Event advice

I’ve lined up my first paid job to photograph a music event this summer. But having never covered something like this before professionally, I’m a bit nervous. What is your advice? Anonymous

What a great gig (excuse the pun) you’ve got yourself. There are many different ways you can approach it, but here are my top five tips for anyone shooting a music event…

1. Familiarise yourself beforehand with the layout of the stage and work out your angles. Some of it will be trial and error but you can plan a lot beforehand. You want to move around to get a variety of shots so they’re not all from the same angle. 2. Anticipate the moment and watch before you shoot. If you observe most bands or musicians, they tend to have a pattern to their performance and will often move around the stage a few times in the same way. Watch how they behave and get into position so that you can get your winning shots. 3. Capture the crowd. Crowd shots can be just as dramatic as band shots. You can also go to the back of the crowd to capture the whole space and the atmosphere of the gig. 4. Shoot generic pictures. As well as getting the big band shots, look for more generic compositions. The organisers of the event will find these types of shots useful for marketing. 5. Use a lens or lenses that can handle low light. Prime lenses are ideal as they can be opened super-wide, although you need to make sure you’re spot on with your focusing.