Vivacious Tips to Live Music Photography

There are some days that you just don't want to end.  Yesterday was one of those days.  

It started with a sunshine filled day in Vancouver's east side as it was Car Free Day.  Streets filled with with people, performance art, vendors, lovely people.  

In the evening I headed downtown, excited to see one of my fave performers, Chris Pureka, play a show.  Now, I'm the type of girl who likes the best seat in the house.  I don't mind sitting there with my book for an hour in order to get prime seating!  So as I was doing just that, a woman came over and asked to share my table, and of course I welcomed here.  As we chatted I realized that I had seen her, Tara Hardy, perform an incredibly moving spoken word piece at an event.  She had come up to the event accompanying a friend, Andrea Gibson, who was performing that night as well.

As soon as Andrea took the stage I realized that I knew who she was too.  About a month ago I saw a video of one of her performances on Jen Lemen's blog.  Good lord...Andrea Gibson is one incredible performer.  She rocked the room. 

Chris, accompanied by Lyndell Montgomery, then took the stage.  Her music by far out plays anything on my ipod and has for a while now.  The show...phenomenal.  I say that about most shows but this one..for real. Her music is mellow yet poetic, captivating and incredibly beautiful.  

I shot lots during the show, sometimes putting my camera down to simply listen.  But since the show I've been thinking a lot about photographing musicians and thought I'd share some of what I've learned about doing live music photography.  I'm not an expert by any means but I love doing it. 

So...here they are...some Vivacious Tips to Live Music Photography...

~just do it           

Simple but true.  If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend just bringing your camera and giving it a try.  Don’t worry about the following suggestions and just give it a whirl and see how that type of photography feels for you!

~connect with the right people

Whenever I plan to take pictures at a show I like to make contact with someone.  I usually find someone who works at the venue and check in with them about the band and venue’s photo policy.  If it’s a gigantic venue, sometimes they don’t let you bring cameras but I’ve never been to a show like that.  Most bars/venues allow cameras and I often see signs saying No Flash Photography.  That doesn’t mean that you can’t take pictures though!  Connecting with someone at the venue makes me feel more confident in taking pictures as I know that no one is going to come and tell me to stop.

~connect with the musician if you can!

I tend to go to pretty small shows, so most often I can check in with the musician themselves about how they feel about having unobtrusive photos taken of their show. No one has ever said no to photos and they always say the same thing “No Flash and No Video”.   So even though I know their answer, its still nice to speak to them, have their needs as an artist feel respected but also (and mainly) because then I have a have a conversation to refer to if I want to send them the images.  Then they have a face to put with the name! 

~get a great seat or simply get closer

As mentioned, I’m a big fan of getting a seat at which I can shoot from.  If that’s not the case (which its often not) I’m all about getting as close to the stage as possible.  You are usually absolutely not in anyones way if you crouch at the front of the stage.  Its also an incredibly great spot to hear and see a show from!

~its all about the lenses

When a good friend recently played a show in town, I read up on what lenses were really good for indoor live music shooting and the 50mm 1.4 was raved about.  I’d been wanting to get that lens for its great portrait capablilites, so to read that made me clear that it was a lens that would be worth the money. 

Then difference between that lens and  other lenses I’ve used for indoor live music shooting was pretty vast.  Usually I got a few good shots a night and with the 50mm 1.4 I liked almost all of the images I  liked far more than I didn’t like!

When I shoot a folk festival or stage show, I tend to rent a lens such as the Canon 70-200.  In this case, it’s a whole different shot I can take.  Far more close ups and shots of their hands can occur or I can simply shoot from much farther away from the stage.  I love renting this lens and for a festival where I can spend the entire day shooting different musicians, its well worth the cost of the rental.

Really though, just bring whatever lenses you have and try them out, especially playing with the lowest f-stop on each lens!

~play with the light

Particularly with indoor shows, there is the issue of lighting.   The issue being that you have absolutely no control of it.  You can’t ask the musician to move over a few steps over or to turn their face a certain way.  Plus, you’ll have your musician looking orange, blue purple or yellow all within one minute.  I actually much prefer shooting black and white for indoor shows but sometimes the lighting can benefit the shot, so it sure is nice to have the option to do both.  

Just play with it though...at the show and in post processing and see what look you like!

~oh, the ISO

Now, its rare in a venue that I can shoot with anything less than 1600 on my Canon Rebel Xti.  Fancier cameras can handle this much better, but I know the Rebel is a pretty commonly used camera so it seemed worth mentioning.  During really great lighting I love to switch to even one less ISO, but the rule of thumb I’ve learned is that if the shutter speed is any less than 1/60, you need a tripod to have a focused shot.  Now, do you ever see someone at the front of the stage with a tripod?  Heck no.  So be sure to have your ISO high enough that your shutter speed is able to actually capture the image you want.  Last night I was able to shoot at 800 ISO at some times and the quality of the image is better...but if I can't get the image in focus at that ISO then its usually not worth it to me.  Especially with fast moving musicians!

~a full battery and an empty memory card

This may seem logical and basic, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to shows without my battery filled up only to have it drained 5 minutes into the show.  Also, I tend to take tons and tons of photos during a concert and often I think that surely room for 100 shots is enough...but it never is

~manual focus points

This is just a personal preference, but I really like the musicians face to be in focus.  What happens all the time is that the focusing is drawn to the microphone.  This drives me bonkers.  What I’ve come to do is to use the manual focus points on my camera to make sure that he musicians face is in focus.  This means more work as I need to change that point if I switch between horizontal and vertical composure, but for me its worth the work.

~be respectful and find your rhythm

This too is a personal preference or ethic but it’s the way I work.  I don’t want anyone’s experience of the music to be at a detriment because of my taking pictures.  To me this mostly shows up as being aware of how quiet a song is and not bombarding it with clicking noises.  I notice that without even being conscious of it I often put my lens down when soft bits are happening and pick it up as the the pace of the music picks up.  When it’s a show that is a full band or more rock’ n roll than folk this isn’t an issue.  What is an issue in those shows is that there is more of a crowd or a dance area.  I often will get myself up to the front of the stage, but without being like that girl I saw at a recent show pushing everyone out of  her way to get to the front of the stage.  People are often pretty willing to let you have a little space to work in!

~don’t forget to enjoy the music

Sometimes i get so caught up with shooting that I feel like I'm missing out on the musical experience.  As music and photography hold equal places in my heart, it feels important to not sacrifice one for the other. Often I just need to put down the camera and listen.

Hope some of these have been helpful if you're thinking about playing around with live music photography!

Comments

[bella]

These photos are absolutely stunning.. so lovely.
Your process and tips are great, too. Shy me has reached out to a couple of local artists and... surprise.. I booked my first shoot!
It's good experience and helps build a portfolio.
Thanks for sharing ~ I can definitely put these tips to good use.

[darlene]

great tips honey ... i love my 70-200 for musica and am so grateful to have 2 kicking around and now that i have the canon mark ii and the kicking iso, its all going to be so much easier still though there is something about a cheap lens and a cheap camera and just seeing what happens ;-) some of my best music shots were from my old sony f717 because that big movable zeiss lens totally worked it.

my best tip though ... marry a musician, tee hee ;-) though trying to get a good shot of my drumming hubby is challenging at best, he's always hidden back there ...

i heart your live music shots, you can tell you really love the music and at the end of the day, loving your subject is the best tip ever :-) xoxo

[leonie]

stunning photos! i must confess that my eyes often glaze over when reading about ISO etc and i'm really keen now after reading this to play around a bit more with it.

i love my 50mm and confess that i have a long lens too as i simply had to have the best of both - now if i could just channel you every time i want to use them.... {grin}

[[Vivienne]]

i know leonie! i can totally break into photo-geek talk (iso...50mm blah blah blah) pretty easily and forget that not everyone digs that kinda talk!

dar...i love your tip! i'd totally love to manifest myself a musician hubby! and love for a subject really is the best tip of all!

and dear bella...i'm so excited for you and your musical subjects! i hope you share your shots when that happens! i'm sure they'll be stunning!