Late last month Alfie headed off with a student to shoot a gig in Ikebukuro’s ‘Black Sheep’ bar, featuring The Simones.

Photographing musical performances is great fun but it can be a real lottery as to what conditions you have to shoot in; low light, cramped bar, crowds who mask your view, running the gauntlet of over-enthusiastic fans in the mosh-pit. But, hey, if you love live music – like I do – then photographing any sort of band is a joy, ‘cos you don’t have to shut your ears whilst you shoot… so you get to enjoy the music and the process of soaking it up on camera.

One of my students, Charles Lacz, had recently shot some pics of The Simones and one or two other bands at a gig in Ueno. He wanted another go at it, this time on film, and he wanted a little bit of instruction on how to go about it all.

Off we headed to Ikebukuro’s ‘Black Sheep’ pub; Charles with his bevvy of film cameras – to which I added my Nikon F4 – and me with my D300 and a bag-full of lenses.

The pub turned out to be small; one of those long, narrow affairs that you often find in Tokyo. The stage was up the far end and to get near the front meant basically being right underneath the lead-singer’s nostrils. Lucky I packed a wide selection of glass…

Charles took the F4 off my hands and I put the 20mm f/3.5 and the 50mm f/1.2 out on the bar for him to use when he needed them. I shot with these two as well as using my 85mm f/1.4 which, although a bit long for the location, affored me some super-close-ups of the singer and lead-guitarist, which turned out great.

So how do you go about shooting a band in a pub not big enough in which to swing a cat and which doesn’t have the brightest lights?

Shoot\meter the soundcheck – all bands, in however small a venue, always do a soundcheck of some description, so use this five or ten minutes to shoot some tests [if you are on digital] or to get all your light-readings if you are shooting film. Go around each member of the band, get a light-reading, commit them to memory and then at least you have a mental note of which speed to use with each performer.

Lead-singer of 'The Simones'; Ikebukuro, Tokyo: Nikon D300, Nikkor 85mmf/1.4 AF-D, 1600ISO.

Low-light? Go high on the ISO and shoot monochrome – Charles had already decided to shoot B+W film, and given the lighting conditions I decided to shoot straight to mono in-camera. Why? Pubs have mostly tungsten lights at best and often have a mixed-light set-up that can include fluorescents. This is a nightmare for white-balance and together with the low-light conditions [grain on colour film was never really to my taste and noise on high-ISO colour digital shots isn't really any better], mono would certainly be the way to go for atmosphere and results that would bear decent reproduction; in print or on the web.

No room to move? – find the best spot and if you can, stay in it. In a small venue the chances are that one spot will mean you can a lot of the band at once. Find that spot and stay in it. Don’t try and move around too much, as someone will usually fill your spot quickly and then you’re stuffed. Try and get a spot that affords views of as much of the band as possible but resign yourself to the fact that you may not get great shots of everyone, especially the performers skulking in the shadows at the back of the band. C’est la vie, I’m afraid. And no band is ever likely to give you too much shit about it as long as you get some great shots of someone.

Metering? – go with spot-metering, whether you are on film or digi. Matrix, centre-weighted; all these get confused with subjects being backlit or on predominantly dark backgrounds, which is what is happening at most gigs. Spot will allow you to meter for the skin, which is what you want to get as well exposed as possible.

Big aperture lenses rule - as they let in lots of light and that’s usually important at gigs. But, be aware of the shallow depth of field as you do need sharp faces and as much detail as you can in some shots. If you are shooting the band for an article or for publicity shots, having a load of arty, shallow dof, bokehlicious shots is not going to endear you to the editor.

Think carefully about flash – as it can really piss the band off if someone is perpetually flashing away in their face. Also, at some venues and with some bands, flash is actually banned. So check with the band or manager or venue and find out. Plus, it can be hard to control on TTL so you may have to shoot manual. Be prepared and shoot the soundcheck to get your levels.

Try and anticipate the action – if you don’t know the songs, then at least try and get into to the rhythm of the music, as it will help you figure out what the performers are about to do and to get ready to shoot it. Songs have choruses, so watch carefully as to what happens in the first one and then try and get all your best shots in the next one, two or however many happen after that.

Get the performers but get their instruments as well - the people are the important thing but try and capture some close-ups, details and shallow-dof shots of what they are playing. These have helped me out a number of times, in making nice diptych or triptych compositions; head, middle, feet…..

If you have earplugs, pack them and wear them - bands can be loud and to get the best shots of them, you need to be close. Your ears are precious and you only have one pair. Protect them with earplugs. Obviously it varies in importance from venue to venue, gig to gig. Glastonbury Festival – when I shot there – wouldn’t let any snapper near the stage unless he or she had earplugs, for health and safety reasons. Design Festa, where I was shooting bands for six hours, two days the other weekend? Well, even the sound crew didn’t have plugs. God help their ears in a few years time. I like my hearing and I don’t mind running the risk of offending the musicians by having my ears at least semi-blocked to the music. I like music, I like my job but I like being able to hear as well.

Be aware that the gig is not just for you – sure, the band want great shots and so do you but there is often a paying crowd to think about too. The last thing they want is to have their view obscured by a photographer the whole time, especially one that is flashing away with a huge strobe on top of his camera. Be sensitive to who is behind you, whose view you may be blocking and try and get your shots quickly if you can. Some gigs and some bands stipulate ‘first three and you’re out’; i.e. the shooters have the first three songs to get their shots and then they’re out…. so the audience can enjoy what they’ve paid to come and see/hear.

Enjoy yourself – enjoying the music [if it is your taste] will usually help you get into it and get better shots.

So, after all the waffle – here are some of the shots I got. All are straight out of the camera and not processed at all

All photos copyright Alfie Goodrich. Free use on the web is ok but please credit me and link back to this page or one of my sites. Thanks.