Photographing Laser Shows
Camera settings, exposure tips, and how to capture clean beam shots without blowout.
Laser photography is counterintuitive. Lasers are incredibly bright on a single wavelength but produce almost no ambient light. Your camera's auto exposure will try to compensate by cranking up sensitivity — resulting in blown-out beams against noisy, grainy backgrounds.
Start with manual mode. Set your ISO low (400–800), your aperture moderate (f/4–f/5.6), and your shutter speed between 1/30 and 1/4 second. Longer exposures capture more beam travel, giving you those clean swept-beam lines. Too long and you get a white blur.
White balance matters more than you'd expect. Auto white balance will shift your colours toward the dominant wavelength. Set it to daylight (5500K) or a fixed value to keep your reds red, greens green, and blues blue. Shoot RAW if you can — colour correction in post is much easier.
Haze is everything. No haze means no visible beams in photos (or to the audience). Too much haze and the beams bloom and lose definition. Work with the laser operator to find the sweet spot — usually a thin, even haze rather than thick fog bursts.
For social media content, vertical video (9:16) from the audience perspective often works better than the classic wide shot. A beam fanning out overhead toward the camera is more dramatic than a distant wide angle of the whole rig.
Quick tips
- •A tripod or monopod is essential for the longer exposures that make lasers look best
- •Shoot during rehearsal when you can experiment without pressure
- •Don't use flash — it kills the atmosphere and doesn't help with beam visibility
- •Capture both wide establishing shots and tight detail shots of individual effects
- •The best moment is often when beams transition between effects — the brief all-beam burst
Want to learn more? The LSO Certification course covers this topic in depth with interactive exercises, quizzes, and a final exam. Module 1 is free to preview.