Black and White Band Photos

I decided to experiment a little with desaturating images today. I chose the images of this band because they were new images and band photos are often edited to be more dramatic.

The first image I just desaturated and added a slight posterize effect to the image. I also turned up the contrast a little and darkened the image. I think it really brings out the image nicely.

The next image I desaturated and posterized to a much greater degree. You can not get a great view unless you click on the image to see a larger version. It wiped out the background much better and gave a very dramatic look to the image. The strong contrast really brings the face out nicely.

I pushed the posterization even further with this image but edited out the guitar to not be affected. It really brings the guitar to the foreground. I think that it might have been better if the guitar was still colored but it works well.

I only desaturated this image. I choose to select the band members to not be desaturated to make them much more dominant. I do not think I am happy with the result. I think a triptych of this image with each member independently being the only part with saturation might be interesting but right now they all stand out. This would be fine but they take up to much of the image which diminishes the effect.

Photos of Jordan DePaul and the Reputations

The band I photographed at Vexfest and focused on for my second Vexfest post performed at YSU yesterday. I swung by and caught part of the set, which was amazing as before, and got some images. I am really liking the concert photography but I find that often it is people standing in the same spot not really moving to much and feels repetitive to shoot a lot of images. But I still enjoyed myself. I have been using a telephoto lens to shoot because I don't want to get in anyones way so I am standing back further. It is blocking me from shooting a lot of interesting angles which would provide me with a larger variety in my images. My fear of people is also giving me problems with moving in because I don't want to upset anyone.

More photos from Vexfest

I wanted to upload some more images I shot at Vexfest. No discussion about them today though. Beginning of school has me a little frazzled and need to focus on it for a few days. Here are the images though.

Vexfest part 2

This is a continuation of yesterdays post. The last band I photographed was called Jordan Depaul and the Reputations. I photographed this band a lot. I was feeling more comfortable photographing by this point and I really got into the music and wanted to stay and keep photographing. The whole group had so much emotion that I had a lot of images that worked well. The biggest problem I had was shooting around the poles which ruined quite a few shots and the sun was going down behind the band a slight amount giving a little back lighting. 

I was very happy with this shot. I had tried to nail this shot several times throughout the set with out luck and the last one I tried I finally got it. I think it might have been improved by have the drummer included but he was further back and it might have unbalance the image. I did have to crop this image though so I did not nail it perfectly. I had also gotten another photographer on the left side of the image shooting toward me. I think the line works very well and leads you through the image nicely.

The lead singer was full of emotion while singing. I thought these two images were the best composed though. The first image has a great depth of field leaving only the singer as an important subject. The second image also has a good depth of field but not as good. I think the second image is great because of the tilt to the image. it really gives you a feeling of looking up at the singer.

The bass player was not as emotional while performing. He reminded me of Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, he may not be screaming and making faces but you can see in his face that he loves what he is doing. I think these images work well because they show that. He is focused on playing and it shows that he is enjoying himself.

This guitarist was all over the place. He was moving and having fun and I had fun trying to get interesting shots of him as he moved around. He was very animated. I think if I had a tripod with me or even a monopod I might have been able to get a few great action shots of him playing. The biggest problem I had with photographing him was he was very close to a pole which kept getting in the way. 

The other guitarist was also very animated. He was smiling a lot and made a great subject. He was the hardest to photograph because the poles blocked me from shooting across the stage and equipment boxes made it hard to get a good view from the side he was on. I am happy with both images. The composition in the top image works great and the bottom image just needs that pole cropped out to improve greatly.

The drummer was almost as hard to shoot because of the equipment on stage was blocking a lot and the other members were moving in front of him often. I managed to get a few shots around the members and I shot a lot from the sides of the stage. I wish I would have caught the second image a split second earlier to catch the drumstick though. The microphone also takes a lot away from the image. The first image i though would be horrible when I took it because I couldn't shoot over the speaker enough but I think it worked better that way. It is far enough out of focus that it is barely recognizable but provides a good weight and framing to the image.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. - Scott Adams

Photos of Vexfest

I decided that another aspect of photography I wanted to try was concert photography. Luckily Youngstown has a yearly music festival called Vexfest. It was a free show with varying bands and since the festival is not too large, at least during the day, I was able to get pretty close to the stage without many problems.

The first band I photographed was called AGP. This was a band that moved around a lot so I had trouble getting a lot of shots because of poles. Both outdoor stages had lots of poles along the front that were always in the way. I think due to the more rock oriented music the crowd was pushed in tighter for the band so I wasn't able to get as close as I would have liked. Both images I like the cropping. They are close enough to cut everything else out but far enough away to not feel crowded. I definitely feel I captured some of the emotion of the music in these images. The first image would be a lot better if that darn pole was not there and the second image could be cropped a little better to eliminate the speaker stack on the right side of the image.

The second band I photographed was a Hip-hop group called DaKreek. I did not take as many images of these group because I am not a fan of hip-hop. I do know that my photography does not involve listening but it was really hot and I did not come adequately prepared with water so I took the chance to rest during their show. They were very energetic about their music and very into the crowd. I felt that this image captured the interaction they were trying to achieve with the crowd.

The third band I photographed was called Cease to Exist. They were another hard rock band that moved around a lot. I am very happy with the first image. The microphone stands give a nice frame to the image and the emotion is shown in the guitarists face. The second image I am mostly satisfied with. I would be happier if I had the guitarists eyes in the image. It works well but his face being turned about 30 degrees toward me I think would have made the image.

Tomorrow I will continue with the coverage with the final band I photographed.

Perishability in a photograph is important in a picture.  If a photograph looks perishable we say, "Gee, I'm glad I have that moment."  ~John Loengard, "Pictures Under Discussion"