Concert Photography and Shooting in Low Light

Some of my most recent work has been photographing concerts around LA. Being an avid music fan, I jump at any opportunity to shoot something I love. I even have an entire page of this website dedicated to it!

There are exceptions, but for the most part, concerts are poorly lit, at least as far as ideal conditions go. And unless you’re trying for a particular artistic effect, a fast shutter is necessary to capture your subject(s) in focus. So how do you shoot with a fast shutter in low light? Crank the ISO.

What’s ISO, you ask? If you’ve ever bought a roll of film for your camera, you probably noticed that the packaging has different numbers on it. You could, for example, buy film that has a 100, 200, 400, etc. on the box. That’s the film’s ISO, or its light sensitivity.

ISO 400 Film

The amazing thing about digital cameras is that you can control the sensor’s light sensitivity by turning the digital ISO speed up or down to suit your shooting conditions. No need to have several different types of film - hooray!! But as is the case with many things, with this benefit comes a downside: The higher the ISO, the more digital noise you’re going to see on the image. That’s why your nighttime iPhone pictures look so grainy! Some people aren’t bothered by the noise as much as I am; sometimes that look is even intentional! But for me personally, this is mostly an undesirable look:

Before retouching. This photo was shot at f/3.5, 1/200sec, 12,800 ISO!! Notice the grain/noise around the edges and in the corners.

This particular show was at night in a Downtown LA warehouse. I had my shutter set at 1/200 of a second, and at this speed an ISO of 12,800 (!!!) was necessary for a proper exposure. The result is what you see above - very grainy! Luckily for me, there are several pieces of software that can help remove noise, and you end up with something like this:

After retouching. Dylan Taylor of AHZ at 1720 Warehouse in Los Angeles. Summer 2019.

So yeah… throw in some smoke and laser beams, and I’ll be there!!