Photography & Concert Lighting
Jul 8, 2010 Site News
Every photographer who shoots live music fights with the stage lighting. I don’t care who they are, they do. Knowing and understanding light makes the difference in photos.
During my RCPM Mexico Trip with Chadwick Fowler we talked a lot about light. Good lighting, bad lighting, flash settings, ambient light – you name it. He is someone who gets it and can covey the importance of proper lighting.
Conversely, I am not that technical of a photographer, which admittedly is a shortcoming. With that being disclosed, here is what I can share with you about concert light and stage lighting.
When I photograph live music I look for patterns in the stage lighting. Many venues even use programmed lighting, which makes it much easier to predict lighting patterns.
I try to look for white spotlights with colorful backlighting. Many times this light combination will give you the dramatic photograph that puts your audience at the concert. The other combination I look for is blue and green spotlights with white back lighting. This also works really well. Look for patterns that work for you and your equipment. (Example of white spotlights with a colorful background – Kid Rock Country Thunder / Florence, AZ.)
Now the bad. Red stage lights are the most difficult to work with. The red lighting is so powerful to the camera’s sensor that it often overpowers everything else. This doesn’t mean that you can’t work with it, it just means that it may take some time, practice and patience. (Here’s my favorite concert photo taken with red lights – Roger Clyne New Year’s Eve / Phoenix, AZ.)
Like anything, photography takes a lot of work and practice – music photography especially. When I photograph music I may take as many as 600 photos, of which I really like 15 - of which 4 are great. Be patient, practice as often as possible, look for lighting patterns and strive to capture the emotion of the performance.
Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks everyone for reading!
Tags: concert light, concert lighting, concert photo, Concert Photography, live event photography, music photo, music photography, stage lights
Photography, Life and The Crossroads
Jun 29, 2010 Random
(This is more of a personal post – Thursday’s post will talk about Music Photography and Stage Lighting)
It’s been a whirlwind since I returned from Circus Mexicus earlier in the month. I have been trying to balance my new company – GRT2 Studios, Life & Art plus our project of passion The Music Matters Project.
The good news is that everything is going amazingly well. GRT2 Studios is off to an amazing start (GRT2 Studios is a Digital Marketing Agency specializing in Digital Content Creation) and I feel especially blessed. Life is moving along at a fast pace which is fine for now and I completely understand that this is what I signed up for. The Music Matters Project is winding down its submission period and has been so well received that it’s awesome.
On the other hand, the bad news is that I haven’t picked up my camera since returning from Mexico. I’ve done plenty of editing and viewing submissions but no creating photographs.
As part of my business model for GRT2 Studios we offer our clients photography and video services. Since we pride ourselves on being DIGITAL CONTENT AGENTS, so we specialize in media rich content. HD Video, Stills and editing all with the end result of marketing metrics in mind.
There are a couple of amazing opportunities coming up that will have me on the creative side of the camera very soon. Most notably, I’ve been selected to shoot STERN SAVAGE and the ASH Music crew on three occasions in July – two live performances and one studio session.
So, I guess that’s the update. All is good, all is busy and I am grateful. Thanks for your time – ‘Here’s to Life!!! I will be returning to making photographs very soon.
(Like I mentioned please stay tuned for Thursday’s post on Music Photography and Stage Lighting)
Tags: Concert Photography, digital marketing, GRT2Studios, music photography, sweet relief, tempe marketing, the music matters project
