fbpx
Education Learn

5 Essential Tips For Beginner Concert Photographers

Chris Gampat
No Comments
05/12/2014
4 Mins read

Last Updated on 05/12/2014 by Chris Gampat

mh_20140508_KatVinterblog_0008

All images by Matthias Hombauer. Used with permission.

Matthias Hombauer has been a concert photographer for many years and taught himself the way many other shooters do. Today, he’s contributing a guest blog post for all the aspiring concert photographers out there.

Take a look.

Start in Small, Local Venues!

PTM_by_Matthias_Hombauer-9

When beginning your career as a concert photographer, start in small, local clubs. This is the easiest way to get experience, as  you’ll almost always get in with your camera equipment without any restrictions. The advantage is that you don´t need press accreditation for these concerts. Just search your local magazines, blogs or event webpages for bands you’d like to take photos of and you’ll be ready to go. In the beginning, everything will be new and scary, so just keep it simple and don´t get frustrated if you’re not allowed to shoot your first concert at Coachella!

Use fast lenses!

When deciding which lenses will work best for concert photography, you’ll always come to the same conclusion: use fast lenses and shoot them wide open. What does this mean? Fast lenses refer to the aperture of a lens. The aperture is the opening within the lens which enables you to select how much light hits the digital sensor of your camera. The larger the opening, the more light can enter (this corresponds to a small f-number). The maximum aperture is written on the lens itself e.g f1.8, f2.8. Why is this important? In concert photography you have to deal with ultra low-light situations and you need the smallest f-number possible to get a decent exposure. These lenses can be very expensive but there is one no-brainer lens that every concert photographer should have in their bag. For beginners on a budget, there is no better choice than the 50mm f1.8 prime lens. This lens is available for almost all camera brands and enables you to start as a concert photographer right now without any excuses.

Get a Camera with Great High ISO Capability

Âİ Matthias Hombauer 2009

Another important setting on your camera is the ISO value. ISO refers to the sensitivity of your camera sensor. The higher the ISO setting , the less light needed to achieve a correct exposure. However, the higher the ISO value, the warmer the sensor gets resulting in more noise being visible in your photos. As we’re dealing with low-light situations in concert photography, you´ll find yourself changing your ISO setting up to 1600 ISO or higher to get a decent shutter speed.

As a beginner, your best option is to get a DSLR camera with the highest ISO possible within your budget. I would suggest at least ISO 3200.

The Best Camera Settings that Work!

Concert - Fink

Choosing the correct camera settings are key to getting awesome photos in concert photography. As you have to deal with low-light situations, your camera will already have a hard time keeping up with your needs. The automatic mode won´t get the job done and you’ll have to tell your camera exactly what it should do for you.

Here are my personal preferred settings for beginners:

  • – Shoot in Aperture Priority Mode (AV,A). This mode lets you set the aperture whilst the camera takes care of the shutter speed and ISO settings.
  • – Use your lens’s lowest aperture number. If you are using the 50mm f1.8, set your aperture to f1.8. Not only will you get the most amount of light possible hitting your camera sensor, but you’ll also get a great blurred background or bokeh.
  • – Use spot metering mode: Most of the time, the artist is lit by a spotlight on-stage and the background is pitch black. Therefore, set your camera to use spot metering, place the artist’s face in the middle of your viewfinder and you´ll get the right exposure for it.
  • – Use the single Autofocus point: Set your autofocus to the single autofocus point in the middle of your viewfinder. This one is the most accurate one and believe me,  you´ll need all the help you can get from your camera to focus in low-light conditions!
  • – Use burst mode: shoot 3-4 pictures to ensure you get one that is in focus 

Shoot RAW!

Concert - The Black Keys

I am a 100% RAW shooter like Jared Polin, as it gives you the most flexibility when post-processing your concert pictures. When you shoot JPEG, the internal camera processor will apply adjustments such as saturation, contrast, sharpness and more to your pictures. These files look great on the computer, but don´t leave much freedom in post-production. When shooting your first concerts, JPEG might be a good compromise to get some shots without having to deal with too much during the post-production process. But once you’ve taken your first concert photos, it’s almost a must to change to using the RAW format. If you shoot in RAW format, you can change any parameter you can dream of in a dedicated program such as Lightroom or Aperture.

The disadvantages are, however, that the file size is much bigger and you’ll have to learn how to develop your digital files. But personally, shooting RAW is the only choice when shooting concert photos and it should be for you as well.

Matthias Hombauer is a self taught music photographer and the founder of How to Become a Rock Star Photographer where he shares his experiences as music photographer. He is also the author of „The Guide To Rockstar Concert Photography“.

For more, please follow us on Facebook, Google+, Flickr and Twitter.

camera concert dslr high iso lens Photography
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
You might also like
Screen Shot 2017-08-28 at 12.07.13 PM
Features

Opinion: Please Stop Wearing a Photo Vest if You Don’t Need to Be Wearing a Photo Vest

4 Mins read
07/09/2018

When I got into this industry years ago, one thing really confused me almost as much as how much certain older photographers tend to treat the younger generation of us: photo vests. I’m completely positive that you’ve all seen them: a photographer of a certain distinguishment (or trying to show off without having said distinguishment) wearing their vests that look a lot like safari vests. You know, almost as if they’re going to go out on an African safari at all times without being anywhere near something like a safari. Walking down the streets doing street photography? You’ll see a photo vest. In the studio? Photo vest! Hiking? Yup, A Photo vest!

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM review product images Canon EOS R
Features

Did Canon Miss the Memo That Says Mirrorless Lenses Are Meant to Be Smaller?

3 Mins read
12/26/2018

When Canon introduced their new Mirrorless cameras earlier on this year (The EOS R) one of the stand out features was that the lens mount was so huge. While other manufacturers like Sony have made all things Mirrorless smaller, the late comer to the Mirrorless party seems to have decided that bigger is better. In a recently released interview, Canon engineers seem to be having a sly dig at Sony by saying that lenses with smaller mounts are far less capable than those with larger mounts. Read on after the break to find out more about what the Canon engineers are wafting on about.

P1000_BK_front34r_lo_t
News

The New Nikon P1000 Has a 125x Optical Zoom with a Laughable 1/2.3 inch Sensor for $999.95

9 Mins read
07/10/2018

Today, for some odd reason, the Nikon P1000 point and shoot camera is being announced. Odd, you ask? The fact that it is a point and shoot isn’t such a big issue at all; but the fact that it’s a superzoom camera being marketed as one with a 125x optical zoom is what’s insane. Kudos to Nikon for being able to do something like this; but then you read the fine print (or in this case, print that’s not even in the press release) and see the bait and switch–this Nikkor lens is having its potential wasted by being placed in front of a 1/2.3 inch sensor.