Camera Settings for Concert Photography

Todd Owyoung·
Get Started in Music PhotographyPhotography Tutorials
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Aerosmith performing at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 22, 2012. (Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D800 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 58mm. Exposure: 1/400 second, f/2.8, ISO 2000.

Choosing the right camera settings for concert photography can be a daunting task, even for experienced music photographers. Here's a breakdown of every major camera setting that I recommend for shooting live music.

Exposure Mode:

Manual exposure is going to be your best bet for concert photography. Due to the large dynamic range of a concert, in which there can be very bright lights and deep shadows, any camera-metered mode can be easily fooled and produce poor exposures. As a result, manual mode is a much more consistent way of exposing images over auto modes like aperture priority or shutter priority.

Recommended setting: Manual Exposure

Metering Mode:

As mentioned, manual exposure is recommended because camera meters are often fooled. That said, there can be some benefit to using Matrix metering (Nikon) or Evaluative Metering (Canon) are most useful for concerts where large parts of the stage are lit by the same light as the performer. In manual exposure mode, these evaluative metering modes can be used as a useful, passive reference while shooting, unlike spot metering, which requires actively selecting a metering point and cannot be used as unobtrusively.

Recommended setting: Matrix/Evaluative Metering

 

Aperture:

This one is easy. Shoot wide open at the largest aperture you can with your lens. This will be the f-stop with the smallest value, which means that the most light will get to the sensor. Even the most brightly lit concerts are dim compared to daylight, so a wide aperture is needed to gather as much light as possible.

With zooms, the only time I stop down in live music photography is if I am already shooting around 1/500 or higher. When shooting with prime lenses with a fast f/1.4 or f/1.8 aperture, I still shoot wide open, since lighting is often poor if I need the speed of those lenses in the first place.

My advice for live music photography: Shoot wide open, or with the maximum aperture of your lens.

Recommended Setting: Shoot wide open!

Shutter Speed:

When at all possible, I like to shoot at 1/250 or faster, but this is often only a luxury for larger, well-lit shows. For smaller club shows when lighting may be mediocre, I am try and stay in a range between 1/100-1/200 as a minimum for my shutter speed. This range is fast enough to freeze a fair degree of motion and eliminate most major camera shake, all without needing a ton of light. Below 1/100, there's greater chance for blur in images, particularly with faster moving bands.

Recommended Setting: 1/100-1/200, faster whenever possible

ISO:

ISO levels up to 3200 will produce very good quality for almost all DSLR cameras. For compact P&S cameras, 1600 and lower will produce the best results. All this said, when light is finite (which is almost always for indoor concert photography), I would never hesitate to crank up the ISO to whatever produces the best exposure. This is especially true when either ISO or shutter speed must change to achieve a proper exposure. I'll always take more digital noise/grain over a blurry image. Crank the ISO.

Recommended Setting: Whatever gets the job done!

AF Setting:

I shoot with AF-C (continuous) on my Nikons, which is the same as the AI Servo mode on Canon DSLRs. This continuous focusing lets me track motion until the moment I press the shutter release. For dynamic subjects of live music, AF-C is a huge benefit.

Recommended Setting: AF-C (Nikon)/AI Servo AF (Canon)

White Balance:

Auto. I shoot Auto WB about 99% of the time. While shooting with a preset white balance will offer better image quality if you know the exact values to use, the opportunity and ability to precisely set a Kelvin value during live music is limited at best. Setting WB in post makes for much faster shooting — high speed, low drag.

Recommended Setting: Auto WB

Drive Mode:

I recommend shooting in continuous mode at the highest frame rate possible. For those high key moments when you want a high frame rate, you're set — and when you don't need the speed, it's light shutter finger allows single frames with ease. As a concert photographer, high continuous shooting is the way to go.

Recommended Setting: Continuous (high)

RAW or JPG:

Shoot in RAW. Memory cards and harddrives are cheap. Unless you don't care about what you're shooting (which only begs the question, why are you pressing the button in the first place?), there is no reason to pass over RAW for JPG. If you must, for speed of processing and/or delivery, shoot in RAW + JPG mode so that you at least have the RAW files for future use.

Recommended Setting: RAW

Sample Concert Photography Images and Exposure Info

Talk is cheap, so I thought it would be helpful to give some example live music photography with camera, lens and camera settings. These images come from my portfolio and I think that they're a good representation of the above advice for the real world exposure settings I use.

Photos of Gregg Gillis, AKA Girl Talk, performing at the Pageant in St. Louis on January 18, 2011 (TODD OWYOUNG)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm. Exposure: 1/200 second, f/2.8, ISO 3200.
Drummer Lars Ulrich of pioneering heavy metal band Metallica photographed on November 17, 2008. (Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D700 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 190mm. Exposure: 1/500 second, f/3.5, ISO 800.
(Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D800 and Nikon 16mm f/2.8 fisheye at 16mm. Exposure: 1/400 second, f/3.5, ISO 3200.
(Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 150mm. Exposure: 1/500 second, f/2.8, ISO 1600.
KISS performs on the Alive/35 World Tour 2009. (TODD OWYOUNG)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm. Exposure: 1/400 second, f/3.2, ISO 1000.
Skrillex performing at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 1, 2012. (Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm. Exposure: 1/250 second, f/2.8, ISO 3200.
Photos of Adam Young - AKA Owl City - performing at the Pageant in St. Louis on the closing concert of their five-month tour. May 5, 2010. (Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm. Exposure: 1/400 second, f/2.8, ISO 2000.
Metal band As I Lay Dying performing at the Pageant in St. Louis on July 25, 2010 on "The Cool Tour." (TODD OWYOUNG)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm. Exposure: 1/250 second, f/2.8, ISO 1600.
(Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D800 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 32mm. Exposure: 1/80 second, f/2.8, ISO 3200.
(Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 14-24m, f/2.8 at 24mm. Exposure: 1/500 second, f/2.8, ISO 1600.
Photos of The National performing at the Pageant in St. Louis on September 30, 2010. (TODD OWYOUNG)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 120mm. Exposure: 1/160 second, f/2.8, ISO 2000.
Fans at Rusko's performance at the Pageant in St. Louis, Missouri on February 27, 2012. (Todd Owyoung)
Nikon D3 and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 at 14mm. Exposure: 1/40 second, f/2.8, ISO 3200.

Hopefully these twelve images will give you a good idea of the settings I use as a concert photographer.

To recap my recommended camera settings for concert photography:

  • Exposure Mode: Manual
  • Aperture: Wide Open
  • Shutter Speed: 1/100-1/200 or faster
  • ISO: 1600-3200 (or whatever gets the job done)
  • AF Setting: AF-C/AI Servo AF
  • White Balance: Auto WB
  • Drive Mode: Continuous High
  • File Format: RAW

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Todd Owyoung

Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer based in New York City. He specializes in music lifestyle, concert, and celebrity portraits. He is proud to be a Nikon Ambassador for Nikon USA.

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38 Responses

  1. Great article Todd. To expand on your auto focus settings, do you single focus point in AF-C mode or one of the other settings on the d800?

    Reply

  2. Hey Todd — great article! A question about the white balance. Doesn’t having it set to auto confuse the camera (or at least leave you with inconsistent temps) with all the colored lighting? For me, I pick a temp (I usually go for tungsten) so everything is consistent and then I can make a global change, if needed (often not), in post and then tweak individual shots as needed (still rare).

    That said, you seem to get great results, so it is more of a “what drew you to your choice” question?

    Reply

    1. Hi Al,

      Good question. I find Auto WB accurate enough with Nikon cameras that it gets me very close — any changes in post are often when Auto WB is thrown off by a strong was of LED lighting. As far as what led me to use Auto WB, I’ve found that, at least for my shooting, it’s simply the fastest way to arrive at a close, workable image, and that any tweaks that are needed are very fast to make in post.

      Reply
  3. Pingback: Kamera-Einstellungen für Konzert-Fotografie | Nachrichten Heute Deutschland

  4. As well as a photographer, I’m a lighting technician for live entertainment. A really great post, but the one thing I would argue is your WB settings. AWB will almost always over adjust for coloured lighting and try to compensate. If it’s a modern lighting rig with primarily moving lights, then lock it on Daylight to match the output of the fixtures. If it’s old school rock with a wack of PARcans, then drop it into tungsten.
    Otherwise, the computer in the camera will lose some of the color saturation the designer deliberately created

    Reply

    1. Hey Sean,

      Very interesting insight. One thing that I’ve seen when using daylight WB preset is a magenta bias compared to auto WB. However, your point definitely makes sense and I’d be interested in trying out daylight balance in the future. Thanks for the great comment.

      Reply

    1. Hey Dale, thanks for the comment. I want to say that the Aldean shot was more like in the latter 3/4 of the set or so. My brother Chris and I were doing tour photography for Aldean, so we had the run of the place — thankfully no 3-song limit!

      Reply

  7. Hi Todd,

    Thanks for the great article. Do you do any noise reduction in your post processing? If so can you please explain what you use and what settings work for your images?

    Reply

    1. Hi Summer. I don’t do additional noise removal. I use the Lightroom default of 25 chroma noise reduction, and no luminance noise reduction. The files of the D800 that I use have a very fine grain, so combined with the high resolution, noise isn’t an issue until over ISO 6400.

      Reply

  8. Todd,
    Is there ever an instance at a concert where you cannot avoid using flash? Most of the places I shoot are not well lit, so even with the max ISO of 3200, still come out very underexposed. (I use a Canon 40D w/a 50mm 1.8 prime most of the time). Thanks for the posts!

    Reply

    1. If you’re shooting wide open at ISO 3200 and light levels are still too low to get a proper exposure, it’s gotta be quite dark. In these instances, assuming it’s a smaller venue with a more casual atmosphere, I think you could experiment with flash, but it really depends with the situation.

      When I do use flash, it’s trying to mimic stage lighting. So this means off-camera flash.

      Reply

  9. Hi Todd,
    I recently started shooting shows and I just had 2 questions.
    1) When I shoot in f/1.8 my pictures usually turn out looking blurry, I don’t know it is due to lack of depth of field or if i am doing something wrong, any suggestions?
    2) How do I get photo passes? I have emailed some of my favorite bands publicists and get no response.
    Thank you for your time and for sharing your knowledge through this website!

    Reply

    1. Hi Bobby,

      1) At f/1.8, focus is critical. The AF sensors in the camera are generally larger than what is indicated in the viewfinder, so this means that you must be very careful about the point of focus.

      2) You generally have to be shooting for a publication that the band/PR deems worthy. If you’re just shooting for yourself, the band gets zero publicity from the access they grant.

      Hope this helps.

      Reply

  10. This is great information, I have only shot a few small venue shows but found manual was the way to go. In one case the lighting was so poor I was forced to shoot at 1/30 even at f1.8 and iso 6400. This is a great collection of photos Todd, I especially like the wide angle images, they really convey the energy of the shows.

    Reply

  11. Hey Todd,
    Have you ever used the nikon 105mm f/2.8 for concert photography? I’ve heard its a great portrait lens, as well as macro.

    Reply

    1. Hi Tom, I haven’t used the 105/2.8 for concert photography. I have no doubt it would be sharp, but the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II is so good that I haven’t looked at other options in that same range.

      Reply

  12. hi todd! do you always use the center point when focusing (that being the most accurate and fast); if so, how can you recompose a shot so that it wont be dead center? im just a little lost on how NOT to put your subject dead center with af-c mode with the center point activated. perhaps cropping for composition in post comes to the rescue? thanks in advance

    Reply

    1. Hey Jay, with the AF settings I use (I use the AF-ON button exclusively for AF activation), it’s just a matter of recomposing after AF lock. It can be very fluid.

      Reply

  13. Thanks,great article and put all of these tips into play last night, 1 person away from the front and got some fantastic shots at f3.5, 1/1000, ISO3200.

    Reply

  14. Hey Todd.
    I know you always keep the aperture open to 2.8 for the most light but what about if you’re trying to get various planes in focus such as face, hands over guitar strings?
    Also in the KISS photo (which is amazing) Paul and Ace are all bent over and backwards in varying in depth, how does a 2.8 give such crisp edges with so much depth variety?! that’s incredible

    Reply

    1. Hi, normally don’t worry about depth of field. I focus on the face/eyes about 99% of the time. For the KISS shot, it’s at wide angle, but still focused on the face of Paul Stanley. When seeing the photo larger, it’s more apparent that not everything is so crisp! But at normal viewing distances, I even shooting at f/2.8 where not everything is in very sharp focus, it’s a non-issue.

      I hope this answers your question.

      Reply

  15. I recently shot a performance of a duo as part of a larger tour. i was granted access to shoot with my DSLR (only tour PR people had that option besides me). I’ve done several in the past few years and do pretty well with them. I use Lightroom CC and some shots look better using cloudy versus daylight, but do not like varying color across so many shots. My question is how you do you decide on WB during post processing? Do you stick with one WB across the whole shoot?

    Reply

  16. ‘when shooting in this venue I did not see any mention of speed lights if you are not up close to the stage as in a disco DJ shooting. What speed light would you use?

    Reply

    1. Any speedlight would do, really. What’s probably more important is the kind of speedlight use you’d want, whether on camera or remote, the latter brings up a lot of different considerations.

      Reply

  17. Todd some questions. Please, please help:

    1) Do you work with the Zone System at all in concert photography? Like I try this when my subject is backlit really brightly.
    Usually in this case the histogram is touching the right side. So I do one of two things. If Medium Grey is considered Zone 5, then I increase my shutter speed (assuming this is a momentary bright light that makes changing the ISO the least wise of the choices) until I get my scene into around Zone 6 or 7. In other words I’m exposing for the highlight/lights. If things were constant under that situation, I’d probably have just put my exposure compensation at +1 through +3.

    When I’m met with extremely light or dark situations I usually use evaluative metering, so that I can use that average to push my scene lighter or darker. I worry less about the person in those circumstance just because of how the scene will look to the camera. If I can zoom in close to my subject’s face then I’ll use spot metering.

    If my subject front lit, I usually still read my meter not at medium grey but at Zone 6 or 7. Unless it’s someone with dark skin then I’d expose at medium grey or maybe even Zone 4. I also don’t assume there are only 10 zones. I assume that in the highlight area one could go as high as Zone 18, where there is no detail in the highlights.

    2) Also if you’re getting mostly darker tones in a histogram, which does match the scene. But there’s someone’s face in there, how far to the left do you let the histogram lean without underexposing the face. I usually try not let the histogram tough left because I’m always of the thought that the face with be underexpose. So while the histogram is not a bell curve, there is a little bit of space between the edge and the bell. So what this amounts to is details in my blackest blacks.

    3) Final question: Is my assumption true: That concert photographers are using exposure compensation more so to keep their ISO low, especially in very low light consider? I hear people say crank the ISO, but that means the intro of grain is possible. But giving negative exposure compensation that extends the range of the blacks, for example so that under normal circumstances when the histogram would be hitting the left edge giving it negative exposure compensation would push the histogram to the right?

    I know these are a lot of questions, but I’ve been thinking and struggling with this a while and if you could answer it I think I could wrap my head around exposure better.

    Reply

  19. Hi Todd,

    This article is 3 years old now but better late than never! I love all the advice and I CAN”T WAIT to put it to use!

    Here is my question:

    In the article, your advice on ISO settings is “whatever gets the job done” I currently shoot with a Nikon D750 and there is an AUTO ISO feature that can limit your ISO to a certain value. Would you use this feature or do you set yours at a specific ISO. You suggest shooting manually but lighting can be so dynamic at a show (I love the Close Encounters reference. Perfect!) What would Todd do?

    Love this article! Thank you

    Reply

    1. Hi Wayne, I never shoot on auto ISO, but if you prefer to shoot this way, it’s really personal preference on the image quality you feel comfortable with. For me, up to ISO 6400 on the D750 is great.

      A necessity with shooting in manual mode is just having a the experience of knowing when to change the exposure based on what you see and feel. Beyond that, if I get within half a stop of the “right” exposure in RAW, I’m happy. Hope this helps.

      Reply

  20. Thanks for the insight, I find settings the Ev 1 stop + helps with noise while using a higher iSO. Have you tried changing your Ev?

    Reply
  21. Pingback: How to Become a Concert Photographer - Photography Tutorials - ishootshows.com

  22. Hi Todd,

    Great article! I really like the sample photos with the camera settings. I have been shooting in smaller, poorly lit clubs which tend to use a lot of reds and blues in the lighting. This results in a saturated and grainy raw image. Any tips to help overcome adverse conditions?

    Reply

    1. Hey Keith, I’m glad you found the article helpful. You have a great question. If the reds dominate the scene, you can manually set the kelvin white balance setting to a very “cool” temperature like 2000k in a program like Lightroom, or set it in camera. For blue, it would be the opposite, trying to pre-set or adjust after the fact to make the scene much warmer. Watch out as primary colors like red and blue can oversaturate very quickly and you’ll lose detail/definition. Slight under exposure will help hold tone, but as you know, underexposure will also produce a grainy image. Also, don’t be afraid to convert to a B&W image if the scene doesn’t translate well. There’s only so much that can be done with difficult lighting. Hope this helps!

      Reply
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