Shooting Musicians

How I got started, my approach and some observations.

JJ Lovegrove performing at the final Soundhive Social gig, Duffy's Bar, Leicester. 12th December 2024. Fujifilm X-T5, XF90mm, 1/125, f2, ISO 3200.

As you can probably tell from the rest of my website, photographing musicians playing live in small venues is something I thoroughly enjoy.

But how did it all start?

I’ve loved listening to music all of my life. And photography has always been a part of my life too. My dad and my aunt (his sister) had their own dark room at home back in the 1950s, and my dad worked in the camera trade for most of his working life, at Youngs on Belvoir Street in Leicester. As a consequence, cameras were always around when I was growing up.

Having shot with a variety of film cameras and then “compact” digital cameras, I made the leap to my first DSLR in 2005, buying a Canon EOS 20D. The main reason I chose Canon was that I had previously owned Canon film SLRs, so I could continue using my lenses. Also, that camera shop my dad worked at was a Canon-approved EOS centre.

At the time, I had a two-year-old daughter, and I wanted to document her life as she grew up, so my first year with the Canon 20D was spent shooting family trips and holidays.

This is where that love of music I mentioned earlier comes in. I had friends who were musicians on the Leicester scene, and it just happened that one of them, Kate Easton, had an album launch coming up at The Musician on Clyde Street.

I would have gone along just to listen to the music as I had on numerous other occasions. This time, for some reason, I thought I’d take my camera along. I had no idea how I’d get on in the dark and cramped environment of the music venue, but with the transition from film to digital, it wouldn’t cost me anything to give it a try.

A photo from that first night, attempting to shoot musicians playing live. Andy Griffiths performing at The Musician, Leicester, 2nd June 2006. Canon EOS 20D, EF50mm, 1/60, f1.8, ISO 3200.

So, on 2nd June 2006, I set off to The Musician equipped with my 20D and a small collection of lenses. It would turn out to be a momentous evening for me for several reasons.

Firstly, of course, there was hearing my good friend Kate play material from her new album. Secondly, I had a chance encounter with another really good friend whom, sadly, I had lost touch with years before (we’ve not let that happen again since). Thirdly, I sparked my love of taking photos at gigs.

My results from that gig weren’t incredible, but I got something out of it, and I thoroughly enjoyed combining my love of music with my love of photography.

Kate Easton performing at The Musician, Leicester, 2nd June 2006. Another photo taken on that first night of shooting at gigs.. Canon EOS 20D, EF50mm, 1/80, f2,2, ISO 3200.

It became almost standard for me to take a camera to a gig, and pretty early on I realised that the look I really aspired to was high-contrast black-and-white. Black and white photography has a timeless quality.

It also offers an additional layer of abstraction from reality. “The camera always lies” is one of my often-used phrases. Every time you compose a photograph, you are already creating abstraction by selecting what will be in the frame, what will be in focus and the precise moment you depress the shutter button, capturing a fraction of a second in time. Choosing to remove colour is another step away from what we see with our own eyes. I enjoy seeing the inky deep blacks contrasted with the stark bright highlights.

Hugh McManners performing at Soundhouse, Leicester. 24th March 2023. Fujifilm X-H1, XF100-400, 1/250, f5, ISO 800.

The late, great and much missed Neil Segrott, ‘Tiny’, performing at The Donkey, Leicester, 13th January 2013. Canon EOS 7D, EF70-200mm, 1/125, f4, ISO 1600.

Having a love of black-and-white photography has some bonus side effects.

The lighting in these intimate venues can make it very challenging to get the colour balance right. The lights might be red one moment, blue the next, then green, or a mix of different coloured lights. And they’re not particularly flattering when you’re trying to capture a candid portrait of someone on stage. Achieving a realistic colour balance in post-processing can be time-consuming and nearly impossible in certain circumstances.

Then there’s the issue of noise/grain. I find that digital grain is somehow less appealing to the eye than film grain. These venues are dark, so the ISO needs to go up: 1600, 3200, I’ve even shot at 6400 when needed. Removing colour noise from the equation can help a great deal; however, there is still luminosity noise to deal with. As I’ve progressed, I’ve found myself less fussy about noise anyway, and modern cameras and post-processing software also do an incredible job of reducing it compared to even just a few years ago.

Dan Britton of 'Dead Rock Stars' performing at The Donkey, Leicester, 13th January 2013. Canon EOS 7D, EF70-200m, 1/125, f4, ISO 3200.

I usually have only one camera body with me; however, I occasionally take two, particularly if I know I’ll want both a long and a wide-angle lens readily on hand. Swapping lenses in a dark and crowded room can be challenging.

As you might expect in darkened venues, I tend to favour lenses with wider apertures. The Fujinon XF56mm f1.2 is remarkable and will likely be on the front of a camera when I arrive at the venue. The Fujinon XF35mm f1.4 is another one I like, especially if I’m very close to the stage or want a slightly wider field of view. To get in closer, the Fujinon 90mm f2 is wonderful. On the Fuji X series APS-C bodies, this gives an equivalent field of view to a 135mm lens on a 35mm body - a focal length long favoured for head-and-shoulder portraits. This lens is particularly sharp, even wide open at f2.

This preference for wider apertures means I’m shooting mainly with primes. I have tried using my lovely Fujinon XF100-400mm, but because its available apertures are relatively small (f4.5 to f5.6), I can only really use it when the lighting is just right for me, with a bright spotlight pointing straight at the artist. Consequently, I rarely take it along unless I’ve forgotten and left it in my bag. It might be interesting to try the 50-140mm f2.8; however, it costs nearly £1500 new at the time of writing, and there’s quite a big difference between f1.2, f1.4 and even f2 compared with that lens’s widest aperture of f2.8 when shooting under these conditions.

L’Ku (Kulvir Bhambra) performing at Firebug, Leicester, 12th September 2025. Fujifilm X-T5, XF90mm, 1/250, f2, ISO 1600.

When it comes to exposure, I aim to expose for the highlights, which helps me achieve those inky dark backgrounds; generally, spot metering on the artist’s face. Usefully, many cameras, including the X-T5, allow you to link the point of focus to the spot metering point. I’m not going to list shutter speeds and apertures, as they vary from venue to venue, night to night and moment to moment. Mostly, I’m aiming to freeze motion so 1/500 or 1/250, maybe even 1/125 if the artist is fairly static. Occasionally, I like to see what a bit of motion blur will look like, great for drumsticks or a hand sweeping down over guitar strings.

I try to keep an eye out for any interesting facial expressions, hand gestures or poses. And this is another reason I love taking these photos: I’m awful (and I mean really awful) at posing people. Yes, I’m sure it’s a skill I could work on. However, with live musicians, they get up on stage, do what they’re going to do, and I click the shutter button when I like what I see.

I try to avoid annoying other concertgoers as much as I can. You don’t want somebody bobbing around with a camera in front of you all the time when you’re trying to enjoy the music. I might tuck myself directly in front of a speaker stack, for example, and I try to avoid moving around during a song. If I want to move to another vantage point, then I’ll wait for a break in the music. If things get crowded down near the stage, I’ll move back; the last thing I want is for my photography to spoil the enjoyment of others who have paid for a ticket, the same as I have.

I suppose many photographers describe themselves by the genre of photography they shoot most: landscape, wildlife, street, architecture, etc. Does that mean that I would describe myself as a “gig photographer”? I don’t think so. I shoot whatever interests me, and whilst music photography is something I greatly enjoy, I think I would describe myself as an “observational photographer”. I don’t limit myself to a single genre of photography. If I see something that interests me, whether that be a view, an animal, a flower, a building or a musician on a stage, then I’ll be framing it up in my mind as a photo.