by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography, photography gear
There are two new inductees into the Sound Bites Grill ‘Wall of Fame’.
The RD Olson Blues Band played last week and rocked (blued??) the house. High energy blues from this five piece band had people squirming in their chairs and out on the dance floor. My wife Holly and I really enjoyed the music along with the rest of the patrons.
R.D. Olson Blues Band
Images of the band members were captured with the Lumix GH4 and the 35-100mm Lumix Vario f2.8 lens. This camera and lens combo gives me the density range to capture the highlights of the LED lighting and the deep shadows that come with stage spotlights. In addition, the 200mm lens (35mm equivalent) allows me to isolate the individual performers without disturbing Sound Bites guests as I photograph the live performance.
After downloading the images I select each performer and move them to a master file for compositing of the group for the art piece. Shadows and Inner Glows using Adobe Photoshop on layers help to give the individuals depth in the image. Multiple photographs of textures are added and Blend Modes altered to add the color and painterly effects.
RD was also selected by Sound Bites to also be featured as a single artist in addition to being on the ‘Wall of Fame’ as part of the band.
RD Olson
Blues On RD!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography education
There’s a new inductee into (onto??) the Sound Bites Grill Wall of Fame.
Renee Patrick has a marvelous voice. She was performing with the Steve Sandner Jazz Trio as a guest during Jazz and Juice that has been a Sound Bites Sunday evening staple for a while now.
Renee live on stage followed by an artistic treatment…
Original image captured with the Lumix GH4 1/25th sec f3.2 ISO 1600. The lens is one of my favorites for capturing individual artists on stage the Lumix Vario f2.8. A better camera setting would have been ISO 3200 at f2.8 to give me a bit more sharpness although I do like the movement captured here with her hand slightly blurry… With those settings I would also set the exposure compensation down about 2/3rds to a stop to make sure to not loose the highlights in the LED stage lighting.
Jazz and Juice is Live Jazz with 1/2 price bottles of wine with dinner. My wife Holly and I enjoy catching the Jazz music, good food and a great price on the wine!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | commercial photography, musician photography
I felt that this was a strong image when I first envisioned it in my head. (see post here) When I sent it in to Sound Bites Grill owner Michele she immediately said, “Hey they should use that as a CD cover!” Meaning Esteban of course. She sent it out with a press piece for the entertainment newspaper here in the Verde Valley, KUDOS. They must have liked the image too as it graces the cover of the paper. Cool! Thought I’d share with you.
Guitarist Esteban on the cover of KUDOS promoting his appearances at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Here’s a link to the article
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography
The band Green Light played at Sound Bites Grill Friday a week ago and I’ve been a little behind on the post production because of travel. Here’s the art for the SBG Wall of Fame.
Here’s Green Light! All photos are captured during the live performance. Then each musician is isolated from their photo using masks and combined using Adobe Photoshop layers into another document. Lighting and shadow effects are used to add depth and dimension. Finally multiple textures are added in Layers with different blend modes to create the artistic rendition of the group.
The photos were captured with the Lumix GH4 with the 35-100mm f2.8 Vario lens. This camera has enough Dynamic Range to cover the LED stage lighting with a little post processing knocking down the highlights and opening up the shadows just a bit using Adobe Camera Raw.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | black & white, commercial photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, photography, photography education
The band Hotfoot out of Phoenix packed the house at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona last Friday night. Good sounds that make the feet move are the reason this five piece band filled the place.
Wall of Fame image for the band Hotfoot. All photos are captured during the live performance. Then each musician is isolated from their photo using masks and combined using Adobe Photoshop layers into another document. Lighting and shadow effects are used to add depth and dimension. Finally multiple textures are added in Layers with different blend modes to create the artistic rendition of the group.
Additionally I capture ‘straight’ photos for future publicity photos for when the band returns. Even these are worked using multiple captures as often the different band members are in a better position in alternate photos. For example there was one photo where three of the band members looked good but the drummers face was obscured behind his cymbals and one of the singers face was behind a microphone.
This is more for showing the restaurant in full swing with live music as the backdrop.
The photos were captured with the Lumix GH4 with the 35-100mm f2.8 Vario lens. This camera has enough Dynamic Range to cover the LED stage lighting with a little post processing knocking down the highlights and opening up the shadows just a bit using Adobe Camera Raw.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Please remember that using the links to Amazon to make your purchases through this web site help support the ongoing education provided here. Thanks!
by successfulbob | black & white, commercial photography, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography education
Pre-visualization Part 2.
And, the anatomy of post production of an image to meet the pre-visualization. That’s what we’re continuing talking about today. I saw this final image in my head before I even made the photo. (if I could only get there in time) Here’s the story…
Esteban is an extremely talented artist with the guitar. I have been fortunate to photograph him on numerous occasions. Last time out (see post here) I made images of him for marketing and promotion and I was gifted with seeing a lighting situation during a live performance that I knew would be wonderful in color. And, then especially in black and white. If only I could get to the right position, with the right lens, before the dynamics of the situation changed.
Moved quickly across the room while changing lenses. Dropped to the floor and fired off about 8 frames before he came out of the position and the lighting changed.
Here’s the Black and White version building upon the color version from yesterday followed by an Animated Gif showing the steps of post production…
Esteban image after building on the color version.
Color processed file. NIK Silver FX Pro 2 for BW conversion. Clean up background distraction. Add detail to hand from another capture. Tone down Background w/ Curves Layer. Duplicate Curves Layer. Add Soft Light Layer Painting with grey to burn down image. Copy of previous Layer. Remove distracting shadow from leg near guitar. Final Soft Light Layer for final burning adjustments.
Was there more in post? You betcha! Some things are very subtle like selective sharpening of certain places in the image to further guide the viewer around. They would be too subtle to show the differences in this Animated Gif.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Original image was captured with the Lumix GH4 with the 35-100mm f2.8 Vario Lens under stage lighting conditions during a live performance.
PPS – So which image do you like better? Color or Black and White??
