And, the anatomy of post production of an image to meet the pre-visualization. That’s what we’re talking about today. I saw the 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 gifted artist with the guitar and I have been fortunate to photograph him on numerous occasions. This last time (see post here) I made images of him for marketing and promotion 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 color version followed by an Animated Gif showing the steps of post production…
Esteban playing guitar after post production. See the animated .gif below for most of the steps used.
Straight out of camera. Remove background distraction. Add a Tonal Contrast and Glamour Glow with NIK filters. Bring back some detail in strumming fingers from another capture. Burn some highlights. Tone down clothing to shift focus. Tone down background. Tone down guitar.
Toning was done with a variety of techniques including Curves Adjustment Layers and Soft Light burn layers. You see how we can drive the focus to where we would like the viewer to look first. The eye goes to the area of highest contrast. Then the viewer is invited to look around in the image by the use of diagonal lines in the composition.
Tomorrow this will be taken to another level when the image is converted to black and white followed by more adjustments.
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.
Esteban has a new percussion master as part of the Dinner Show at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona so I was asked to capture some new marketing images. They are playing on Saturdays and Mondays through May.
Here are a couple stage views.
Dinner show at Sound Bites with Esteban and company… (daughter Teresa Joy is on violin)
During a lively portion of the show!!
While I was photographing the show I saw the light! Esteban was in deep and intimate with his guitar and I saw this beautiful light
reflecting from the soundboard onto his face. I rushed to run to the angle and hope the communion would continue while I captured the photograph. In another post I’ll talk about the whys and hows of the post production that went into the final black and white
I photographed the show with the Lumix GH4 and used the f2.8 Lumix Vario lenses 12-35mm and 35-100mm. This combination allows for the wide angle to telephoto needed. The GH4 has a great dynamic range allowing me to capture the depths of shadow and the bright LED lighting.
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 BuffWhite 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.
What an entertainer with solid stage presence. Marley Taylor really rocked the house at Sound Bites Grill last Friday night. She was there with her Marley Taylor Trio. Marley, originally from Pittsburgh, grew up singing professionally in Houston at age 12. In 1994 after spending a few years in Nashville, she was signed to Sony Publishing for a songwriting contract. She also appeared on The Nashville Network TV show series Riders In The Sky. After moving to Arizona a few years later, Marley became a staple in the Scottsdale/Phoenix music scene with the popular act Zowie Bowie. The group became a hit at Scottsdale’s premier nightclub, Barcelona, later signing with Station Casinos in Las Vegas for a lengthy contract.
Image from behind the stage at Sound Bites Grill with the Marley Taylor Trio
When prepping images for newspaper releases I will often make the conversion to black and white to get the best quality possible. Often the graphics people will just push the greyscale button which doesn’t give the best contrast for the image. I will also over-sharpen the image so that when printed on newsprint and the ink spreads the image will still appear sharp.
And of course the Marley Taylor Trio made it to the ‘Wall of Fame’
Images were captured with the Panasonic Lumix GH4 and the 35-100mm Lumix Vario f2.8 lens. With the density range this camera has there are less problems with capturing the LED lighting that is used exclusively on-stage.
OK let’s take a look at the actual video that I pulled the stills from in the previous post. The Lumix FZ 1000 is quite impressive. This video is about 30 seconds short and worth a quick peek and probably tells the story a little better than words alone. Check it out.
Lumix FZ 1000 video captured in Nashville at the Imaging USA Convention
Went to dinner with my lovely wife Holly at Sound Bites Grill last night and Wineaux Wednesday was on in full force in Sedona, Arizona. The deal is $10 bucks and allows you taste wine with friends while enjoying live music and Tapas from 5PM to 7PM.
But what does that have to do with photography Bob??
Glad you asked! I also brought along my camera with a funky lens to play with from LENSBABY. They sent me the f3.5 5.8mm, 185° Circular Fisheye lens to check out.
Here’s a capture of the SBG Wall of fame. I create images of the performers for posterity (and decor!) in an
artistic fashion for the restaurant. Here it is in all it’s micro 4/3rds Fisheye glory.
This lens is made for getting in close. Make sure your performer knows they’ll have a camera really close in their face. it helps to be
the house photographer to have the access to performers during live stage shows. Don’t try this without permission.
Using the ‘Flairability’ of the Fisheye to add some interest to this live stage shot of Eric Miller guitarist extraordinaire.
“OK Bob, how can this lens make me money?” In my case I grabbed the owners and set them up
on stage with Eric to create an image to help promote the wine and entertainment event at the restaurant.
You need some time with the 5.8mm Fisheye to learn to see how it sees. It is quite unique and takes a bit of getting used to to know when it might be just the ticket to set something apart. I mounted this on the Lumix GH3. With the micro 4/3rds sensor size we loose just a bit of the fisheye circle which I actually like. If you get this lens for the full frame DSLR cameras you’ll have the complete fisheye circle.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – If you want to hear some wonderful guitar playing and are not near Sedona you can find out more about Eric Miller’s music here. (I highly recommend hi CD ‘Eclectic Vibe’ subtitled Elevator Music for Cool People. It’s awesome. You have to email Eric to get it. It’s not on his web site right now…
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