I’ve been back shooting a bit in the music scene. Shot one of my all time favorite singers Saturday night At The Grand Theatre, Serena Ryder. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen her perform and it never gets old. Her voice and her writing abilities are second to none in my opinion.
It’s interesting to hear the questions I get asked about shooting live music. It’s a genre of photography that not everyone can just go and do so they seem to have a lot of questions. I know that I am very lucky to have the privilege to practice what I do. Colour related issues are my biggest challenge. No matter what colours are happening on a stage, I still try to get as “normal” skin tones as is possible. Red and that blue/purple light is the worst of all. Not only is there the obvious colour cast but it can sometimes rob you of detail too. I often struggle with this but this Sam Roberts show was especially heavy in the blue/purple range. I was able to get an acceptable skin tone after considerable time.
When photographing live events such as concerts, we like to compose the perfect shot all the time yet the reality is we can’t. Live stages are usually cluttered with lots of stuff like mic stands, amps, lights, monitors and assorted other distractions. When we are learning composition in photography, we learn that items that don’t help the image hurt it. This is often the case in concert photography too.
A friend who also shoots live music recently posted some of her work with before and after shots to illustrate how some of her work is edited. It got me to thinking about my own work and I got looking around at some photos that might be better images if they had a bit of help. After all, photography is art, right?
Some people are purists and feel that photos should never be altered. That subject is often debated in photography circles but my personal feeling is that my work is my art and I can do whatever I wish to make it my own creation. Another factor that I hear a lot is that some people who don’t wish to spend time at a computer processing. I actually enjoy my time processing images, watching them take shape from raw data to art.
The above images are Max Kermen of Arkells with some simple edits that I feel makes it a much stronger image and really, the biggest change is just simply removing a mic stand and a person. Both of these items were a distraction in the frame. The smoke was added just for a bit of interest in the new negative space that I created.
I would love to hear any thoughts you may have. Feel free to leave a message.
This morning there was a press release that personally, I found rather important. It was announced that Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman were coming to headline a show at Kemptville Live Music Festival in July. This pair is responsible for writing some of the most memorable songs in my life. Bachman and Cummings were a writing machine, producing hit after hit but it didn’t last long. For various reasons, Randy left The Guess Who to pursue other things. Both continued with their successes but I always wonder what would have become of The Guess Who if Bachman and Cumming could have held it together. I get that they can’t legally use the name “The Guess Who”, but in my mind, they were the nucleus of that band and principle songwriters as well. They are, to me, The Guess Who.
