What's cooler than being cool? Being free! Discover new free downloads, services, educational content, and community resources to grow your knowledge as a music photographer. Want to learn new concert photography techniques? We've got you covered! Looking for a better way to host your photo galleries? Check! Read on to find all kinds of free resources for music photographers.

Get Started With Free Tools

Pixys Image Theft Protection ​

An unfortunate reality of life as a photographer is that individuals and organizations will try to use your work without credit or without permission. While it’s flattering that people love your photos and want to use them, not receiving credit or payment is not ok. Pixys image theft protection helps protect your images to search for copyright infringements and takedown unapproved uses. Their free plan allows photographers to monitor up to 500 images. 

Pixiset Gallery Hosting

Pixiset helps photographers share and sell their work with sleek digital galleries. Their service is a great way to elevate your image delivery and impress clients. You can manage download access with a private PIN, manage print sales, and generate nicely designed emails to share your galleries. Their free plan supports up to 3GB of storage 

Matty Vogel’s Free Lightroom Presets

Matt’s editing style is a legendary, so it’s pretty cool that he offers two of his trademark presets—a color edit and a black and white edit—for free. These two presets are an awesome starting point for your edits with helpful tone curves, light split toning, and other adjustments that work great with concert lighting.

Photographer Tonight's Free Lightroom Presets

Not to pat ourselves on the back too much here, but we think our free presets are pretty great too! This free pack includes three presets: a base edit for color images, a teal color grade, and a black and white filter compatible with Adobe Lightroom Classic, Adobe Lightroom CC, and Lightroom Mobile. 

Learn Something New

Don’t Sh*t on the Bus

Named after a time-tested adage in the music industry, Don’t Sh*t on the Bus is a podcast and blog series about all things related to touring and the music business. While they have plenty of content specifically for music photographers and videographers, they also cover a wide range of topics that get into the nitty gritty of tour life. Their podcast and blog are a great way to learn more about how tours operate and get perspectives from musicians, photographers, tour managers, and other important team members. Whether you’re looking to join your first tour or are a seasoned veteran you’ll find helpful advice here.

I Shoot Shows

Todd Owyoung is the GOAT when it comes to music photography education. An incredibly accomplished photographer himself, Todd’s client list includes massive music festivals and every major music publication you could think of. Since 2007, Todd has been sharing valuable knowledge he’s accumulated from thousands of hours of music photography on I Shoot Shows. You’ll find advice on everything from photography techniques to the business of music photography—including how to price your work, understand photo releases, and manage your portfolio.

Matty Vogel’s Blog Posts

Matty may currently be best known for his work as Billie Eilish’s tour photographer, but he’s been documenting musicians for over a decade with his trademark style. A veteran road warrior, Matty’s blog is a great resource for advice on touring and workflow management. When you’re photographing a show every night you absolutely need to have your workflow dialed in. But these tips can make your shooting and editing process more enjoyable for any photographer. 

Adam Elmakias’ YouTube Channel

There’s so much great content on Adam’s YouTube channel that it’s a serious challenge to try and summarize all of it. You’ll find tons of helpful videos here including live RAW photo edits with top music photographers, technique advice for photographing shows and portraits, and incredibly fun POV footage of Adam photographing artists like Twenty One Pilots, Of Mice & Men, and more. Adam’s channel features some of the most in-depth educational videos on music photography, often an hour or more in length. It’s a testament to the quality of information he shares that we keep coming back to these videos again and again.

Shoot More Shows

Publication Directory

Working with a music publication can be a great way to get photo passes and access to document concerts. With the publication directory, you can browse dozens of music publications, see their contact information, and easily apply for open roles on their staff. 

Connect With The Community

Music Photography Discord

Life as a music photographer can feel a bit lonely at times. It’s tough to make friends with other photographers when most of our interactions happen while we’re running around during the first 3 songs in loud photo pits. Fortunately, this music photography Discord channel is changing that. Started by Todd Owyoung, the channel has over 400 members answering questions about everything from technique to the business of music photography. If you’ve been following our other blog posts, you’ll see some familiar faces here, like rising star Brent Goldman. This Discord channel is an amazing way to meet other music photographers and get answers to your questions.