On a manual lens. Or in the dark. Or when there’s a lotta movement but the subject is kinda stationary.

Clean lens clean lens clean lens.

Then shoot raw (can iPhones do that?) And edit in Lightroom Mobile.

So I’m a freelance Cinematographer and produce a pretty well-respected stand up show as a hobby with 3 of my friends.

Everything everyone said is right.

However.

If it’s a traditional comedy show, the comics are getting paid about $10-20 each. In my case we don’t even pay ourselves, the photographer is the only one we pay and he also gets $20.

Insane low price, I’d personally never even go near that price as a photographer, but we pay our comics $20 and charge $10 for tickets. We also buy the comics drinks. That puts our daily operating costs at around $200. So if we sold 20 tickets (average for this kinda show) we break even (again, the producers don’t get paid at all). If we’re lucky we sell 30 tickets.

So here’s the issue, right? Comedy is a disgustingly low-revenue art. If you love comedy, want to see these shows, enjoy helping, and can potentially turn those photos into more lucrative gigs, that’s kind of the best you’re likely to get. If you don’t/can’t, you’re basically going to have to move on to something that pays your rate.

Again, you SHOULD be charging like… $500 minimum for any kinda gig, just to even start the conversation, but comedy shows are unique in that there’s usually no money anywhere.

My suggestion is to make the gig as easy as possible for you: shoot jpeg. Have the producer just like, bring you and SD card every show he can take home and those are the photos. Driving an hour and a half is kinda nuts, my show commute is 45 there and 18 back, but yeah. Photographing a comedy show is basically just a way to get a free ticket and make some cool friends.