This year Scott Diussa and I taught a pre conference workshop on concert photography at Photoshop World Conference and Expo. We had a great time teaching and all the feedback I have received from the participants has been overwhelmingly positive. Scott and I started the day with a lot of that boring, dry technical stuff, you know the camera settings etc.. Then it was time to take that info and put it to the test.
We had the keynote stage set up with concert lighting, a drum riser and most importantly, BIG ELECTRIC CAT. We set the photographers loose for three songs and let them shoot to their hearts content. Now, I have read all the comments posted on Scott Kelbys blog about how it wasn’t a real concert shoot because the lights were too bright, or there was no-one spilling beer or shouting at the photographers. You can read Scotts blog HERE. There are two things that folks need to keep in mind:
1) This was not a real concert, in the same way that the Wedding shoot pre con wasn’t a real wedding. This was a controlled environment so that folks could put the new information they just got into a practice. Yes, we could have made it harder, but the idea is to let people try out different things not make it miserable for them.
2) Many shows I shoot have much brighter lights, very well behaved people and don’t take place in shitty little bars.
After the first three songs, we had the band do it all again. Two shoots instead of one. How awesome is that?
Then it was time to head back to the classroom. Time for some post processing talk and some general Q & A. I will have the post proccessing workflow posted very soon.
I want to thank Scott Kelby for taking the chance on a new class and a couple of new instructors to Photoshop World. I also want to Thanks Scott Diussa and Sarah from Nikon Professional Services for helping to teach the class and for bringing all that cool loaner gear from Nikon. Lastly and most importantly I really want to thank all the folks who were in the class. Without you there, it wouldn’t have happened.
I know Scott posted some of my images from the day, but here is the full gallery of my shots:
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