How to shoot… Rock ’n roll!
From dingy pubs with sticky floors hosting the next big thing, to festival fields filled with pyrotechnics and megastars, the electric energy and atmosphere of live music may be hard to bottle as a fan alone, but is a hell of a lot of fun to capture as a photographer. If you have a passion for image-making as well as music, then maybe it’s time to try your hand at combining the two, and in this guide, I’m going to show you how!
Of course, music photography is not without its challenges; few subjects are as fast moving or frequently as badly lit as an artist on stage. But that’s also what makes music photography so rewarding – because when you nail that perfect image of your hero in front of an arena of screaming fans, there really is nothing like it.
We’ll discuss the approaches needed to tackle different-sized venues, the unique challenges of shooting festivals, and how to take your first steps in artist portraiture and music video-making too.
THE FIRST SHOWS
Where do you begin your music photography journey? For many, it’s at a small venue, like a pub or hall, capturing a singer you happen to know, or a friend’s band. It’s often a tight space, almost always in near darkness, and the artist is usually darting about the place like a hyperactive bumblebee.
It would be easy to panic as a photographer in this situation, but if you can learn the basics of capturing an awesome music shot, things will feel much easier as you progress to bigger acts, and better-lit venues…
Building your kitbag
There are two main factors to consider when choosing a camera for music photography: its autofocus (AF) performance and its ISO handling. If we want in-focus shots of our artist, an accurate and responsive AF system that continues to operate in low light is a must.
Camera specifications list the AF light operation range a device is capable of, and you’ll want one that continues to perform down to-3EV or better to stand a good chance of finding focus, which means higher-end Nikons. A camera’s ISO setting controls its sensor’s sensitivity to light, and at
