Without fail, after every show I have shot – I usually want to see the results almost immediately. With most gigs finishing in the AM, that still doesn’t deter me from firing up the Mac and seeing what I managed to capture on the night.
At this point of proceedings, I usually work very fast downloading all the photos into Aperture.
The usual modus-operandi is to tag all photos with appropriate tags and then ’star’ the good ones.
With a three-song shooting limit, I usually take close to 400 photos. On average, 40 of those will be ’starred’.
At this stage, these are the only shots that will warrant close attention from me.
To combat light washout I play with the levels in Photoshop and can manage to achieve startling results.
pic: (Satyricon’s Satyr) Original photo straight out of the camera
Above is the original photo. The show was littered with red lights throughout the duration of the band’s set, pointing directly into the audience – making it incredibly difficult to capture a decent shot.
I usually shoot in P Mode and adjust the exposure manually to try and combat this. But for the most part, with 3 songs only to play with, I concentrate more on framing the shot and composition at this stage – and I’ll worry about colors and tone in the post-processing stage.
pic: (Satyricon’s Satyr) Adjusting the levels can achieve great results
Above is the same shot but with a few tweaks in Photoshop using the Levels adjustment, I am able to get some startling results. The shot is not as washed-out as it was and of course, more colorful and vibrant. Certainly a quick way of making an erstwhile rejected dull shot – a helluva lot more exciting.
pic: (Satyricon’s Satyr)Grey-scaled
Lately, I have also been playing with monotone shots and it is quite amazing how different and stark a shot can look when it is stripped of all it’s color.
In short, it is always great to experiment and re-visit old shots with a new vigor and lease of life. You can achieve some wonderful results and a whole new look and feel can be achieved if you spend some time with your work in the post stage.
