Posing
Nothing is posed. What replaces posing is knowing the set: performers repeat movements, and by the second chorus you know where they will be.
In short: Nothing is posed. What replaces posing is knowing the set: performers repeat movements, and by the second chorus you know where they will be.
The recurring moment in almost every set.
The quiet frame; happens in the slow number.
The band as a group rather than a soloist.
When the light is behind and unusable for a face.
Shot from low so the instrument breaks the light.
The connection frame, usually at the end of the set.
Start with front of stage, arms out — the first two minutes are warm-up and the first pose should be the one that asks least of anyone. Move to at the microphone, eyes closed and turned to the drummer once the shoulders have dropped, and keep leaning into the crowd for the end, when self-consciousness has gone. Shoot each one in bursts through the movement rather than holding it: the usable frames sit between the instructions, not on them.
Two metres back with the lens zoomed rather than close and wide — distance is what keeps facial proportions natural. Camera at or slightly above eye level for portraits, at chest height for full length. Below eye level enlarges whatever is nearest the lens, which is rarely what you want in frame.
Firing flash, which is banned at most venues and destroys the stage lighting that makes the picture. And shooting the whole set from one spot, which produces sixty versions of one photograph.
Shooting in the red wash. Using a slow zoom lens instead of a fast prime. Staying in one position. And forgetting to ask about the photo policy, which is how people end up outside with a camera and no pictures.