Shooting concerts is always a challenge

For both the photographer and the gear.
With most concerts you get an assigned area and only a (very) limited time.
With classical concerts this often means you’re only allowed at the final part or just the first few minutes.

For the gear it’s an even bigger challenge.
No strobes of course, and in my case also absolutely no focus assists, and don’t even start about the lighting.
Sometimes it’s great, for example with pop or rock concerts, but in the case of classical music it can be a real challenge due to the more subdued lighting but also because with a piano recital the performer is in essence in the same location.

Wibi Soerjadi : De Doelen

I’ve known Wibi for many years and over the years a close friendship has developed which gives me some great opportunities.
First of all I’m allowed to do “everything” I want. I place this between quotes because although I’m allowed, it’s not something you should also do.
There are people in the room that paid for a relaxed evening enjoying music, and they don’t want a photographer running around standing in front of them and shooting the whole concert.
Over the years we have developed a routine with Wibi.

Before the soundcheck I know what will happen during the concert which makes it easier for me to move around during the breaks, meaning I don’t annoy the visitors.
For the first serie I will start on the stage.
For me that’s in all honesty terrifying, believe it or not but being in the spotlights myself is much less scary than sitting 1-2 mtrs away from a performer.
When we started doing this it did happen a few times I was almost dragged from the stage, only to be allowed back in again after calling the manager 😀 But nowadays most venues know the link and let me roam around freely.

I start on the stage when Wibi is still “fresh”, personally I LOVE the images where sweat is flying around. In all honesty I think most people don’t have a clue how hard Wibi works behind the piano. When you are so close and you hear the breathing, the fingers, the piano sounds (he plays intense) and the vibrations of the music through the stage it’s a whole different ballgame than being in the room or hearing it on a recording. For me it’s just amazing what he does, and all without using any sheet music.

After the break I will mostly move all the way to the back of the venue and shoot some oversight shots.
Often the lighting on the stage is ok/great/bad for closeups but in most cases you miss the lighting effects you can see in the room itself, so they need to be in there of course.
Depending on the lighting plan I will slowly move forward, using each break in which Wibi explains what he is playing to move to a different location.
In the end , the idea is to shoot the final images right in front of the stage and shoot the encore.

Did I ever miss a shot, or almost broke my neck running around a venue…. 😀
Let’s take a look at my favorite images from this concert.

All shot with the Sony A7RV with the 24-70 f2.8 GM.
Oh and the reason I’m not using any focus assistants?
Imagine being 1-2 mtrs away from the performer who is concentrating to perform a very difficult piece and out of nowhere there is a light beam on your face and you hear a beep plus SLAM from the shutter.
I guess you won’t be there long, to be fair I did forget once to turn of my “beam of light” and in the dark…. it’s bright 😀

Part 1

With the closeups I try to get different poses of the hands and of course different angles, love using wide angles in most venues.

Part 2

After sitting on the stage for an hour it was great to stretch my legs and move around.
As mentioned I started all the way on top and move slowly down.

Part 3

And finally the images right in front of the stage.

I hope you enjoyed this blogpost.
I would love to thank from my side team Wibi for always being awesome to work with.
And of course check out www.soerjadi.com for more info (and photos) about Wibi.