Tips on Concert Photography – An Introduction
Whilst I’m happy to claim that I’m not the number one concert photographer on the planet, whilst I’ve been shooting live gigs, I’m happy to pass on some tips to those looking to start out doing this. Mostly because I’ve recently found myself getting annoyed at newcomers to the area in much the same way that people got angry at me when I started. There are a few good articles on the web, but most are relatively outdated or largely irrelevant, many focus from the perspective of shooting with traditional film, it’s not that I’m anti-film, but in the arena of concert photography (especially when working to deadlines), digital is king, as I’ll explain in this post. All tips in this post are a combination of my experience, others words of wisdom and common sense, it’s not meant to be definitive, so if I’m wrong on something post a comment and put me straight, so others can read it too!
I’ll be splitting this up in to four parts, because in my opinion, there are four equal parts to concert photography. Part 1 will deal with hardware, and equipment, Part 2 will deal with technique, Part 3 will deal with etiquette (perhaps the most important and least addressed part of the big picture), Part 4 will deal with getting access (which also includes a bit on who gets the finished images). I like to go into detail, so I’ll try and post a part every few days, depending on my work load.
These articles will not cover photoshopping or manipulation, because everyone is different, and all magazines have a different feel to them, so each brief or commission needs to be treated differently. It doesn’t go into how much to charge once you’ve got some experience, that’s entirely personal. And I don’t cover many legal aspects, but I will touch on a few items that are important to know about (I’m not a lawyer, so any legal stuff I talk about needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, in other words, I’m bringing your attention to something, not giving you a legal opinion, go see a lawyer if you want clarification. Last but not least, I disclaim any bad stuff that may happen to you as a direct result of taking my advice 
most people don’t listen to me 99% of the time, I’ve got no reason to expect them to start now!!
Watch this space. Part 1 should be along in a few days.
