Staged

Staged

I’ve been doing pictures of live performances for a very long time indeed. I haunted the local folk club before I went to university – and at school I’d taken production photographs of school plays, and even a couple of concerts… However, when I photographed the Edgar Broughton Band in 1971 from on top of the school piano, I committed one of the great sins – I Used Flash. Possibly it didn’t matter so much with loud music and a lights show, but it’s something I have avoided ever since.



It’s great if you are taking the official pictures for a production or performer, and can shoot with no audience present. You can ask for a rerun of a particular part of the show or song, and you can adjust positions and lighting to suit your purposes. That’s not on for a live performance – at least if you want to avoid becoming the most unpopular person in the room! The value of being prepared to shoot in a tatty rehearsal room on a Sunday afternoon comes when you get to see the actual performance, and you know what will come next.



You will read a lot about having to take pictures during the first three songs: that’s true for the big gigs – and you and I probably won’t get our cameras through the doors anyway. But pick a small local gig, or make friends with either the venue owner of a band, and be generally nice to them, and it’s amazing what you can do.

I’ve photographed a band called Venus Rising twice, as a result of answering casting calls on Purpleport (the lead singer does a little bit of modelling, as well), and the second occasion was at a venue with wonderful stage lighting, and a midweek audience, allowing me very free access. Pubs with occasional live music can be a good place to drink (when they open their doors again: and everyone will welcome activity, post-Covid, I reckon!) Similarly, answering a casting call has led me to burlesque performances organised by Triple Threat (you’ve seen them in my pictures: but the shows involved multiple performers).



I’ve generally found that an 85mm lens will be sufficient at a small venue: if you are using a zoom, be prepared to visit the upper reaches of your ISO range (and with an older camera, you may have to do that, AND deliberately underexpose) consider 3200 ISO the new 100… Take care to move around the room as little as possible, and go behind people whenever you can: the value of repeated visits to the same venue lie in being able to identify the places to be. Travel light, so you don’t have to worry about leaving your kit unattended, or carrying a bulky bag all the time.

Don’t use flash. Just don’t – I remember, the day after an Al Stewart gig at Durham Students Union, the accusing way a good friend asked if it had been me with the flash, interrupting the performance. Fortunately, it hadn’t been. Even back in the Seventies, I’d learned that flash enrages fellow audience members as well as killing all the atmosphere of a gig. That’s even true with a Gary Fong light modifier, by the way…



Give pictures (possibly prints, more likely digital files) to anyone and everyone: if the performers and venue like you, you’re home and dry for the next gig. Often, it’s not big, high-quality files they need – it’s pictures that will look good on Instagram and Facebook. And when you promise to deliver, make sure that you aren’t late. Like yesterday’s Kodak Retinette, it’s better to underpromise and overperform.
Of course, there is one way to be certain: book a house concert… The final picture is of Kirsty McGee in my front room – a wonderful present from my son for my 60th birthday. The only photographic problem is that I was so spellbound that I took very few pictures indeed.