I’m pleased to announce a new feature here at ishootshows.com: the concert photography Q & A. If you have questions about anything in the realm of concert photography, now’s your chance.
Since I started this site a year and a half ago, I’ve had a tremendous response, not the least of which has emails from curious and enthusiastic photographers. Now, I’d like to open up the knowledge banks for everyone, both to read and also to contribute.
The new Q & A feature will be a regular series of posts in which I will answer questions submitted about concerts, photography, and anything in between.
It’s not me, it’s you.
Better yet, the Q & A series is also an invitation for all the experienced shooters out there to chime in on the topics that come up. In fact, there may be times when I simply post a question from a reader and open it up for any commenter to answer.
Got a question? I double-dog dare you.
Technique, etiquette, gear, post-processing, logistics – it’s all fair game. I’m excited about this new set of posts, and hope you’ll all participate in the discussions to come.
For more info and to submit your questions, please visit the Q & A Submissions page.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 7:09 pm and is filed under Letters and tagged with advice, answers, music, Music Photography, photography, Photography Tutorials, portrait, questions, tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Hey Todd, love your stuff! I was wondering how you broke into the industry and if you have any advice for me. I’ve been living in LA for 2 years and I’m finding it impossible to get work as a concert photographer. I have a solid portfolio of big-name bands, I just can’t seem to break in to getting paid gigs or non-paying gigs that at least have potential for growth. I’ve tried sending out my stuff to magazines, webzines, record labels, anything and everything, I’m constantly shooting shows and bands for free to try to network, and have attempted to get a house gig at venues. Getting passes out here is insanely hard in comparison to Arizona. Do you have any ideas that may work that I haven’t tried yet? Thanks!
Hey Jillian, thanks for the comment/question! I will definitely do a post on how I got started that is more in-depth that what’s on the FAQ. Thanks for the submission.
Todd,
I look forward to reading your post. I always enjoy your comments.
Jillian, I will give you a few tips from my experiences as well.
Yes, LA is an extremely difficult market to break into. After two years it can easily become frustrating.
Here are some options to consider:
1. Start submitting your work to LA photography agents. Photo agencies are a necessity in large cities.
The agency has the contacts and the reputation to properly present your work. This way the right people who need to see your portfolio, will.
2. Inquire to all local papers, and even the smaller papers outside of LA, about a stringer position.
* Stringers are the unsung heros of the newspaper world. Normal pay is between fifty to seventy-five dollars per picture.
3. Keep networking. Keep shooting any show you have access to, and expand to smaller venues outside of LA.
Many photographer for the “big” bands have a long term relationship with the group.
They shot the band when they were young, hungry, and basically a no-body.
You never know when an unknown band is going to become the NEXT big thing. And when they do rise to success…. they often take along the people who stuck with them through the lean times.
4. Make contacts with your fellow photographers, especially the photojournalists with newspapers and magazines. A great way inside is being recommended by a fellow shutterbug.
5. Personally, and I feel this is the most important, while building your reputation, do not step on any toes… I feel this often isn’t discussed enough when it comes to concert photography, but your reputation for doing it “the right way” is invaluable.
The last thing you want is attention from a band or venue for doing it “the wrong way”.
There is nothing wrong with ambition, but you have to make sure to always represent yourself in an
ethical manner. Do not take any short cuts. (i.e. shooting bands without permission, shooting in a venue without their permission).
If you have to sign a release to photograph a band, always read the fine print. Some bands will not allow you to post their images, even for portfolio purpose, on your personal blog or website.
Bands are commercial entities. They protect their Image, especially the photographs of them, with great
and furious power.
You will be amazed by what a small world this area of photography is.. and news travels fast if there is a photographer out there doing “it” the wrong way.
So stay sharp, and keep doing what you love!
I hope you find this helpful.
Best of luck.
Wow. Janet, you rock.
This is what it’s all about, folks! There’s a wealth of great info in the above comment.
Thank you, Todd!
You rock as well. I recently had a two week fisty cuffs, old school throw down with a nasty flu and that gave me some extremely rare down time.
A lot of hours were spent in bed with my laptop, and much of that time was spent on your blog.
It has been ages since I really had time to devote to “blogs’ and I think I went through every single post on here.
I really love the fact you are so willing to share your tips, your knowledge, and your experience with your fellow photographers.
This is a such a rare thing. So many photographers keep their knowledge to themselves out of fear of competition. But, I have always been a big believer in “if you do good work, you will keep getting work.”
And I believe there is always enough work out there for all of us.
I have the good fortune to shoot in a city base of about 400,000. Big enough to get the great shows, yet well enough contained so there is not a strangle hold on magazines getting photo passes.
I truly enjoyed my down time on your site, Todd.
Keep up the fantastic work!
Blog post: Introducing the new Q&A section at ishootshows.com, a feature series of answers to reader-submitted questions. http://is.gd/kU05
Janet (www.jhsrockstars.com) just posted a pretty fantastic comment on the Q&A intro post. That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout! http://is.gd/kU05
Hey Janet,
I’m really blown away that you’d spend so much time on this site and read through the posts. I think you’re one of a handful of people who has done that – I just I hope I gave you something good to read (and view)!
I’m happy to share what I can. One of the main goals of this site when I started it was to for ishootshows.com to become a place where I could share what I learned along the way. I’m thrilled if any of the info helps others.
Thanks for the very kind comment.
You’re very welcome, Todd.
One of things I really love about you is that you’re educated, and your posts reflect your knowledge.
I went to four colleges, massive amounts of internships, all to learn everything I could about photography and lighting.
I did this for five years (Big props to mom and dad, who supported my dreams, and my addiction to Ilford printing paper)
Now ten years later, I am lucky enough to shoot for a fantastic magazine, string for various papers, run my own studio, and earn a living by doing what I love.
So if I could impart another nugget of wisdom to your devoted following: take photography classes!
Too many people are slapping down five grand for D3‘s with no knowledge on how to make their camera’s sing.
You have to know manual mode, how far you can push your camera’s ISO, how to to properly control aperture and shutter speeds, the benefit to dragging your shutter… this is more important than anything else in photography, because photography at it’s core is only about one thing: manipulating light.
This is why concert photography is so challenging. The light is always changing. So the photographer must constantly adjust their settings to reflect those changes to obtain proper exposures.
The more educated one is about the technical aspects of photography the more impressive their images will be :o) (which is why your images rock!)
Todd, Aren’t you glad this is one of my last free days before I return to an insane work load, or I would be here daily pontificating !
Janet, I think that the discussion here could only benefit from more of your free time! I hope you’ll be able to drop by even as you get back to the the busy schedule.
If nothing else, I’m sure other shooters would love to hear your thoughts as the Q&A series develops. I certainly would. Thanks again.
Since I am pretty new to the whole show and concert idea, this would be an absolute godsend to me. Excellent idea.
Great, Rene. I did receive your question about AF mode and technique, and have added it to the queue.
Hi Todd,
I see you using remote flashes more often these days. What are your ideas for positioning the flashes and settings? I think you use the Nikon CLS. Well my equipment is not so sophisticated (Cactus triggers and some old Speedlites) but my experience so far got me some great shots and some really bad ones. So input is appreciated.
Hi Todd. Being a regular visitor myself I am really glad to see this Q&A post. I have been experimenting with workflow methods for quite sometime now and I’m still not quite happy.
Could you recommend a workflow system that gets our images from camera to client to archive?
I myself have been roughly using the ‘Bucket’ system as recommended by Peter Krogh in his ‘The Damn Book’.
I import the photos from the CF cards manualy, backup and start the process.
First I rename using RoboImport, then I get them all in Bridge for exif data, tags, selections and what not. After selections are made client versions are duplicated to seperate folders that are named by the job and the originals get shifted into the buckets where I archive with Iview Media or Microsoft Expression as it is now known. (Small adjustments like Noise Ninja or cropping are done in there somewhere too)
Sometimes I just find it a little bit fiddly. I am not sure either if I should be converting my NEF’s to DNG along the way and to top it all off the catalouge software is really struggling with gigs and gigs of photos in the archive.
I have been trying Adobe Lightroom, Microsoft Expression Media, Capture One, Bridge and a whole bunch of others.
So Todd, what do you think? Are we stuck with multiple programmes or is there a simpler way?
Would very much like to hear your methods.
Todd – I second Peters Question. My workflow includes Nikon Transfer from Camera NEF. Nikon Capture NX to edit and choose individual files, rename files, convert to JPEG, and then run through NEAT Image. I then upload them to my sight, and then open in Photoshop Elements only to “save for web” (I have found Elements save for web option is the best for me). I then upload the small inferior JPEGS to Flickr, and customers webstites, facebook, myspace, etc..etc. It takes a LOT of time to do all this, and any input on your workflow with different programs would be great. I’m sure you have already mentioned all this somewhere, but you have ALOT of info on this site, and its hard to get to read everything. Keep up the good work!
first of all: the submissions page doesn’t work.
Do you think one can survive in the business without licking everyone’s butt ? I’m working for a well know local concert photo agency in Berlin, Germany. Just recently the main concert host in the city decided to cut us off for now reason (we have many good publications and do almost all concerts here).
This really showed how dependent we are and there is absolutely no way for us to fix that :(
Is there any advise you have on that ?
Also: If you don’t mind, let me know what you think of my photos !
-Michael
ok this time the flickr-url should be right. the one at my first comment is pointing to a german politician with the same name.