August 02, 2017

Go behind the editing process of a concert photographer.

L
Contributor

Wiz Khalifa

My name is Mason Castillo and I’m a 21 year old concert/lifestyle photographer from a small town called Huron, Ohio. This is my editing process when it comes to concert photography. *Disclaimer: In no way am I claiming to be an expert at photography or editing. I’m just here to show my thought process and what I enjoy to do to my images.*

Mac Miller

When editing concert photos, the first thing I like to do is determine whether the main focus of the photo is the artist (close up shot of subject) or an environmental shot used to showcase the crowd or production of the show. This generally determines what approach I take, and the adjustments I use to edit the photo.

KYLE

After choosing one of my few custom concert presets, I’ll begin tweaking the basics to fit the photo. A lot of my photos are usually bright with medium contrast. I generally like to edit most of my concert photos so at first glance, you don’t feel like you’re looking at a concert photo (if that makes any sense…). With concert photography becoming more saturated, it’s hard to capture photos that don’t all look the same. One of my favorite techniques is to mess with the lighting from the show. If the photo is a close-up of the artist, I’ll usually brighten the area around them with an adjustment brush, and then decrease the clarity just a tad to make them stand out. Another thing I usually like to do is make sure the skin tone is accurate to the artist. Sometimes if there’s, for example, a very harsh blue light, the subjects’ face will be all blue. To fix this, I usually take an adjustment brush and change the temperature all the way to the right (warm) and decrease the saturation to help fix the skin tone.

G-Eazy

I’ve noticed over the past year or so, more and more photographers are venturing into the realm of concert photography which is super tight. With this being said, it’s important to find your own unique style, something I’m still trying to do. Starting out, I found myself trying to mimic the work of my favorite music photographers and while it’s totally cool to be inspired by them, it’s important to find something to make your own. Don’t limit yourself and do whatever you think is cool, everything else will fall into place.

 


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