Putting on the Concert Photographer Hat
I’ve always loved taking pictures of anything and everything. I have a particular interest in playing with lighting in photos. Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to attend more concerts and I’m excited to announce that I’m starting on this journey of marrying my love for live music with photography.
If you’re reading this, you’re along the ride for the ups, the downs, and the in-betweens. I’ve been following some creators online who are photographers and give pointers about how to be successful. I’m very grateful for those folks and I want to give back to the photography community as I venture into the unknown.
I’ve been taking a lot of phone photos and videos at live concerts and events, but they simply don’t do the artist or event justice. I might share some phone pics with you, but the main goal I have here is to grow as a photographer.
In terms of tools, I have a Nikon D3300 and I primarily shoot in manual mode with a Nikon DX VR lens (for those interested, it’s specifically the AF-S NIKKOR 55-200mm one!). To start, I want to focus on the basics. There are a lot of things I need to learn. I’ve heard terms such as aperture, ISO, f-stop and many more. In full transparency, I have no idea what these terms mean, what a high or low value means for any of these or why you’d want to change any of these when shooting photos. For me, I mainly focus on shutter speed (how quickly the photo is captured) and I typically shoot in "sport mode” these days to avoid blurry photos as the subjects are moving. HOWEVER, I don’t think is necessarily the best approach long-term. Instead, I’m going to do a little research to understand these three topics and then can move on to how I can use these extra tools in my toolkit for concert photography specifically.
Now, it’s time for a mini PHOTOGRAPHY 101 lesson!
Let’s start with some vocab:
aperture: this is the hole within your camera that lets in light. The larger it is, the more light that’s let in. Learn more and see image below from this source!
f-stop: this is the measurement of aperture, where f stands for “focal length.” Read more here.
ISO: (aka International Organization for Standardization) helps determine how bright your images are. Use low ISO for taking images in a bright environment and a high ISO for taking images in a dark room. Read more here!
shutter speed: this determines how quickly do you take the photo. I use a fast shutter speed to capture artists moving and dancing on stage. To better capture lights at night, a longer shutter speed provides more exposure. Read more here.
If you’re still confused about how aperture, ISO and shutter speed all work together in creating a photo when you click the button on the top of your camera, don’t worry, I’m right there with you! I’ll continue to share more with you as I experiment.
Aperture Scale measured in f-stops. Lear more directly from the source!
Now that we’ve both put on our photographer hats, I’d like to reflect on my first true attempt at concert photography. Today, I attended a free event near me with a local band playing at an outside venue. It was very casual and the crowd came and went as they weaved through the various booths from local artists and businesses that were also at the event. I was very lucky because this event was free and most other folks came for dinner or with other goals in mind, so I often had an unobstructed view of the band and was able to take some fun shots!
I didn’t move around too much while they were playing. I did watch one portion of their set from stage left and after their break, I stood mostly in the middle section. However, I didn’t take photos from a lot of different distances away from the band (I wasn’t ever very close or very far away). I was at a fairly close/medium distance for a majority of the time.
Noah and the Arkiteks, San Jose-based band
This was the first event I’d taken my camera to in a while and I was proud of myself for remembering to check the battery and charge it before I left home. I also made a small effort to check how much storage I had on the memory card left in my camera by checking many photos I’d taken so far. I realized I didn’t know if the number on my memory card would be enough, but it was all I had on hand at the time, so I thought it’d just have to do. Unfortunately, after taking about 10-20 photos, I soon ran out of space on my memory card. Now, I know to always carry an extra memory card when I’m on a shoot! I’d also recommend a spare battery (I’ve heard this as advice from some of the concert photographers I follow online). Right now, I only have one battery for my camera, so I’ll make an effort to charge it up before a shoot and turn my camera off whenever it’s not needed at the event.
Luckily, I was able to delete a few old pics that I no longer needed (back from 2018!). I ended up taking about 30 photos at this concert. Overall, the memory restraint was kind of nice because it made me focus in the moment on getting the shots I wanted. I usually review pictures after an event, so I don’t delete any on-site, but this time, when I noticed I had a blurry photo or a duplicate, I deleted it to make room for another photo that would better fit my vision. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this approach because it took me out of the moment a bit. Desperate times call for desperate measures, though!
I wasn’t familiar with the band before attending this event, but I’ve heard that’s good when practicing photography because you aren’t a sponge trying to soak up every moment of seeing your favorite artist and you can focus on the photography and technique. I had a good time and actually really enjoyed the band Noah and the Arkiteks. They all seemed to be jamming out with their besties and it was fun to see them almost challenge each other to conversations between electric guitar and bass. They all seemed to have a blast and just laughed while having fun on stage together. See the full set of images in my portfolio.
That’s all for now. Thanks for making it this far! I’ll keep you updated on the next steps in this concert photography journey!
