Picturing Musicians Part 2

As mentioned in the ‘Picturing Musicians Part 1’, photos of live performances isn’t my long suit. There’s nothing about my photos of live gigs that look any different from anyone else’s. My approach when I shoot photos for CD covers, PR, and posters, is to do controlled lighting and posing. Here are a few shots I like.

Richard Cross was a classical cellist. He asked me to take a photo of him for the playbill of an upcoming concert where he was a featured soloist. He specified that he didn’t want a standard portrait. I gave him a couple of interesting ideas and he liked this one. We agreed that this oddball shot would not hurt sales, because the people that saw the playbill would have already bought their tickets!

Calvin Hendricks is a flugelhorn player in the San Francisco jazz scene and also does a lot of studio work in Los Angeles. He had several live shots of himself, but none of them were sharp enough to use. One particular shot he liked best had a spotlight behind him. It was an interesting shot, but needed improvement. We did a couple of shots similar to the one he liked, but we weren’t satisfied. I had a large embroidery hoop with diffusion material in it that I often used to soften light sources. Placing this item behind Calvin with a strobe behind it was nice. I also added a raw spotlight to illuminate the front of his face. It worked well.

Terrel is a great sax and flute player. We met in Santa Cruz and played a lot together. Terrel has credentials. When he was in the Army band stationed in Georgia, he became friends with fellow soldier, Maceo Parker, the lead sax player for James Brown. Terrel sat in with James Brown numerous times and played on his ‘Soul on Top’ album. He was also in the touring band that backed up the Four Seasons and later played in the pit band for the Jersey Boys.

The shot of Terrel was done in the studio. The background is a combination of many elements combined in Photoshop. Note the red highlights on the flute and his shoulder. All planned in advance.

I was hired to photograph the International Harmonic Summit held in Santa Cruz. The job required me to shoot individual shots of the players, isolating them during the performance. When I arrived a couple hours early, I realized that the stage lighting was BORING! It looked like it was designed by a librarian. AWFUL. I drove to my studio and grabbed some spotlights to dress up the stage. The video guy was incensed that I wanted to change his ‘perfect’ set up. I set up some lights in the green room and did the individual shots there. This was a good way to go, because harmonica players have their instrument and mouth covered by their hands, so live shots look bad. See the stage lighting below. Ugh!

Much improved lighting done in the green room.

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