jackie venson at sound bites

jackie venson at sound bites

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.

jackie venson artHere are Jackie Venson and her band in art form.

jackie venson and band at sound bites grillHere’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.

elements for the final imageHere 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

new wall of fame image

Happened in to Sound Bites Grill for a bite to eat and and heard some pretty cool sounds coming from the stage and wondered why I hadn’t been called to photograph the band for the ‘Wall of Fame’. I went around the corner and the owner looks and says, “Do you have your camera with you? This group needs to go on the ‘Wall’!” Well since I’ve gotten the Lumix GX7 I’ve pretty much had a camera with me all the time so I was able to say, “I do and picked up some work that night.” The camera has such a small profile and is so lightweight. Even with that I’m able to get lots of info from the files and not worry I don’t have enough pixels even though it’s a micro 4/3rds format.

As you know if you follow this blog I am a Panasonic Lumix Luminary but became one because I liked the small size of the cameras for travel. I am now finding more and more that I am using either this camera or the Lumix GH3 for 80 percent of my pro work and 100% of my travel – and as I learn more about the camera it will probably replace my current DSLR system…

adrenaline band photoAdrenaline Band image at Sound Bites Grill, Sedona, Arizona

Here’s a word or two from Charlene the lead singer and manager of the band. “That is freakin awesome!!!!!! I love your work!!!!   Do you have a rate sheet or price breakdown to do future pics??”

That’s music to my ears… Are you in a music group or do you know any band that needs some photography art work? If so please give me a shout. Thanks!