How and why I shoot - a Cold Pizza and Coffee update

So, this past week, I was able to photograph the legendary punk band The Circle Jerks, when they came through Lawrence, KS on their tour with Negative Approach and 7Seonds (legends in their own right). While waiting in line to get my ticket and photo pass, I met a guy who was also there to photograph the show. He let me know that that show was going to be his fourth ever concert that he photographed, that he was nervous, and wanted to know any tips that I could give him to help.

Now as a teacher, I am always willing to give out any helpful hints that I can give, but this lead me to think of what and how I shoot shows.

I have thought a lot about this over the past week, thought about all of the research that I have done into other photographers, their work, and how I have adapted that into my work. This is what I told him and then a bit more.

To start off with, ALWAYS shoot wide, or as my old graduate school professor once told me, “Back the fuck up”. This is more than true. While getting a good, clean shot of a singer’s face, with all of the emotion that she or he brings to the night, it is better to shoot wide and crop in than to shoot close up and wish later that you got a wider shot. My rule of thumb, you can always crop in, but you can never crop out. This goes without saying that if you have a good camera that you are using, with a high megapixel shot is a lot better than a lower one. That way when you zoom in to crop, you will not be losing information and your image will be come pixelated. This is a major plus. There is no better sign of this than when I got my new Nikon D750. Previously I was using a much older Nikon D300, which only has about 12mp verses the D750 which is about double that. Now, I can shoot from the pit with my standard 35mm prime and still be able crop in, pretty far, if need be. This also helps with my next point.

Start from the outside and shoot in. What I mean by that is to start at the outer edges of the stage, out by the speakers on the edges of the stage and work your way in. This will ensure that you can get the band members that are out there when all of the other photographers are focusing on the Lead Singer, even before they start the concert. Don’t get me wrong, it is good to get the lead singer (of course), but I have noticed that the lead singer is better for photos at least half way into the first song or the start of the second song. The other artist on stage still have to get that same energy flowing as what the singer does, but everyone is SO concentrated on the front person that this is your chance to get the clear shots of whatever side you are on. Not to mention that you can always turn your camera in towards the middle , where the singer is, to get that amazing wide shot of them, but work from the outside in.

Also, when you are in the middle of the pit, right in front of the lead singer, don’t forget that you can also turn your camera towards the outside again and work that way. Just because the lead signer is in front of you doesn’t mean that some amazing action is not happening on other parts of the stage. You have to constantly be looking around with your eyes on stage to see where the action is happening. Don’t get so absorbed into that one moment that you are shoot, wherever you are in front of the stage, to look around.

But as I stated, I started with a Nikon D300. It is not a bad camera. It is actually a great camera. I couldn’t have asked for better camera. That thing is a true worker, and I have put it through a LOT, from photographing concerts to sporting events, small little local stories to photographing three different US Presidents. That camera has done it all for me and then some. However, the ISO and Megapixels not up to par with what I needed Yes, outdoor events are good, but for indoor, I needed a little more. The D750 is amazing. End of story. I have only had it for a month, but I have used it to cover several different concerts, even places I didn’t like to necessarily shoot because of lighting, and the images came back a lot better than I thought they would.

So what I am saying here is that while yes, the camera doesn’t always make the photographer, and there are a TON of things that help (from understanding Shutter Speeds, F-Stops, ISO settings, the rule of thirds and other composition rules, it will only get you so far in today’s photographic world. A camera like a D300 is great to start with, learn the ropes and get your technical skills up to where they need to be, to start that portfolio, but you need a good camera that will help with capturing images in low lighting where older cameras don’t have the ISO capabilities, and the most Zoom lenses cannot help with since they are not fast enough for low light (take for instance the photos I did at the Lied Center at KU. Great jazz concert, legendary jazz, but flat/low lighting that my D300 could not adjust for, since anything over 1000 ISO on the D300 creates noise, and my D750 can get up to an ISO of 10000 and no noise…same can be seen in the Tool concert photos).

That is about it for now. That is the update that I can give. More later as I come up with more info and thoughts.

To Start Off...

Okay, so the first cup of coffee has been had, and I believe that I am ready to go for this blog.

I have always been asked how one gets started in the concert photography industry, so I guess that is where I am going to start at.

It is a hard industry to get in, and honestly even harder to make a living at. You have to be passionate at what you do. You HAVE, and I will say it again, HAVE, to love music. Not just one kind, but all kinds of music. For me, I started listening to 70s rock, 80s pop and Country in my youth, and that grew to 90s alternative rock and punk. Somewhere in there I added Jazz and Opera to the mix, with a little electronica. For me, this is the absolute basic need to become a concert photographer (outside of owning a camera and understanding how to use it). The reason is simple, with this knowledge of music, you will understand what and who you are photographing better. It is not like back in the 60s and 70s when the music scene was smaller, and it was easier for a photographer to access the pit and shoot away (which trust me I know it was VERY hard back then because everyone was shooting film and not digital, so you only had a select number of shots you could get, a very limited range of ASA film [mostly up to 400 before it got too grainy] and had to carry around several cameras to make sure that you could shoot in both color and black and white, as well had more than 24 images you could shoot before you had to change film).

But today, a photographer still has all of those bands that still survive from those times PLUS the current bands, and everything from Country to EDM to Punk to Metal to Hip hop/rap to Classic Rock to…well you get the point. To understand what is going on in the music and how to react to it as a photographer is so important, especially if you are trying to get a good shot, or even (if I dare say) THE shot.

To understand how the band is going to produce the energy that the crowd is going to feed off of, which songs are the “sing along” ones verses ones that might get a ton of emotion out of the crowd is vital to understand. To understand this will help you, as the photographer, understand when to release the shutter verses when to hold off just a bit longer. In this field, it is definitely quality over quantity. It is the good images that you can produce that will get you remembered and not how many shutter clicks you had.

But with that in mind, to start off, go with the smaller venues, support those local bands/acts that are just starting off at your local dive bar. Sure, the lighting will not be nearly as good a 10,000 seat arena with some world renowned band, but this is where you start to learn how bands act when they play, what makes a good photograph and what photos you should just leave behind on a hard drive. This will help you understand lighting, especially at a venue that has no lights outside of maybe a single spot light that the lead singer is in the middle of, and everyone else in the band is in the dark. Once you, as the photographer understand this and can master it to the best of your ability, then move on to bigger and better bands.

This does not mean that if you have the chance to photograph someone like the Rolling Stones or someone of the like that you shouldn’t take it. I am suggesting that you should shoot for the moon your first time up and go in there not knowing your ass from your elbow. It makes no sense. Yes, you might get a few good images, but then the question is do you understand HOW or WHY you got those images? Chances are, most likely not.

Outside of this, I would suggest that you remember the photographic basics, faster shutter speed will allow you to stop motion, which is important when trying to get that action shot, higher ISO and a wide open shutter will allow for more light to come in so you don’t have to sacrifice a slower shutter; remember the rule of thirds (even though you cannot always have composition on the forefront of your mind, it is always a good thing to remember to create a visually pleasing image) and SHOOT WIDE. I cannot stress this enough. You can always crop in and change the image that way, but you cannot crop out. It is ALWAYS better to be able to crop in in post production than wishing you had backed up a bit more to get more of the scene in. Also, don’t only focus on the band that is playing. That is only most of the story, and yes I said most. The crowd is the other part of the story, the way they are reacting to the songs, if they are singing along or moshing or completely bored and not paying attention to what is going on in front of them and might be falling asleep (and yes I have seen this happen) or have a look on their face like they wish they were anywhere else but there at the moment. This tells so much more of the story than just the band on stage. Yes, it is nice to get that shot of the guitarist giving it everything that they have, sweat dripping down off of their chin as they shred a solo, but if the crowd is not into it, show it! Why not?

Also, get out with your camera and just shoot the world around you, in all sorts of different lighting situations. This will help you get to be more comfortable with your camera so when you are able to get in and photograph a concert, you will know how your camera works like the back of your hand, and you don’t have to fumble around with controls instead of shooting. This will also help you get the image as close to perfect before you release your shutter which will save you a LOT of time in post production. There is nothing more frustrating than having a good shot but you need to spend 20 minutes in post production editing and fixing it before it is ready to show. Personally, I would rather shoot my heart out at the show, knowing that the images that I took look as good as they can before I put them in Lightroom (which is what I use for post [and yes, for some who might be long time followers of my writing, you might remember when I used to write for a certain blog about 15 years ago or more when I was almost completely against post production. I am still a firm believer that you, as a photographer, should try and get everything right pre-shutter release, but that is just the way I was taught…plus it was on film. There was no Adobe products back then and only darkrooms) so I don’t have to spend the entire next day behind my computer fixing everything that could have been done prior to pushing the shutter release. Yes, that means I would rather be out photographing the world that I live in, even if there is no concert that I am shooting that next day, than spending indoors behind a computer.

Those e are my tips on how to start training your eye and getting your photographic work up to par so you can start building a solid portfolio. Just remember, keep shooting and the more you shoot, the better your images will become.