Tips, settings, and advice

Concert photography is a rush. There is no other way to describe it. Whether shooting from the crowd, first three in the photo pit, or a full set, the experience is surreal.

The environment is fast-paced and the ability to plan will pay dividends for your shots. Taking pictures regularly and being able to navigate your camera menus quickly will reduce stress and optimize time for capture.

The remainder of this post will be a collection of tips, lessons learned, configurations, and strategy that I have incorporated into my routine.

Camera settings

Each environment will vary and you will need to adjust accordingly. Settings will also be dependent on your camera and lens.

Common recommended settings:

Store images in RAW format: Make sure your camera is storing photos in raw. I would initially save both jpeg and raw although I found that I never used the jpegs and would always do some level of editing on raw so I no longer write any jpeg photos. This will help reduce storage space.
Write content to two cards: If your camera supports two cards such as a SD and CFExpress, you can write data to both for redundancy. I have never had a card fail but by writing to two cards, it will reduce the risk of data loss.
Configure an ISO range - Since concerts have dynamic lighting, I don’t try to determine my ISO for each shot. Instead, I set the camera to auto-iso and then set the iso range from the lowest that my camera supports to the upper limit of what I can utilize within post-processing. For my Sony A7iv full frame, I have the max at 4000. For my Sony RX100vii point-and-shoot, I set the max at 2500. I used to push it to 3200 but I found that the images I typically selected were 2500 or less. One thing to keep in mind when you have an iso range set is that as you increase the shutter speed, the iso value will increase with it so it is good to test out lower shutter speeds to find what speed causes the iso to not max out.
Shutter speed - I rarely go faster than 1/400 shutter speed during a show with my default being 1/250 second. If I want to completely freeze a drummer or guitarist’s hand, I could go slightly higher (1/640) although it would require great lighting which is rarely the scenario. If you are taking photo bursts, you will typically snap a photo at the top or bottom of a strum, jump, or drum hit and it will be clear. For acoustic sets or limited movement, you can sometimes get away with 1/125, but it is more common for there to be motion blur at that speed.

Importance of shutter speed: This was an intentionally planned shot. I had researched prior shows and I knew that Ben (Armor for Sleep) jumps multiple times at the end of the set. My best angle would be from the photo pit so I made sure to be at a clear angle for some variability of where the jump would occur. I wanted rich color and not be underexposed so I took a slight risk of 1/250 sec shutter speed with 2.8 aperture. In most cases, I would have gone for minimum of 1/400 to freeze motion, but if I was going to land the shot, I wanted balanced exposure with minimal post-processing efforts. During the jump, I took a burst of photos and landed this shot with Ben at the peak of the jump. By capturing the peak, it was timed with minimal motion, resulting in the clarity and detail. However, what really made this shot magical was that Ben jumped into the light beam, further illuminating him. I attribute all of this to the quote - “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”.

Aperture - For concert photography, faster is better (faster = lower number). I would consider the concert standard to be 2.8 across all focal lengths (if a zoom lens). The faster the aperture, the smaller focal plane where you risk not everything being in-focus. The blur is referred to as bokeh and can beautifully complement a crystal sharp subject. Prime lenses (lenses with one focal length) are sometimes faster than 2.8. For example, Sony has a 50mm 1.2 aperture lens. What I have found with 1.2 is that if you are taking photos from a photo pit, the likelihood of the subject being entirely in-focus is unlikely. Maybe it is intentional and you want the guitar hand strumming to be the focal point with everything else blurry. Or maybe having the subject’s face in-focus is sufficient. I’ve messed up a lot of great photos where I unintentionally only had the guitar in-focus and their face was leaning forward or back enough where it was not in focus. For the shots that I did land the focus at 1.2, they are amazing and really stand-out from the common 2.8 aperture so this can be a differentiator. When I use fast prime lenses, I typically default to 2.0 aperture and then adjust accordingly.

Importance of Aperture - This was one of my favorite shots of the year (Geoff Rickly of Thursday). It was captured at 1.2 aperture, 1/320 sec, with my 50 mm prime lens, nailing the focus while freezing the action of the most important parts of the photo. The focal plane was tiny and you can even tell that the finger pointing is out of focus because it wasn’t perfectly horizontal. The trade-off was brightness. The venue was not well lit and with a 2.8, the crowd would have been too dark and would have missed the emotion and expression. With the prime at 1.2, it illuminated Geoff with the crowd and everything fell into place. This was all attributed to planning and venue research to determine lens selection in advance.

Disable camera sounds - I find beeps and sounds annoying and just an added opportunity to be a distraction. The only sound that my camera makes is the mechanical shutter.
Mechanical shutter - For concerts, always utilize a mechanical shutter. The lighting and strobes may cause unremovable banding throughout your images. I have made that mistake once and will never make it again.
Metering mode - I have attempted various metering modes but I’m not sure what the sweet spot is. Metering measures the lighting and adjusts exposure settings based on it. I used to do spot but found that if a person has a black shirt on (common at shows), the camera thinks it’s dark out and overdoes the iso resulting in noisy, overexposed shots. I typically keep this set at multi-point for broader balance across the image. If you have strong opinions on this, I’d be interested in hearing.
Enable Touch Focus - The main advice I have for this is to enable and utilize the touch-screen focus. I went almost a year without using it until I saw another photographer keep tapping their screen for focus and ever since, it has been a game changer. It does wonders when attempting drummer shots when capturing between cymbals. Or pointing up from the photo pit gives the ability to tap the singer’s face rather than the camera picking up the guitar or mic stand. I don’t have a strong focus area that I’m sold on. If I’m trying for pictures of flying birds or something moving, I widen the focus area so that it picks up things towards edges of frame. Otherwise I keep mostly centered and tap where I want the focus to be once I compose the image. Another strategy is to configure a back-button focus. This provides the option to press the custom button to lock focus, and then you can recompose the shot and snap it without resetting the focus when you push the shutter button. I have never personally attempted it but I do think it can be a valuable option but with some learning curve/memory strength.
Set Focus Tracking to Human - When doing concert photography, set the focus tracking to Human with Face/Eye tracking to improve the ability for the camera to auto-detect and focus on the musicians.
Focus Frame Display - If your camera supports it, enable focus frame display on playback and it will add small green box surrounding the focal point of the image. This will help you evaluate whether your focus is locked in on the correct areas of the photo.
Lens Hood - Make sure to utilize the lens hood as it will reduce glare and provide an added layer of protection from hitting the front glass of your lens.

You don’t need a photo pass to cover a show - A point-and-shoot can yield professional results.

The majority of my portfolio has been from my Sony rx100vii point-and-shoot camera. It is still an expensive camera, yet could be considered an investment into an “alternate lens” that opens doors to more photography opportunities. It does not have a removable lens and fits into my pocket, avoiding the most common “professional photography equipment” restrictions. I’ve taken it into professional sporting events and concerts of all sizes without question.

To achieve the best results, I still attempt to get as close to the front barricade as I can. This often requires waiting in line prior to doors open. Outstand. Outlast. Once the doors are open, skip the bathrooms and skip the merch (still make sure to circle back to it at the end of the show or have a newly gained friend hold your spot so you can support your artist through merch purchase).

Lighting is still a major factor in the overall success of a point-and-shoot. Darker venues can introduce challenges with post processing. When I compare editing times between my full-frame Sony A7iv and the Sony rx100vii, the point-and-shoot takes me about two to three times as long to edit in post-processing as the iso, lighting, and crop distance is less forgiving.

These are some of my favorites taken with a point-and-shoot.