untitledI have a number of friends in an assortment of various bands who often play live in clubs and bars with interesting lighting and smokey effects wafting around and every time I watch them play I stand there thinking that I wish I had brought my camera! So eventually, not able to resist a moment longer, I headed out to watch one of these bands in action with my DSLR at my hip.

 

I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a challenge!

Stage photography, in an unrehearsed scenario, is much like journalism, you have no clue what is going to happen next. The atmosphere is exciting and nervous and the performers are on stage as alter-egos of themselves. If you are going to capture a great image of them, this is the perfect time.

 

The first and most complicated part of photographing inside a club or similar venue is lack of lighting. This is going to be the driving force in choosing your settings. The second hiccup is that you are in a club packed with people, screaming and jumping and you simply cannot be lugging around any bulky equipment.

 

Before you head out to the gig it might be a good idea to take a few practice shots in your home.

Turn the lights off (or low if you have a dimmer switch) put the TV on playing a music video of similar style to the music you will be hearing (a great replica of the moving and flashing lights in a club). Now you can practice and play around with your settings to try and figure out what would be best. This is much more convenient that trying to figure out the settings in the crowd with only three of four songs to photograph. Time is of the essence.

 

If you don’t know the band - try and contact them to ask for permission before hand, you don’t want to be stepping on anyone’s toes.

 

You cannot be using your flash & blinding the performers, besides that, a flash will subtract from the colour and mood of the lighting in the club.

 

Start out at a smaller venue, smaller stages are much easier to work around and security won’t be standing in your way.

You can most likely get closer to the artists as well.

 

Here are some tips to get your camera in the right frame of mind:

 

Auto Focus in SERVO mode so that once you have half pressed your shutter button, focusing on one of the subjects - that person will stay in focus even if he jumps around (as long as he stays in the frame of your camera)

 

ISO: you might need to bump up your ISO but try and keep it as low as possible to avoid too much noise.

 

Aperture: Your aperture will have to be wide open in order to let in as much light as possible.

 

Shutter Speed: Your shutter speed should be around 150 to avoid blur, but sometimes you will have to drop it in order to let more light reach the sensor. If this is the case then try and work with creative blur.

 

Flash: it is preferable not to use a flash but if you are allowed to then work with an off camera flash (either on a cable or if you are lucky enough - in wireless mode with a friend holding it)

Try and bounce the flash instead of using direct lighting (which as we have mentioned above will only blind the performers and ruin the mood) Back lighting flash would be a great thing to try out.

 

Manual mode: Shooting in any other mode is going to confuse your camera. There are constantly changing lights and flashes and smoke and the camera will not have a clue what setting to use and a good photo will be pure luck. Manual mode will give you complete control.

 

Use the available lighting: Don’t be worried of the stage is lit up in blue and red, don’t stress with your white balance trying to fix it because that glow of colour will only add to the image.

 

Continuous shooting: flip your camera to continuous shooting mode so that you can fire off a number of shots if something really cool happens (the guitarist jumps into the air or the lead singer leaps of the stage!)

 

And of course: relax and have fun!