One thing that we’re really excited about at the moment is working with an amazing band called Hope & Social.  Not only do these boys have some awesome talent, and write truly inspiration and beautiful music, they’re also thoroughly nice chaps and great people to work for.  A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of filming their latest project titled “Come Dine With Me”, which was a wonderful night of music, food, dancing, and generally feeling good.

Anyway, that project is still under wraps and we’ll be posting the final film and photos as soon as they’re done, but that got us round to thinking about photographing live music and as one of the hardest and most challenging types of photography, we thought we’d share some of our advice about the hurdles and pitfalls of the business.

Whether you’re photographing the local band at the pub, or a full-on stadium concert, there are loads of similarities; you’ll be working with difficult light, sweaty punters and demanding bouncers.  Here you’ll find our top ten tips for photographing live music, but get in touch by leaving a comment if there’s anything more you need to know.

1 Getting in can be the hardest part

Gaining access to venues to photograph live music will often be your biggest hurdle and until you’ve made a name for yourself, your only tool is your personality.  The bigger the gig, the harder it gets and there’s a fine line between being persistent and pestering.  The band is normally the easiest entry, and if you approach them first with an offer of free photos, they’ll normally sort you out with a ticket and some prime space for photos.  With big gigs, you’re normally best approaching the event organisers.  A friendly email or phone call, and having public liability insurance in place should get you in the right direction, then it’s a case of getting them in a good mood.  Your other best route to access is magazines.  You need some quality images to start with, but once you do, get your portfolio sent out and if you hit lucky, they may sort out the red tape for you and if you’re even luckier you may even get paid.

2 Preparation

This goes without saying for any photography, but here are some things to think about for live music.  What will the venue be like?  No point bringing a huge telephoto lens and then finding out your 3 foot away from the stage.  When are you allowed in?  What’s the manager’s name?  Can you park nearby?  How many bands are playing?  What will the lighting be like?

3 Three songs . . .

For smaller gigs, you’ll normally be able to photograph the whole event, enabling you to get lots of coverage and you have the time to make mistakes.  For larger gigs, you’ll have three songs to get all the pictures you’ll need, so make sure you have some big memory cards, your batteries charged and whatever you do keep shooting and don’t mess-up.

4 . . . No flash

You’ll be able to use your flash gun until your heart’s content at bars and pubs but just leave it at home!  You can’t use it a big gigs, so why start now?  You’ll kill the mood if you’re not careful, and flashing a bassist for a full set might not be the best idea.  Get some fast lenses – a 50mm f1.8 you should be able to pick up for well under £100 and will let you shoot in almost any lighting conditions.

5. Av, Tv, M, P?

If the lighting is the same for the whole gig, then shoot in Manual, setting the camera for the faces and with the fastest shutter speed and slowest ISO you can get away with.  That way you’ll be left without the hassle of worrying what your camera is doing.  If the lighting is changing, and you’re running out of time, slip it into P and keep shooting (just don’t tell anyone).

6. Travel light

Don’t take every piece of gear you have.  You may be tempted into thinking that if you don’t have it with you, then sods law you’ll need it.  Equally you’ll spend the whole gig swapping lenses if you’re not careful and miss the key moments.  Feeling brave?  One camera, one lens.  You’ll be amazed at what you’ll come up with and it’ll make you work harder.

7. Do what you’re told, and then don’t

If a bouncer tells you to move, then do it.  If the event organiser tells you to stop shooting, then stop.  You’ll run the risk of getting a bad name for yourself.  On the other hand, if no-one’s looking then do what you want, just make sure the picture’s worth it and you don’t get caught . . .

8. Get connected

Get names, make conversation, get connected.  Don’t start sucking up to the manager or chatting up the bar staff, but if you can make some friendly conversation and introduce yourself, then your much more likely to get back in the next time you ask.  Get business cards and hand out yours (you do have one, right?).

9. Keep connected

After you’ve finished carefully processing your photos, then send them out to all the guys you met at the gig.  If you’re just starting out, then brand them nicely with your logo and website in the corner, and put them on facebook and start tagging people, put them on myspace, twitter, and if you have one, your blog.  The sooner the better, before the other photographer you met at the gig does.  Once you start to build up your rep, then send them out (or even better still direct them to an online shop) with a watermark on an offer to sell them.

10. Get organised

Eventually you’ll start to build up a big image bank of images, bands and venues.  Get a website where people can search by band, artist, venue, gig date or tour.  Wordpress websites offer great search capabilities and you can get some awesome templates and you can look after the whole site yourself.  If you can make it easy for people (fans, bands, publishers, organisers) to search your catalogue and find the image they want to look at, then you’re onto a winner.