by successfulbob | commercial photography, fine art musician portrait, inspiration, marketing, photographer of musicians, photography marketing
This is my seventh year working with an entertainment restaurant. The original relationship was due to a personal project I created and shared with them. A quick recap for those pressed for time will find I photographed a restaurant to learn and practice new photography techniques. I gave the restaurant a framed print. For the full story check out part one on photofocus
The story continued and involves another personal project involving a musician, which was also shared with the owners. When the owners saw my artwork they decided to feature the bands and other entertainers in more of an artistic style. While making the artistic images I also supply the restaurant with additional photos for publicity, posters, marketing and social media.
The trade deal
It would be very difficult for a restaurant to pay cash for this service as the amounts can add up very quickly, especially in the beginning, when many new performers were being documented. I’m a big fan of win-win situations so we worked out a trade agreement.
Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame has grown to 130 or so images. I create an artistic rendition of the musicians from their live performance. It would be very difficult to track down people after the fact for autographs. I have them provide their signature and ‘message to the house’ with a black sharpie pen on white paper. I invert the printing from black on white to white on black. Change the Blend mode in Adobe Photoshop to Screen and text will appear white. Viola, I have their ‘autograph’ for the art.
Bobcat Jack: Blues-man with signature and logo art
As part of the deal, art images are printed and framed to 8×10 and hung in the Hall. Additional images are uploaded for the publicity, poster and marketing purposes.
One corner of the SBG Hall of Fame
Additional benefit
In addition to the trade, each of the images is branded with the Bob Coates Photography logo. A metal print in a niche promotes my story and the Hall of Fame information (look in the back of the Hall photo above). I make this deal out to be not only a win-win opportunity but a win-win-win all the way around!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, Lumix G9, musician photography, photographer of musicians
The Making of
Sound Bites Grill Hall of Fame Image
I’ve often been asked how I create the art images for the Sound Bites Grill Hall of Fame. Thought I might share the process here from start to finish.
Finished Hall of Fame image with Gaelle Buswell and her band members
First, I make photos from the show during the live performance. This is a bit easier said than done as performers are moving in and out of the light, have strange expressions when they reach for THAT note, etc. I need to watch and learn as each performer works and then make sure I’ve gotten enough source material on all the band members.
Then it’s time to download all the images and begin the culling process. Lots of images get thrown away on the first pass. Then I’ll go back through to look for the selects. Those are the photos that have the body position, expression and look I am going for in the final art piece.
The individuals are extracted from their photo and placed upon their own layer so effects such as drop shadows and lighting can be applied individually. Then it’s time to start working on combining all the elements of people, texture, drop shadows, color adjustments and more.
Animated Gif of the various Layers
Above is a Gif showing most of the Layers made in Photoshop to give you an idea of how the pieces work together during the build. Below is a screen capture of the Layers Palette in Photoshop.
Layers Palette of the Gaelle Hall of Fame image
I’m thrilled with the dynamic range of the Lumix Micro 4/3rds camera gear. The camera is Lumix G9 Panasonic’s stills flagship model with the LUMIX G X VARIO LENS, 35-100MM, F2.8 ASPH
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, fine art portrait, lighting, Lumix G9, musician photography, people photography, photographer of musicians, photography, photography gear, photography lighting resources
Studio Photography of a Harp Musician
I enjoy working with creative people. It’s a blast. Creative folks tend to bring an extra little something to the photo session. I was working with Sedona musician Peter Sterling the other day. He had some specific thoughts on the session we were photographing for some headshots and CD cover art.
Once an idea is put forward, then it’s time to tweak the lighting to create the mood and feeling needed. We started with a high key background then went to a low key background with more dramatic lighting.
One of the first images from the session. * setup described below 
Harpist Peter Sterling
Above and below are unretouched photos on a high key background. Peter was an excellent subject as he made excellent eye contact with the camera and was easy to get relaxed. He made my job pretty easy!
I liked this one as a different look but wasn’t thrilled with the foot pad and stool. I wanted to crop in but it has a very casual feel, and it keeps growing on me.
Moved to a black background and worked on a more moody look. Peter asked me to retouch this one, and I like it a lot! ** the setup described below
When I do final retouching for artists, I always include a black and white version. This is often way better than sending off a color image and letting the newspaper or magazine do the conversion.
* White seamless backdrop with a Fiilex 360ex Variable LED light with 24×36 inch softbox as main light (camera right) Camera left another light with a smaller softbox used as fill.
** Black seamless backdrop and lights as above but adjusted for more drama. A 5-inch Fiilex Fresnel attachment was added to another light for the background
Images were captured with the Panasonic Lumix G9 and the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 lens and processed in Adobe Photoshop
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, graphic design, Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photographer of musicians
Walt Richardson & Friends at Sound Bites Grill Sedona
What a great show! Walt is known for his reggae music, but he is so much more. He’s a legendary songwriter with a big heart, and it shows during his performance. His friends are entertaining and talented musicians. There’s a reason Walt is in the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.
Walt’s own words say it best, “I am a Soul, Living out my life as a Songwriting, Storytelling, and performing Musician.”
Learn more about Walter Richardson & Friends.
Art with signatures for the Wall of Fame
If you have followed my work you know I photograph the musicians live while they are performing for marketing of future performances. In addition, I create an image for the ‘ Sound Bites Grill ‘Wall of fame’. These art pieces are created with each individual member of the band recorded and then extracted from the image and rebuilt. It’s a great challenge to render each performer and band in a slightly different style. Here in a nod to the reggae, the red and green lighting pattern was utilized in the spot lights. The singer-songwriter and personality of Walt was highlighted by picking an expression with that little smile and wide open eyes.
Non-logoed version of the art.
Most of the images were captured with the Lumic GX85 and a 35-100mm G Vario lens.
Image of the full band for future marketing and appearances at Sound Bites
Back-stage view at SBG.
Walter Richardson black and white photo.
When I am creating the marketing photos I always make the conversion to black and white as well as a color version. There is more to creating a dynamic black and white image for printing than just desaturating the image to monotone. You need to control the contrast and the highlight and shadows properly to make a solid photo.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, graphic design, Lumix GH4, Lumix GX8, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photographer of musicians
Jackie Venson at Sound Bites Grill
Sound Bites Grill has a new addition to the ‘Wall of Fame.’
Jackie Venson and her band were enshrined at the SBG Wall last night.
Here are Jackie Venson and her band in art form.
Here’s how it looks on the Wall. The autographs are done in advance on a white piece of paper with black Sharpie pen. I’ll show you all the elements used to create the final image below.
The ‘Wall of Fame’ image is created with photos captured during the live stage performance in the Sound Bites Show Lounge. Each performer is tracked on stage individually. Then they are extracted from the background and placed into a new environment. Texture, shadows, glows along with sharpening, blurring parts of the combined images are all combined in Adobe Photoshop to create the final art piece. Capturing the musicians during the live performance gives the final art image a stronger feeling of emotion created during the performance that a static image just doesn’t have.
Here are the elements for the final image. Layers and Masks along with Blend Modes were utilized in creating the painterly look.
Images are currently being captured with the Lumix GH4 or Lumix GX8 cameras. I enjoy that the sensors have enough density range to allow a single capture of the harsh LED lighted scene. A slight adjustment in post production using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) of bringing down the highlights and opening up the shadows makes for a well-exposed photo. In previous cameras due to the extreme light variations, there was a need to capture three images and blend them together to achieve the same result.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Can’t wait until Jackie, Alán Uribe on bass/backvox and Rodney Hyder on drums come back for their next show at Sound Bites Grill
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, Lumix GH4, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photographer of musicians
Photography of Musicians at Sound Bites Grill
The Black Market Trust
Photographing musicians during a live performance can be a bit of a challenge.
But I dig it!
If you follow this blog you know I am charged with creating the marketing images for bands who play at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona. Also, the ‘Wall of Fame’ is a record of performers who have graced the stage and is becoming a history of entertainment at the restaurant. To date, there are over eighty art pieces presented on the wall.
Here is the latest.
The Black Market Trust Band
Here is the finished piece as presented on the ‘Wall of Fame.’
While the band is performing, I isolate each member and extract them from the scene and then blend them back together while creating the art piece for the wall. These were captured with the Lumix GX7 and the 35-100mm f2.8 Vario lens. After each member is placed on the new canvas layers of texture, drop shadows, and lighting effects are added to create depth and dimension.
While the musicians are on site, I gather their ‘message to the house’ and autographs for inclusion in the final art piece. These are signed in black Sharpie on white paper. After scanning, using Adobe Photoshop they are imported to the final image, sized and inverted to white text. The Blend Mode of the Layer is changed to Screen. This makes the inverted paper, which is now black disappear with no further selections necessary.
Images for the newspaper are also prepped. I shoot in color but do the prep to black and white for the best printing results. Many times a color image is just changed to greyscale by the paper and using NIK Silver FX Pro 2 makes for better contrast and tones. These were captured with the Lumix GH4 and the 12-35 f2.8 Vario lens.
Black & White photo The Black Market Trust Band
Color image of the BMT Band
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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