If there's one lens to buy when you're just starting out as a music photographer, the 24-70mm f/2.8 is my vote. The f/2.8 aperture, especially for relatively short focal lengths covered in this range, is fast enough to give you reasonable shutter speeds, especially with the excellent high ISO performance of just about any modern APS-C or full-frame camera. Radiohead photographed at the Scottrade Center in St. If pressed, one could very easily cover a whole concert with just the 24-70mm focal length and create a variety of different types of imagery (with the caveat of not working well for say, a soundboard shoot). A 24-70mm lens offers fantastic versatility, offering you a wide angle to short telephoto, and everything in between. 70mm f/2.8 with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8.įor me, this is my bread and butter lens. Drake photographed at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. My go-to lens is my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E VR. The sheer versatility of this range is the very reason that it's a standard. I'm often asked which lens I would recommend for live music photography, and a 24-70mm f/2.8 is always my first choice if budget allows. This isn't to say that I shoot exclusively at the extremes, it's simply a natural extension of using equipments with limits. ![]() This is not a coincidence - it's quite common to hit up against the minimum and maximums of a zoom lens. For all images made with zoom lenses, all are made at the extremes of the zoom range. 15mm with the Nikon 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5.Īs you may notice, I've provided the lens information for all example images in this article. Rich Redmond with Jason Aldean, photographed at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountainview, CA. I'll go more into these specialty lenses below. The tradeoff for zoom versions of these specialty lenses will often be slower than f/2.8 - more commonly f/4 or even slower, which can negate the flexibility of a zoom optic. Here, primes will offer the best speed (no surprise) in the highest performance. For live music, this means super telephoto lenses (lenses 300mm or longer) or fisheye lenses. The other exception of preferring zooms to primes is with with specialty lenses. This is particularly true with shooting shallow depth of field images - think shooting behind a performer with a 35mm f/1.4 wide open with an arena filled with upheld cell phones with the lights on. Even the 1 and 2/3 stop difference with a f/1.8 lens can be a massive help in low light.īeyond purely utilitarian benefits, fast primes can also help create images with a much different look than an f/2.8 lens. All things being equal, that 2-stop difference can mean shooting at a 4x faster shutter speed or an ISO setting 1/4 that of what you'd need with the zoom. The two exceptions to this recommendation are for very dimly shows or speciality lenses.įor very small clubs where lighting may be especially dim, the 2-stop difference of a f/1.4 prime and a f/2.8 zoom can make a huge impact in one's images. If you are photographing smaller shows without a photo pit, where you may be covering from a fixed position in the crowd or otherwise have limited ability to move, the ability to vary your frame easily will be an even larger boon. If you are shooting press and only have access to the photo pit, a zoom will give you the greatest ability to vary your compositions and create compelling images. The reason is simple: the flexibility that zoom lenses provide is indispensable for covering events such as live music, where one's position is often severely restricted. For my work, which is primarily photographing larger venues (say, theater shows and larger), I vasty prefer f/2.8 zooms. For concert photography, the answer to this question depends on the type of events one covers. The eternal debate: Prime vs zoom lenses. ![]() Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, photographed at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Here's a rundown of the best lenses to use for live music photography, including my favorites as well as some more unusual choices. For this reason, choosing the right gear for your needs can be a critical task. If you're a music photographer, you know that time, access, and lighting are things that are very often well beyond your control. 24mm with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E VR, Nikon D850.Ĭhoosing lenses for any genre of photography is important, but this is especially true when you up against constraints.
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