Tuesday, August 26, 2014

When the light is bad

When the light is bad – make art!

Summertime brings lots of outdoor activities and pleasant evenings. Pleasant evenings bring summer concerts on stages large and small. We seem to be drawn to the concerts in Duluth, Georgia. The town green slopes nicely and has some terraces, there is a fountain for the children to play in, and a stage just fine for a small town concert.

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When its time for the concert the fountain is tuned off and the music begins. It is all very enjoyable.

Evening Concert in Duluth, Georgia

For us photo enthusiasts it is a bit of a challenge. The stage lights are not exactly designed with photography in mind. The lights are fixed and as the performers move about the stage the lightings on them changes from bright to dim to not at all. When color effects are used that compounds the problems. As the sun sets and daylight turns to night the photo challenges increase.

For this particular evening I decided to go for “café art” images, making use of the lights as best as I could. The first step, of course, was to use the camera on manual settings, no way could the camera exposure control figure out what I was after. Image manipulation was done mostly in PaintShop Pro and Topaz Simplify.

The Members Only Band did a fine job. I just hope my images convey just a little of their intensity.

Members Only

Members Only Band

Members Only Band

Members Only

The Entertainer - Members Only Band

The Drummer

.:.

© 2014 Ludwig Keck

2 comments:

  1. Ludwig, I have never really had much luck photographing outdoor concerts so usually just sit and enjoy the performances. But, I really enjoyed your photo manipulations and feel the colors really set off the performers. I was curious as to what type of music was performed.

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  2. Thank you very much, Beatrice. "Members Only" is an "80s tribute" band. To me theirs is rock music, but what do I know. These concerts are fun for more than just the music, and I love the challenge of live performance photography. I try not to be too big a pest. You can see some more of my photos in my Google+ album "Performers": http://goo.gl/WNE0JZ

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