by successfulbob | commercial photography, fine art musician portrait, graphic design, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography, photography lighting resources
Honored…
That’s what I am when I am asked to help fellow artists, in this case musicians, to photograph and create images and packaging to help them sell their CD.
Eric Miller and Ralf Illenberger are releasing a new music project on March 22nd at Relics Restaurant in Sedona and asked me to come by and make a photo showing them in their creation space. Of course, I asked what vision was in their mind and I headed for the shoot with all sorts of ideas on how I was going to light the scene. And then found them in this ‘closet-like’ space and had to start from scratch on what I was going to do. First we had to revisit the vision. Recreate working the feeling of working late into the night… Possible moods to depict? Serious, fun, thoughtful, etc…
Small room. Large window. First task – make the sun go away by blocking the light from the window. 2nd task – find a way to light the scene. Used the wall to bounce a large strobe because there was no room for light modifiers. Note that the walls are painted reflective gold and deal with the color change that would occur. Add a small LED light from camera left to fill shadows and add detail. Find point of view. Choose a viewpoint outside the door looking in to give the viewer a sense of peeking in at these guys at work. Almost voyeuristic.
Process image for the mood I was looking. Change mind as experimentation led to processing a warmer gold tone image taking advantage of the golden walls. Sharp. But layers of soft at the same time. A little painterly kind of fantasy look.
To the design. Choose one working photo for the cover and add several additional photos to help tell the different moods of the story. Choose fonts. Design.
Show initial layout. Get feedback and more information. Refine layout. Retouch.
Repeat.
Move graphics and refine to create CD information. Send for final review of layout, spelling clearance and last minute tweaks.
Convert files for the printer. (repeat a couple times as we found a couple small errors and additions)
And here it is.
Heart Tree CD Jacket for Ralf and Eric
The capture was with the Lumix GH4 and the 12-35mm f2.8 Vario Lens. I ended up using just the 250 watt modeling light on the Paul C Buff White Lightning X-3200 light plus a little kicker fill from the Fiilex Brick LED light This is a pretty handy light to have in your quiver. Color balance and brightness is adjustable and the light is quite soft. Give you a nice WYSIWYG and doubles as a video light.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, Lumix GH4, musician photography, photography
The ‘Wall of Fame’ grows at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona, Arizona.
Last week Eddie Diamond and the AZ Diamond Band put on quite a show and I was there with my Lumix GH4 to capture the action and create the art pieces. The GH4 works well for this kind of work. It has a pretty large dynamic range which is helpful when working with the LED stage lighting. The best way to capture the moment you are looking for is to anticipate the performer’s movements and shoot at the peak of action. Some performers best moments are fleeting so the high Frame Rate of 12 frames per second can be of great help. Here’s Eddie during the show of his Neal Diamond tribute…
Eddie Diamond ‘Wall of Fame’ image.
Using Adobe Photoshop, layers, textures, Blend Modes and masks is how I work the artistic portion of creating the images. There’s now around 70 WOF photos hanging at the restaurant. Each one has a different treatment and while they all have a similar artistic feel each is and original. I really enjoy this project because I have to stretch to keep coming up with new techniques and push to keep the looks different. Here’s the whole band…
Eddie Diamond Band
Each musician is photographed separately during the performance then selected and placed into the composition. The signature autographs are gathered before the performance, scanned, inverted and then placed in the photos. If we had to try and get the autographs after the design and printing of the images most would be blank.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | commercial photography, fine art musician portrait, graphic design, musician photography, people photography, photography
Received a wonderful email today! Thought I’d share with you.
Hi Bob:
Just a quick note to let you know that Smokin’ Blues won Best Acoustic Blues Album 2014 at the BBMAs (Blues Blast magazine Awards) last week. I went to the ceremonies in Illinois and it was amazing. I played and got to meet a bunch of heavy people…
The mag is going to run a feature story on me and Smokin’ Blues – You can see it on line and I think it comes out this Thursday. If not, the following Thursday. Your art work is getting some major coverage – their website gets over 2,000,000 hits a month with subscriptions in the USA and over 90 countries.
Thank you so much for all of your support Bob. Best to Holly and also the crew…
mark
Mark T. Small – voted Best Acoustic Blues Album 2014 – Blues Blast Magazine (critics choice & peoples choice)
Solo Delta & Chicago Style Blues
www.marktsmall.com
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Charles Swindoll
Here’s the reason Mark sent the email. I named the album, designed his CD cover and marketing materials for Smokin’ Blues. So excited for Mark. He works so hard at his craft and it’s great to see him rewarded!
Smokin’ Blues CD album cover for Mark T Small buy the album here I think you’ll like it!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, Lumix GH3, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, photoshop tutorial, success education
Stalwart entertainers Tom and Shondra did a show at Sound Bites Grill here in Sedona, Arizona. These guys (I use that term loosely) do a highly energetic show that the audience really gets into. Steve asked me to photograph them for the ‘Wall of Fame’ and it was my pleasure to do so! Even though it is only two performers I thought their energy needed more than just one photo to help tell the story… This is what I put together.
Tom and Shondra on stage at the Sound Bites Grill Wall of Fame image.
The Lumix GH3 worked well for capturing Tom and Shondra’s performance. Because their expressions changed quite rapidly during the live performance I used the 5 frames per second bursts to have choices. I used the Lumix GH3 for this shoot because I sent the Lumix GH4 in for service… not that there was anything wrong but more of a precautionary measure.
I was photographing along Oak Creek and went to cross the creek and slipped on the rocks and the GH4 was submerged while I was trying to right myself which took long enough to put water into every available opening in the camera. I dried it off as much as possible at the scene and then headed for home. I dried it more. Got out the hair dryer and searched for moisture in every compartment. I kept rotating and finding more water but with the heat on medium and I made sure I got every drop I could. The camera turned back on and operated wonderfully. But I sent it in for a chek-up and all was well. The weather sealing on that camera is better than I thought. I still don’t recommend submerging your camera to test it like I did. But it showed me we should be pretty good in a moist environment…
Multiple images were put together using Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 using blend modes, textures and masks. I also added some smoke with brushes that I obtained from Woody Walters who is an amazing Photoshop artist and instructor. Go check out his stuff. (I don’t receive any commission from Woody but I can save you 15% if you decide to sign in for more than his free Photoshop tutorials use coates15) He has amazing info to share with you!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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by successfulbob | black & white, commercial photography, fine art musician portrait, graphic design, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography, photography education
If you follow my blog and life you’ll see that I’m a music fan. Photographing live music is something that I have been devoting myself to and adding in creating art for the musicians. When something like the Old Town Center for the Arts annual Blues Fest comes along I am in hog heaven. It gives me a chance to photograph and practice new techniques.
Tommy Dukes, Arizona Blues Hall of Fame member. Artistic Photoshop work from blues fest performance. Original capture with Lumix GX7 35-100.. 2.8 lens. Impressive Art filter. Layers and textures add to final art mix.
Did I say it gives me a chance to practice? I believe practicing is as important to photographers as it is to musicians, athletes or anyone else who needs to have the skill of working under pressure. Changing settings, working in new lighting (and often challenging) conditions is something you need to be able to work with almost without thinking so you can capture the essence of a performer. In this case I was playing with some of the presets in the camera and finding some cool looks. In order for you to access the camera pre-sets after downloading you need to capture the images as jpegs. For safety sake and to have all the info presented to the camera you can save as RAW plus jpeg.
Tommy was quite animated and his shirt added to the life of the performance. Capture with Impressive Art filter then layers of texture added to foreground and background.
Then I self assign creation of CD covers, music and musician art and share the ideas with the artists and their marketing people. This has led to being hired to do the work I enjoy. Hmm. Practice. Self assignments. Sharing. Marketing. People often ask me how I get the images I do and the work I want to do. Re-read the last paragraph again and you’ve got he answer. When are you starting your next personal project?
Pretty much straight out of the GX7 camera using the monochrome art setting. Pretty clean black and white!
Straight out of camera with the Impressive Art setting on the Lumix GX7
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, fine art photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography
These are two of the house players for Sound Bites Grill in Sedona who have been added to the Wall of Fame
New Wall of Fame member Steve Sandner playing keyboards and singing as part of the Jazz Fest Jam night at Sound Bites on March 23rd.
Chris Finet is a strong Bass Player. He made the Wall of Fame at Sound Bites Grill. Originally from Phoenix, Chris is the Professor of String Bass and Jazz Studies at Northern Arizona University. In addition to his work as an educator at NAU, Chris keeps busy performing throughout Arizona and the rest of the country.
Images were captured with the Panasonic Lumix GX7 and 35-100mm 2.8 lens (70-200mm 35 mm equivalent)
