperture settings will give you different looking pictures so this setting will depend on your personal style. Personally I use manual exposure but I see other people use shutter priority and aperture priority. As stated before, use fast enough shutter speeds to avoid motion blur from the artist but also from your lenses. A rule of thumb in photography is to use a shutter speed equal or faster than to focal length of your lens, e.g. using a 200 mm lens you should use 1/200th of a second, using a 400 mm lens you should use 1/400th or faster. Lastly and maybe most importantly, shoot in RAW mode and spend enough time on your post processing work!!

    How to improve your pictures?

    Learn from your mistakes! Try new things outside your comfort zone, if you are used to shooting tight, try to shoot wider or other angles. Lastly, look at the work of other photographs that were present at the same event and try to learn but remember not to copy others but develop your own style.


    What gear do you need?

    Be prepared to spend a lot of money if you want to start out in concert photography. It demands a camera body with high ISO capabilities, like the Canon 1D mark IV and the Nikon D3s. Furthermore, lenses with big aperture are needed to be able to capture all available light. The perfect low light lenses are prime lenses. Mostly they are cheaper than zoom lenses and have a bigger aperture. Personally I use the 50 1.4 prime because it delivers great quality for a great price. Zooms are bigger and more expensive, mostly have smaller aperture than primes but gain in versatility. The 24-70 f/2.8 and the 70-200 f/2.8 are well known for their performance in low light conditions.

    What gear do I usually take with me?

    I use 1 or 2 camera bodies, a Canon 1D mark IV and a Canon 30D/40D. Lens wise I use all Canon lenses: 50 f/1.4, 24-105 f/4.0 IS (which I hope to replace with the 24-70 f/2.8 IS if it is ever released by Canon) and the 70-200 f/2.8 IS (which is my favorite lens) and a 1.4x teleconverter. If I need to take pictures from a great distance, I use the Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS. This last lens isn't a fast lens but if you are this far away from the artist, it means you are in a big concert hall and mostly photographing a well-known performance, meaning a lot of light will be available to you to play with. If I can I also take my monopod with me when using a long lens. Furthermore I take an air blower with me, a flash (for when photographing interviews or making portraits), an off camera flash cord, spare batteries for camera and flash, extra memory cards, a petzl head light and some business cards.

    If you have any more questions, just use the contact page to contact me and I will try to contact you as soon as possible!