Photography - Live Shows, Some Tips

Hello everyone.

A few days ago I read an article about photography and photo filters. In that article we learned how to use the filters to improve an existing fairly good picture, to a great one. In other words, to make a lemonade from the lemons that our camera produced.

I thought to myself, in which of my photos over the years, I didn't have to use a "heavy artillery" as filters or complex photoshop techniques? and the answer popped immediately - in live shows!

As for me, I love music since I was a child. I played the trumpet, played in some bands and orchestras all over the country and over seas. I will always remember the excitement that I had while I entered the stage. The lights, the red curtains or the smoke. And come to think about that, that setting will always look good on photos!

So what do we have here..   an ambiance, a good light, a theme, some props, an energy from the crowd, and many more... all we have to do is to click!  right?

Wrong! although we have some great conditions to have a perfect picture, we must follow some simple rules.

Turn Off The Flash!  

Personally, I hate to use a flash when I'm taking pictures. It ruins the natural light, and doesn't produce the same atmosphere, nor even represents the scenery well. don't get me wrong, sometimes the flash is really needed, and if your purpose is just to take a picture of your friends, or just to have fun with the camera it is ok. But It seems to me that many people use it automatically, even professionals, and though you may see every wrinkle on the object's face, you will lose the atmosphere completely. So my humble advice is just to save the flash for the real hard cases.

In a show, we have the setting, the colorful lights, the energy, so PLEASE, accept that gift, turn off the flash and show the world what your eyes have really seen. You may have to play a little bit with the f-stop (lower numbers), or the shutter speed (slower), but it's totally worth it!

you'll be the judge                    
                                           

as seen on demais music blog

It's the same singer - Maria Rita , the same stage, the same show.  But you can easily think that the left picture was taken at a junior high prom, while the other one gives us the real deal  - colors, lights, and magic. and to be clear, I am not talking about the composition, just the flash factor.

Let's see another example.

This picture was taken on street theater festival. With the flash on, we can see a heavy use of make up, and we can't see anything special or magical about that image. We can obviously see the object clearly, we don't miss any detail and as a common facebook photo it serves well.

But if we will turn off the flash, we will see that :

and that     

A completely different image. We can actually see the golden tones, the make up fits well, and the whole image looks much more romantic, and dreamy...   All that without any effort.

A Little Editing Will Do

When you have such great components in your photos, all you have to do is to tweak and adjust some little things. To make your photo a little bit more appealing and interesting, you should crop sometimes, play a little bit with the saturation, maybe to sharpen every now and then. But that's it ! suitable for beginners as well as lazy people (as me).

Here are 2 examples

The original photo

A little crop to the right and a tiny desaturation - and you're good to go!

The original photo

A little bit of crop, brightness/contrast and a sharpen filter
 and the result is much more dramatic.

Feel The Groove!

This is the best tip I can give.

You can have the best looking picture, with the best composition, but it is worth nothing with out the feel!

You have to feel the music, spot the expressions of your objects, try to visualize what would be their next step and shoot! A good picture will throw you back to the moment, you will relive the concert again, the sounds, the sweat - everything!

Here some examples,

. 

Well, as you all understand I really think that live shows can give you a lot of great photo opportunities, without a big post production hustle. I hope my advises will help you in your next shooting session !

Thanks for your time, see you soon!

Idan.


Btw: if you like to see more of my work, you can take a look (and even purchase if you'd like to)