First of all I’d like to thank Scott Kelby for featuring my “How to...” Concert Photography blog post last Friday. I welcome back all of the new people that visited here for the first time because of that feature.

Second, I want to thank a bunch of you who left comments and emailed me about that post. I really appreciated the kind comments you all left for me. I had so much fun creating that post and I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Okay, so I got some good questions and some feedback about writing some more in-depth info about concert photography. As I said, I’m certainly not the fore-most expert on concert photography. I have mostly done live performance photography in smaller club situations and have had a limited amount of time doing large arena shows. But, once you do one large, three song only arena show, they pretty much are all the same.

Here’s the deal with arena shows and club shows. We’ll start with the arena shows. With arena shows you first have to have a full photo credential to get a camera in there and get in front of the stage. That’s the hardest part. If you don’t work for a magazine, newspaper, Nikon (like I do) or know someone who knows someone it’ll be pretty hard to do. This is run through the company putting on the show. The arena shows that I have done were for the Nikon Live project that is featured on the Nikon USA website. This is a joint venture between Nikon and Live Nation concerts where there are both shooting areas demonstrating Nikon cameras and also radio contest winners that won a Nikon camera and got a photo pass for the first three songs. I shot the Def Leppard, Styx, Foreigner, Poison, Dokken and Sebastian Bach shows for Nikon Live. I had to help the radio contest winner with their new camera, give them pointers and set the camera up and then help them out for the three song shoot. Not a bad gig for the night... but there was a lot of running around to do.

This is how it worked for these arena shows. You may get three songs per group... Def Leppard only allowed two songs... I guess because they could. Who knows? The problem with these shows is that security won’t just let you hang out and watch the rest of the show after the first three songs. You have to hump it all the way back out to the parking lot and put your cameras back in the trunk of your car if you plan to go back in and actually watch the show... that is if you have a ticket for a seat as well. If you don’t then you just hang out somewhere and wait for the next band. You need to be escorted to the stage and then the moment the third song ends you are quickly escorted back out. So, like I said before... you get your exposure down in the first song with some overall shots. Then you need to concentrate on each band member during the next one and then try to have some fun with details on the third song.

So, since I got a couple of tickets to these shows my wife was waiting for me at the seats. I’d have to go to the car, drop off the gear, haul my butt back to the seats, enjoy about three or four more songs with her, then run all the way back out to the car, get the gear, and do it all over again. It’s a calorie burner especially on a hot summer night in an outdoor venue! The reward is getting some great stuff.

Now, for the club shows. I’d suggest making friends with the club owner and getting a start there. Here’s how this happened for me in Orlando at a club called Jani Lane’s Sunset Strip. I have to give my good friend, Jose Ramos, complete credit for this. We both used to work at a Wolf Camera store at (what used to be) Church Street Station in the middle of the downtown Orlando area. This was 1994 if I remember correctly. The group Warrant was playing an outside show there one evening and Jose gives me a call and asks me if I’d like to shoot pictures at this show. He had gone across the street from the store and had met the promoter/club owner that was putting on the show. (BTW... Jani Lane is the singer for Warrant). The club owner’s name was Ray and he gave us permission to shoot the first three songs. So, I race downtown just before the show started. We get our N90 cameras loaded with film and head toward the side of the stage. The show starts and Ray forgot about us... so we are waving our arms trying to get his attention. He was a bit busy and wasn’t really thinking much about us, obviously, but then he saw us and rushed us up front. By this time the first song was over. So, with two songs to go we started shooting like crazy. I don’t remember how I was shooting exposure wise but I remember changing film at least five to seven times over the next two songs!

Then we get ushered out after the third song and rush across the street to the store. We instantly get the film into the C41 machine and the negs look good. I was a sales person at the time but I had been a printer before that so I got a set of prints made real fast. We each edited out some good ones and put together a set for Ray. We were back across the street with a set of prints of the show even before it was over! He thought that was just too cool.

That was our ticket into that club... especially when I went to school for photography and did a semester’s portfolio all in his club. He used to give us tickets and let us shoot any show that the band manager was okay with. We got to shoot pictures of Warrant, Dokken, Cheap Trick, Eddie Money, Slaughter, Night Ranger, Stranger, Yngwie Malmsteen, and a couple of great local bands... Cool World and Fade to Black. It was a great time and a great learning experience. Ray always told the story of how we brought him prints before the show was over to anyone we were in mixed company with. So, take advantage of a situation to forge a relationship that can further your photography.

The best part of a club show is there is usually no “three song rule”. I find the middle to the end of the show to give the best performances after the band warms up. But, some “prima-donnas” don’t like people to see them sweat. So, that’s part of the three song rule. Also, a hard part of a club show is that there is no shooting area by the stage. You find yourself fighting through the crowd to get close. I strongly suggest good ear plugs and then get right near the main speakers on the side of the stage. It’s usually too loud for people to stand there so it become a good shooting spot. Just don’t lose your hearing... it’s not worth it. Besides, ear plugs help you hear the individual parts better so you can really hear the good the bad and the ugly of every show. That’s what a live performance is all about... isn’t it???

This experience led me to be very confident in shooting any sort of live performance and also for convention and special event photography. To learn how to control constantly changing lighting conditions, especially with a film camera, is a very valuable asset. That is a situation where you have to know your exposures and not just guess... the numbers count in this type of photography!

So, by now you are probably wondering if I’m ever going to show you a picture in this post. Hmmm... so far I haven’t decided. I’m just telling all tonight! It’s a good outlet... hopefully you’ll keep reading! I did stick some extras at the beginning...

I hope you have a better understanding of the difference between arena and club shows. I would also suggest photographing local theater performances as well. Every local show or play could use some great images and the dress rehearsal is the best time to shoot those. It’s great practice for shooting concerts, too. Any live performance is fun! Don’t try to make money off of the theater stuff unless the hire you. Trade some prints or a CD of files for the practice and the opportunity. You may make some new friends that way, too!

Now, some of you asked me about the gear I’ve been using for shows. I keep it pretty simple, but I can also say that since I work for Nikon and it’s my job to have the gear at my disposal at all times. It is truly a great job perk and I will never deny that. In the previous post I shot the Styx, Def Leppard and Foreigner pics with both the D2X and D200 cameras with 17-55mm 2.8DX and 70-200mm 2.8 lenses. The Poison, Dokken, Sebastian Bach, and Blues Traveler images were with D3 and D700 cameras with 24-70mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8 lenses. With the D3, D700 and D300 cameras I would suggest not setting your Picture Control settings to Vivid. The stage lights bleed too much that way so I like to use the Standard setting and just bump up the sharpness a few notches. This way if you are shooting jpegs you can just go straight to printing them and they should look great.

For a few side notes to think about when you are shooting concerts, here are some things to be aware of...

1. 1.Beware of microphone stands. If you are taking pictures of someone who is not actually singing into the mic that is on the stand then either try to get it out of the image all together or create a decent amount of distance between the performer and the mic/mic stand. Don’t let it block them too much and don’t let the mic look like it’s about to poke them in the head. Wait for them to actually sing into it so at least it looks like it’s supposed to be there.
   

2. 2.Singers... shoot a lot. When people sing or speak the split second you take the picture can give them a very strange look in how their mouth and lips are. If you can shoot a singer when they are really belting it out and holding a note then you tend to get good “mouth and lip structure” for a lack of a better term.
   

3. 3.Guitar headstocks... try not to cut them off. It’s sort of like cutting off someone’s hand in a portrait. It just looks weird. Keep looking around the entire frame constantly. These subjects move fast.
   

4. 4.Jump between vertical and horizontals constantly. Then try funky angles to match up with guitar neck angles and use those to work with your composition.
   

5. 5.Try some slow shutter speeds with both panning and zooming depending on the subjects. Only if you have the time to so so. Don’t waste one of your three songs to pure experimental shooting. Just get solid stuff in that short amount of time.
   

6. 6.If you get permission to shoot a club show get there early and sort of stake your claim to a spot up front but off to the side a bit. Which side? The side of the stage with the most important band member besides frontman (or woman). If you’ve seen them before you’ll know which side to be on. You may only get that one spot if it’s real crowded. But, you’d be amazed at how people let you up front because of an impressive looking camera! It’s almost as good as having a good ticket! If you want any side or back stage stuff... ask nicely. If they say “no” don’t push it. If you are cool about it then they may re-think it and let you back there.
   

Wow... lot’s of words... and practically no pictures! I guess I put enough in the last post for two posts! Right? Hope this helped even more. Shoot a lot and learn a lot. Practice a lot! That’s what it takes. I wish I had more time to practice. Also, thanks to all those who shared their concert images with me. I have enjoyed looking at them all. Thank you!

On a personal note... my elderly mother and father-in-law are having some tough issues right now so any extra thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated. Thank you...

Until next time...

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