All Access E-Book

Alan Hess

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 393

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Advice, inspiration, and insight for taking remarkable concert photos Concert photography poses a unique set of challenges to photographers, including night or low-light, inconsistent stage lighting, a moving subject matter, limitations on vantage point, complex exposure situations, and no chance for re-takes. Compounded with those hurdles is a lack of resources on this subject?until now. All Access: Your Backstage Pass to Concert Photography fills this gap and provides you with all the information you need to know, from choosing the right gear and camera settings to negotiating rights to publish or share photos as well as how to best edit your photos in post-production. * Reveals essential techniques and valuable best practices for dealing with the unique challenges of concert photography * Features more than 200 stunning concert photographs to inspire you and illustrate the tips and techniques the author describes * Written by experienced author and well-known concert photographer Alan Hess All Access: Your Backstage Pass to Concert Photography is an ideal resource if you are determined to learn the skills necessary to capture clear, well-composed, and professional-level concert photos.

Leseprobe

AllAccess

YourBackstagePassto ConcertPhotography

Alan Hess

All Access: Your Backstage Pass to Concert Photography

Published by

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

10475 Crosspoint Boulevard

Indianapolis, IN 46256

Copyright © 2012 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-1181-7290-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax [phone], or online athttp://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty:The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at [phone], outside the U.S. at [phone] or fax [phone].

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats. For more information about Wiley products, visit us atwww.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number:2011945000

Trademarks:Wiley and the John Wiley & Sons, Inc. logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley and Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

About the Author

Alan Hess is a concert and event photographer based in San Diego, California, where he lives with his wife and two rescued boxers. He has photographed a huge variety of acts, including some of the biggest names in music.

Alan is the author of seven other books, including the Exposure Digital Field Guide and the Composition Digital Field Guide, the Night and Low Light Photography Photo Workshop and the iPad Fully Loaded series. He has been a contributor to Photoshop User Magazine, writing articles on Photoshop and Concert Photography.

Alan has been a part of the Photoshop World Instructor Dream Team since 2009 for which he has taught Concert and Event Photography and the Basics of Exposure and Composition.

You can follow Alan at his website www.alanhessphotography.com, where he writes a semi-regular blog, or on Twitter, where he goes by ShotLivePhoto. You can also find Alan on Google+ at http://goo.gl/RmLyw.

Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Courtney Allen

Project Editor

Jenny Larner Brown

Technical Editor

Allen Ross Thomas

Copy Editor

Jenny Larner Brown

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Book Designer

Erik Powers

Acknowledgments

This book was not an easy undertaking, and there are a lot of different people I need to thank.

First, I need to thank my parents for taking me to my first concert. Thank you for your love and support all these years.

Then there are the bands I hung out with during my college years—guys who remain my friends to this day: Ron Hansen, Jeff Mandolfo, and the rest of guys in BN who rocked out every weekend. Some of my first bar concert shots are of these guys.

Matt, Rob, Gary, Andrews (both of them), Peter, and Chris—the Cardiff Reefers. I still remember photographing you guys on the stage of the Belly Up Tavern way back when. You gave me a real education of what it was like to be a band on the road.

Rich, tour manager and straight shooter, thank you for treating me as a professional. In return, I make sure never to disappoint you by acting like anything else. If only there were more like you.

This book would not have been possible without the great folks at Wiley, including my acquisitions editor Courtney, who fought for this book for years. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write it. To Jenny, who tries to keep me on track; I know how hard this is to do. Thank you for the late nights and hard work. A big thanks to Erik for the amazing design work and long hours getting it just right. This book needed to have a technical editor, and I got one of the best concert photographers I know to cover my ass. Allen Ross Thomas functioned as the technical editor, and I got him to contribute a Pro Tip as well. Thank you, Allen.

That brings me to the other Pro Tip contributors—photographers, photo editors, publicists, managers, lighting directors, and even musicians themselves. I can’t thank you all enough: Billy, Dennis, Heidi, Allen, Maile, Scott, Drew, Hali, Bob, Susana, Groove, Charles, Chelsea, Jay, Brad, and Mark. You made this book so much better with your contributions.

To all the band members, crew, and management staff that have allowed me access over the years, THANK YOU!

Thanks to Brian Ross and Ashley Anton for the access they’ve provided me to shoot some of the coolest shows and events ever.

To Scott Kelby, who gave me the opportunity to bring my concert photography knowledge to the attendees at Photoshop World, and to the Kelby training subscribers, thank you. It means the world to me.

To my wife, who puts up with the crazy hours and weird schedule, I love you and couldn’t do what I do without you.

For Nadra

Introduction

The research for this book was the most fun I’ve ever had. That’s because instead of coming up with an idea for a book and then executing it, I’ve been living this information and advice by photographing concerts since the late 1980s.

While it started out as a fun thing to do on weekends, concert photography has become my full-time job. And I couldn’t be happier about it.

Guitarists Steve Stevens and Billy Morrison photographed in late 2011while on tour with Billy Idol.

Taken at 1/400 second, f/2.8, and ISO 1600

I’ve spent many, many nights photographing in bars and shooting in clubs; countless hours crouched in front of stages at performance halls and large concert venues; and I’ve walked hundreds of miles at all-day festivals.

And I’ve loved every minute of it. Seriously. There’s just something really special about this genre of photography. Even at its worst—when it gets frustrating or stressful or crowded or whatever—it’s still pretty awesome. Concert photographers get to do what most people only wish they could. It’s a great job.

Even now, with hundreds of thousands of concert images generated over the last twenty years or so—from photographing my friends’ bands in local bars, covering festivals for local promoters, and shooting big shows for venues—I still love the feeling I get when the house lights go down and the band takes the stage.

The book you’re holding in your hands is something I’ve wanted to write for a long time. It covers a wide variety of topics, including the most common concert photography questions I get, which are basically variations of how to get a photo pass, what’s the best camera/ lenses, and what settings to use in different types of venues.

This book also offers specific tips and insight for shooting in bars, clubs, halls, and even major arenas, where the big rock and roll shows happen. There are even chapters that can help you shoot backstage and on the stage and deal with different types of music. Post production techniques and step-by-step information on how to copyright your images are here, too.

As a bonus, since the concert photography business is so complex, I reached out to people in the business and got their take on certain aspects of concert photography. A great variety of folks took time out of their busy schedules to answer my questions and contribute to this book, making it not just a single point of view but a complete guide to succeeding at concert photography. I hope you’ll find value in the insight that these tested professionals have provided.

The Pro Tips start in Chapter 1 with insight from guitarist (and a subject of many of my shoots), Billy Morrison. Pro Tips continue in Chapter 2, where publicists Dennis McNally and Heidi Ellen Robinson-Fitzgerald give their unique perspectives on photo credentials.

Chapter 3 covers working as a pro photographer—what to do and what not to do. Atlanta-based concert photographer Allen Ross Thomas weighs in here with his concert shooting tips, and band manager/tour manager Maile Hatfield offers some advice as well.

Chapter 4 is all about the gear you need to do this work in a variety of shooting situations, including the best lenses for the job. Scott Diussa, concert photographer and my co-instructor for the Kelby Training Concert class, offers great insight here.

Chapter 5 gives an important overview of the basics of exposure settings, especially how they relate to concert photography. Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO are covered along with exposure modes and metering modes. Concert photographer Drew Gurian lends his advice in this chapter.

Jimmy Herring performing with Jazz is Dead before becoming the lead guitarist for Widespread Panic. Exposure setting not recorded.

After exposure, we cover composition in Chapter 6. Focus, timing, emotion, and the different instruments of a band are all addressed here. Hali McGrath, concert photographer and photo editor, offers her voice and pro tips here.

Chapter 7 launches the venue-specific chapters with the place in which most of us start: bars. Bob Minkin, San Francisco-based photographer and designer offers his take on this shooting environment.

Chapter 8 ups the ante a little with information on photographing in your local club. It includes pro tips by Susana Millman, a concert and dance photographer, with whom I’ve shared many a photo pit.

The bigger and brighter concert halls are covered in Chapter 9. Lighting Director Groove explains his approach to lighting a stage, which can help you figure out how to time the lights to your advantage..

Chapter 10 hits the big time. This focuses on the bigger shows—the rock spectacle—and there’s no one better to give advice on shooting here than Charles Jischke, a concert photographer who’s spent the last few years on the road with Billy Idol.

Find information on photographing all-day or multi-day festivals in Chapter 11. Chelsea Lauren, a southern California wire service photographer who photographs festivals on a regular basis, lends her thoughts on this topic. On a personal note, I think it’s great that she agreed to do this while we were in a photo pit at a festival.

Chapter 12 contains tips for those coveted occasions when you get to shoot backstage or side stage, and there’s no one I know who spends as much time backstage and on stage photographing as Jay Blakesburg. He offers terrific insight to how to photograph in these situations.

John Ginty warms up before a show. Using a fisheye lens and getting in close gives the image a little different perspective.

Taken at 1/80 second, f/2.8, and ISO 100

Similarities in the different types of music and what you can probably expect and look for when dealing with various types of musicians is packed into Chapter 13. Friend and concert photographer Brad Moore shares his thoughts here.

In Chapter 14, find information on post production, capped off with helpful tips from musician Mark Karan. I feel privileged to call Mark a friend, but before he was a friend, he was a subject. Want to know what a musician looks for in photographs of their performances? Well, this is the place to find out.

There are also three appendices; they cover Accessories, Copyright, and Resources.

Before we really get started though, I want to say something about the images used in this book. Some of these photos are my favorites, and they hang as prints my house; others are used because they illustrate a point well. But the one thing that all these images have in common is that I am legally allowed to use them. Many were taken at shows, where I was given permission by the band to use them for my own purposes. And I shot them with an All Access laminate, Working Pass, or Photo Pass in hand … and without signing a release.

Brandi Carlile performs in San Diego.

Taken at 1/160 second, f/2.8, and ISO 1600

Others were taken when I worked for a wire service, and those image are still for sale on the PR Photo website.

What you don’t (and won’t) see in this book are images I’ve taken that came with a restrictive photo release. Many of these releases allowed for the images to be used for a specific publication or venue. For example, recently photographed performances by Katy Perry and Taylor Swift … to name just two. And while I love the photos, none are used here because they were shot specifically for the venue and not for this project.

But back to what is here. This book provides tips and information on how to shoot concert images and get the best results every time. This is not a coffee table book or a book of concert images to be paged through and admired. I hope you will use, read, mark, dog-ear, and highlight this book … and use the information to improve your career as a professional concert photographer.

Ready? Let’s go.

1 - Concert Photography Rocks: Capturing the thrill of the show

Being in a photo pit at a cool venue when the house lights go down and the musicians take the stage is one of the most exciting moments in a photographer’s career. The show is going to start right now. There are no second chances.

Am I ready? Are you?

Ready, that is, for the most challenging and exhilarating time of your life ... in 10- to 15-minute increments?

Even after years of shooting concerts, I still feel nervous at that moment, when there is no turning back, when the crowd starts to cheer, and the first notes ring out from the stage. It doesn’t matter if it’s a band down at the local bar or big-name act in a 20,000-seat amphitheater, the feeling is the same for me. It’s another concert shoot, another opportunity to capture the thrill of the show.

Picture A Musical Journey.

Let me back up a little here and start at the beginning. My interest in performance photography started with the music, especially the live show. I grew up in a home where there was a lot of radio and little television. That wasn’t because my parents didn’t believe in television or wanted to deprive their children. On the contrary, they gave us kids a great childhood. But I grew up in South Africa in the 1970s, and there just wasn’t any television … at all.

When television finally came to Capetown, it was 1976. I was already eight years old and had been listening to my radio for years. I had a green radio with a big dial on the front that you had to turn to tune in the stations. I had made little marks on the dial to show where the best reception was for my favorite stations. Man, I loved that radio. And I grew up listening to it a lot—listening to music on the radio. And I grew up in a family that liked music, especially rock and roll.