Is it worth to get into concert photography? I'm big into metal music and there are weekly shows in my town big and small. Also huge festivals nearby in summer. Instead of sitting on my ass at home lurking on 4chan or flickr.. should I give it a try? I have no portfolio yet so it might be best to start with smaller local bands and ask if they want some free photos. If I search for photographers in that area, they all are really mediocre, especially the post editing. I wanna become the Greg Williams of metal music. My main goal isn't money, though that would be a nice addition later on. What would suck though is if this is as oversaturated as soemthing like wedding photography. What do ya think? Anyone with experience? is it fun?
Man what can someone else tell you about whether it is worth it to get into an art or hobby. It's for you to decide.
>>4520435Generally not worth it unless you want to work for free and use it as practice/network.I started out doing live music botos so i could move on to band editorial stuff and album covers to flex creative muscles.Try to make friends with the bands otherwise its gonna be a very transactional one sided relationship if you decide to follow a band around (which is normal)
>>4520435i agree with >>4520512 and would like to add that at a certain point i realized i was turning an experience that would normally be enjoyment / blowing off steam into work time. i already have enough work and would rather just watch bands.
>>4520435I agree with the two anons above - it usually eats away a lot of the enjoyment of the music and you will be doing it for free probably forever. Getting on a guestlist means you became a big shot lol.If you wanna start with smaller local bands, be ready that the photos will be very boring - you need good/interesting light, and a lot of the smaller venues just dont care; if you even consider using flash, know that everybody is gonna silently hate you (or that it might be/get you banned), or... you just really need to know what youre doing in low light situations (camera/equipment AND post processing wise). But on the other hand - it is a geniunely good pastime when the bands on the bill arent that interesting and youre waiting for your favorite band to start playing lol, it makes the nights shorter.
>>4520548Forgot to add - be ready to get fucked by LED banding, its imo the biggest "new" show photography plague, everyone uses the cheapest lights with shitty PWM and youre gonna be stuck on 1/30s or whatever the multiple is gonna be.
>>4520548What did you shoot through to get those cool prismatic effects?>>4520550Yes, dealing with banding is a bitch to the point that the A9III would give a concert photographer a genuine advantage over others.
>>4520563One of these kaleidoscopic filters, I just free hand it in front of the lens so it gives me random flares more than the intended effect, makes simple venue light setup more fun. Processing the refracted rainbows can be a bitch though, the blues/violets really like to clip.
>>4520567thanks, that looks like a fun filter and I think it made your photo more kino
>>4520563re: the a9iii. I agree, global shutter is fantastic, but youre defnitely not getting that kind of money from doing concert photography lol
>>4520589>>4520567Pls dont use one of these, you attract the worst people who think it looks cool and itll realpy date your photos in the next 10 years. Just learn to accept the shitty lighting/colors and learn to get creative with your comps and when to turn away from the band and turn toward the crowd.Get atleast 2 good pics of each band member and them pad out the rest with crowd shots or a key event that happens.
>>4520675>dont do cool things. take photos exactly like every soulless 120fps machine gunning canony journalist. crank that ISO. enhance. sharpness! no flare! no aberrations! L! GMASTER! 50MP! FROPAK 3!Naw use the cool filter
>>4520675It was an awful effect in the 60s and 70s and would still be today if used as designed. But anon used it to create random flares that looked good and I'm sure he's not using it for every shot.
Your not going to be able to bring anything resembling a real camera into big venues these days
>>4520682Yeah I am not this guy lol>https://www.instagram.com/davidanshots/I usually get a shot or two with the filter, but it is just an effect to use, I dont want it to define the night or look like its my shtick.
>>4520435>I wanna become the Greg Williams of metal music. Just looked this guy up and I think you've got it a bit backwards. If you just take concert photos you won't be like this photographer. In order to be like that photographer you need to be able to meet up with the metal musicians outside of the concert and create compelling editorial portraits. And doing random concert photos isn't really as much of a bridge into that work as you might think. Most of the time you'll just get more concert opportunities.You'd be better off learning who the local bands are, seeing a show, then finding a way to do a shoot with them and then be invited to their next show to come backstage and do something creative that's outside of the typical concert format. Then use those interesting portraits to convince someone a bit more famous to do a shoot with you. And so on.
>>4520682>It was an awful effect in the 60s and 70sBeing a flaming homosexual is against the rules, bro
>>4520742also looked him up and honestly I dont really like his photos lol
