In addition to four cats, I also have synesthesia, which is not a disease but a condition in which I see music as colors. I’m no Duke Ellington or Billie Eilish, but I, too, have played several instruments for a number of years. To me, a Kavalesky variation (brown) and a Gershwin jazz number (greenish - blue)visually look different. Add a little photography to the mix, and you get an opportunity to work with some pretty cool art.
Next weekend, I’ll be shooting the Fireside variety show themed Drive and Drive for the Kappa Sigma chapter of the female musical sorority Sigma Alpha Iota at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. This is actually not my first concert, so in today’s post, we are going to walk through my preparation for shooting events like this in real time. Along the way, we’re going to explore how photography as my job and photography as an art form can converge to create both a reflection of my creativity and a performer’s.
Just like with all my photoshoots, concerts start with my Plan, Shoot, Edit formula. For a more in-depth example of how I use this method in my portrait photoshoots, I recommend checking out my 1989 (Taylor’s Version)Inspired Photoshoot. For Fireside, I’m going to start by reflecting on my previous work.
The first concert I ever shot was for the Eta Nu chapter of the musical fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. The brothers commissioned me to photograph PMA’s annual Blue Angel variety show at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, as well as run their Instagram for the weekend.
Tech Week: Planning
For this show, I’m attending two rehearsals, videoing one show, and shooting two. Between all of that, I’ll see a full run of the show six times. So, instead of shooting the show six times, I’m going to assign each type of shot to a specific time in the show. For example, for this show, I need to shoot seven major categories: venu, performances(soloist and band), behind-the-scenes, rehearsal, stage tech/sound, group photo, and audience. I also know that I’ll want to map out the show, find a handful of shooting angles, test settings, etc.
To organize all of these tasks, I like to ask myself three main questions.
What energy will the performers have?
What energy will I have?
When can I be least invasive?
I know that I probably want to take photos of performers at the beginning of the night when they have the most energy. I also know that I want to do most of my behind-the-scenes at the second show when the performers are the most relaxed and having fun. I can follow this train of thought to get a rough itinerary for the week
Before Rehearsal:
Review setlist
Check equipment
Wednesday: Rehearsal
Map show
Find angles
Test settings
Thursday: Rehearsal
Behind the scenes/rehearsals
Final communication with SAI
Friday: Video Show 1
Saturday: Photograph 2 Shows
Venu: Before Show 1
Show 1: Performances, audience
Show 2: Behind the scenes, Stagetech, Sound
Group photo: After Show 2
Call Time: Shooting
Concrete Moments
Soloist
Group
Being flexible
These concerts are fun but they are absolute cardio. Since I’ve already done my prep work before the show, I typically have three main angles ready to go:
About 45 degrees to the left or right of the stage, for solo shots.
Top of the venue for wide-angle
Backstage for audience
All together, these angles are going to cover the majority of the concert, and typically end up looking something like this:
These pre-planned and pre-practiced shots are typically pretty simple, the hard but more fun part of concerts is capturing the candid and unexpected moments. For example, this audience shot of two people dancing on the floor. Even though that photo wasn't part of my itinerary, it was an important part of the show that I was lucky to capture.
One of the techniques I like to use to capture these is to follow my performers on and off stage. This way, I can capture a little behind-the-scenes action, get a feel for how the performer is feeling, and capture really sweet moments like these. A concert isn’t just about the music. Any musician can tell you that the important thing is what the music elicits, from nervous excitement to pride to heartbreak. All of those emotions, whether on or off stage, are important for me to capture.
Encore: Editing
Concerts, especially ones like Blue Angel and Fireside, are really long. The bulk of my work, though, actually begins as soon as the curtain drops. As soon as I get back home, I’m starting to transfer files because, unlike a portrait session, these concert photos need to be out within the next few days.
For this reason, I attack concert editing with two main strategies:
Grouping: I tend to group my photos down into individual performances or categories such as audience, sound, behind-the-scenes, etc. This is going to make my job easier by lumping like photos together, as well as make finding the photos for performers super easy.
Edit 1 like photo: Once I’ve grouped all my photos, I separate one or two photos that have similar light and colors to the rest of the photos and edit just those few. Because I’ve chosen a few photos that look more or less like the others, I can easily apply those settings to the entire album and tweak as needed, rather than editing each photo individually or trying to group them in a random order.
This plan of attack can be pretty tedious, but it gets the brunt work done. My job for these concerts is to document the show, which means both taking the photos and matching the aesthetic of the photos to the photos. For example, take a look at these two photos. The first a performance of Elvis Presley’s How Great Thou Art. The second is a performance of All I Ask, by Adele. One is a gospel anthem and the other a powerful ballad, the energies of these two performances were vastly different.
For the Elvis song, I chose a very bright, saturated, and sharp edit. For the Adele song, I chose to enhance the smoke and keep the photo very soft and dark. When I’m editing concerts, I want to keep in mind the aesthetic and energy of the performance and match the mood of the photo to what was actually happening.
In some instances, I get to play around and use my synesthesia. For example, the photo below was from a performance of Crazy, by Gnarls Barkley. In real life, the lights were a deeper blue and had a sharp light-dark contrast. I kept the contrast because I felt that it emphasized the power of the song, but to me, this particular performance felt a little more turquoise/green than blue. So, I kept the red light but changed the blue light's tone to a little greener. Although I stayed pretty true to the performance, tiny changes in color and lighting can help add to the mood of the photo and match the visual energy to the energy of the live performance.
While Blue Angel was performed on a theater stage, Fireside is going to be in an airier ballroom. There will definitely be new challenges in shooting Fireside, but I’m super excited to work with the SAI sisters next weekend. Concerts are always so much fun, both to work and just to be a part of. For more of the PMI brothers and Blue Angel photos, check out my Pinterest and Portfolio. And if you happen to be in the Winona, Minnesota area next weekend, February 9th and 10th, 2024, stop by for the Fireside variety show! If you can’t make it, you can follow along with me shooting this concert on Instagram where I’ll be vlogging the whole process, from planning to editing.
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