or: a fundamental misunderstanding about photography and its place at live events

Venues or promoters or bands or some mysterious force behind a conspiracy have decided that “professional” cameras don’t belong at concerts or other performance events.  This is a huge mistake that needs to completely reverse itself.  Here’s why…

It’s quite simple actually.  Picture this in your mind’s eye: a DSLR.  It’s a camera you look through.  To use it, you raise it to your face.  No higher, no lower.  Now picture you’re at a show and the person in front of you has a DSLR.  They spend the entire show with the camera glued to their face.  But you don’t really notice.  They aren’t blocking your view.  They’re not popping a flash.  You might notice them doing it, but it doesn’t annoy you, even though they spend pretty much the entire night taking pictures.  You realize at the end of the night that a bunch of people at the front of the stage have had cameras pressed to their faces all night, just like the person in front of you.  Huh.  You almost didn’t notice at all.

Now, picture a different scenario:  The person in front of you takes maybe 20 pictures all night and a video during your favorite song.  But this isn’t with a DSLR, it’s with a phone.  The bright light and their arms over their head are blocking your view and every time their phone comes on in the darkened venue it takes a couple minutes for your eyes to adjust, so even when their phone isn’t in your face, you can’t see the band.  This sucks.  You might as well have bought a live bootleg.  It would’ve been cheaper than the ticket.  And what’s with all the flashes at the front of the stage?  Didn’t they ban cameras?  People must’ve snuck some pocket cameras in.

just throw ya hands in the air, and wave em round like you just don't care about anybody else (pic via images.google.com)

The posture for using a DSLR means that you only have to hold the camera as high as your face to use it.  Phones don’t have view finders.  The screen has to be on.  And because the

lenses on phones are so wide, people raise them over their head to get more of the stage and less of the audience.  This is obnoxious.  And the people who use DSLRs know it.

DSLRs are sensitive enough to take pictures without flash, even in crappy light.  Phones have bright, obnoxious LEDs to compensate for their weak sensors.  Pocketable point and shoot cameras have similarly small sensors and require bright blasts of flash to make a proper exposure.  Even when a flash is used with a DSLR, it’s usually a less obtrusive, because DSLRs need a weaker flash.

Furthermore, DSLRs are not cheap.  If you look at the number of DSLRs sold each year, you have to realize that the majority are not purchased by professional photographers.  Pro’s are a tiny part of the market (increasingly ignored by manufacturers!).  People who have disposable income to spend on a DSLR are people who are likely to have more money to waste on concert tickets.  If they bought a big expensive fancy DSLR, they’re going to want to use it.  And if they can’t, they aren’t going to be angry at their camera, they’re going to be angry at the jerk who told them they couldn’t.

Allowing DSLRs is a win/win for everyone involved.  The venues will have happier customers.  The promoters will have free buzz about their events.  The artists get free press (and chances are it’s positive press, since these are paying customers).  The artists management gets a free ride when the pics are posted on social media sites.