Over the last few years, I’ve honed my concert/DJ/event photography skills to the point that I feel pretty confident in getting solid shots at small events. I’m not a professional by any means–I do this for the love of the game. But my hit rate is high enough that I feel like I have something valuable to say about it. I also really want a record my settings, so that if my camera dies on me I can set up my next camera the same way!
I’m particularly interested in solo performances and DJ shows where I can get up close and personal. I want to make this post a record of my philosophy, gear, and settings when it comes to event photography. This post will grow over time as I have time to add to it. But first, a gallery of shots that I’m proud of!
Gallery: Concert Photos with my Fujifilm X-T30
My philosophy for stage performance photos
I consider concert photography and especially DJ photography a love-letter to my community and the performers in it. I’ve been a DJ on and off for 15 years and I know that it’s SO HARD for a DJ to get a really good photo of themselves performing. So my goal is to take a photo so good that the performer will want to use it as their profile photo or on their promotional material. I approach it almost like a portrait photographer (though my preferred gear is a little different, more on that later). I have a few guidelines that I follow which I think come together to create my “style” in this genre of photography:
- Capture the performer doing something cool. I’m a musician and a DJ myself, and I think I have a knack for this. I know when a DJ is prepping their next track, and that’s the part where they look busy. I know when a musician is in a groove, and they have a little room to posture. These two things usually happen at different parts of a song for DJs and musicians, and learning a bit about when each is really in their craft helps me get strong photos.
- Light makes the shot. I try to always have a stage light in the frame if I can. I let them flare if that’s what my lens wants to do. You’ll never catch me with a lens hood. The most photographically unique thing about a show on stage is the lighting, so learn how it behaves, learn the unique challenges it’s going to present, arrange your gear to work with it as much as you can, and let the light be the star of the show.
- Seriously, get as much light on your sensor as you can! I favor fast aperture lenses over almost anything else, and I’m often shooting wide open. More on this in the gear section, but if you can shoot f2.0 or wider, do it! Concert venues, especially small ones, are DARK. I shot an event with an f4.0 zoom lens once and I made it through, but it was a stretch.
- Control motion with your shutter speed. I often lock my shutter speed at 1/60 second for most of the show. That’s fast enough to get reasonably sharp images, and if there’s a tiny bit of motion blur that’s ok by me. With a very kinetic performer, I might speed up to something like 1/180 second to make sure I have a few shots where the motion is truly frozen. If I have a very focused DJ, I might slow down to 1/30 second, but only if my lens is wide enough that I’m not introducing camera shake.
- Continuous Low (CL) is my preferred drive mode for events. I’m often shooting in bursts of 5-6 shots each time I focus. A short continuous burst gives me a few variants of each shot, and Continuous Low is slow enough that each frame is a little different. It helps me avoid getting stuck with shot where I caught the artist mid-blink or an ugly moving light on their face and having to fix it in post.
My gear
I think most cameras CAN do this job. I have some killer concert photos I took with my phone–more on that in another post some time. But I have my preference, and I’ll outline exactly what I use and a bit about why here.
Bodies
I’m heavily invested in the Fujifilm ecosystem. I have lost count of the number of bodies I have (it’s less than 10, but not by much). I don’t think you need the latest and greatest, but generally newer sensors have better low light performance and more recent processors have faster autofocus. For me, the sweet-spot is the X-Trans IV sensor.
My main camera for events is the X-T30. I think I’ll upgrade to an X-T30 III at some point for the faster processor, but I generally find this camera to be excellent for the purpose. My second camera is an X-T4. That’s a more expensive and capable body than the X-T30, but I prefer the smaller body when I’m shooting. The X-T30 just feels right for me. And it beats things like the X-M5 for me, which is even more compact, because it has a dedicated Shutter Speed control. Shutter Speed and Exposure Compensation are my primary controls when I’m shooting events, and having hard controls for both works well for me. So if you’re starting from scratch give the X-T30 III a look, but if you have a camera that you like, use it!
Lenses
I have a number of first-party Fujifilm Lenses, but I don’t think you need (and may not want) first-party lenses for events. When I’m shooting events I’m usually in a small club, and there are three things that I consider important for that work: Fast apertures to capture maximum light, relatively compact size, and relatively low cost. I think Viltrox and Sigma have the best autofocus lenses that hit these three criteria. I decide which lenses I bring based on the stage and how close I can get. My absolute preferred lens if I can get right against (or even on) the stage has been the Sigma 16mm f1.4. It has a great blend of speed, sharpness, good autofocus, light weight, and cost. I also have a few of the Viiltrox Air lenses at different focal lengths, which are lightweight and have an F1.7 aperture. My sense is that autofocus is slightly better on the Sigma and I prefer the image rendering slightly, but the Viltrox lenses are solid performers. The one Fujifilm lens that I like for larger stages is the 23mm f2.0. It’s really small and the autofocus is great. The extra bit of reach is good for a larger stage.
I don’t have any really fast zoom lenses that I like. I’ve got my eye on the Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8–I think that would be an amazing event lens. But it’s expensive and bulky and I haven’t taken the plunge yet!
I also have some manual focus lenses I’ve used at events. I think with focus peaking manual lenses are totally usable in the dark. Especially wider lenses, which will render more areas in focus at a given aperture.
More to come…
I’ll add more to this post over time. I want to publish this draft now because I want the gallery on my site. But I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say about this topic over time! I want to cover more about my settings here, my approach to editing, and maybe a quick comment on getting permission to shoot events.