Now that “March Madness” begins tonight, I’m reminded of a topic that I’ve been meaning to write about for while, something I’ll be dealing with—big time, more then usual—in the days ahead, and that’s the problem of which photos are “keepers” and which are not.
For example, by the end of this month, I’ll have taken easily well over 2500 photos of various performers, concert goers, venues and the like.
Now, let’s be realistic; 2500 “keepers”? In shooting situations that vary from extremely low light, to flash, to action or any combination thereof?
C’mon now…no photographer—not even me (Ahem-cough! 
—is that good. I can understand 2500 keepers over the course of a few years, maybe, but certainly not over the course of three weeks.
Besides, who the hell would take the time—much less have the time—to look at them all?
This is where probably the hardest part of photography—especially concert photography—comes into play, for me at least; getting rid of the photos that really aren’t very good…hell let’s just say it, the ones that truly suck! But…but…
“But, I have an emotional investment in this shot; My blood, sweat and tears went into this shot; I put the time and effort into it; I did the work; I spent time planning it out; I had to wait for the right light; Look at the bokeh in this one; I had to arrange the lighting; Damn it, I’m an artiste and if I took the time to press the shutter button, then it’s certainly a shot worthy of gallery consideration.”
Yeah, right…who am I crappin’?
So, with so many similar shots being taken in the next few weeks, just how do I decide which ones are worthy of presentation?
The first step for me is to gather them all up and go through them one by one and just hit delete for the ones that technically didn’t work. Shots that are under or over exposed. Shots where I lost the focal point or ones that are blurry in an uncool way. Ones where some one walked in front of me right as I was pressing the shutter…these ones are probably the most frustrating for me, as it always seems to happen during “the” shot. But, as the photographer, you just have to continue to try to stay out of the way, get over it—right that second—and carry on.
Next, I’ll rearrange all of the shots—such as all the crowd shots, all the lead singer, the guitarist, full band shots, etc.—into “stacks.” Once this is done the question becomes, “Does this shot tell a story…does it capture a moment…does it present the performer in a positive light (ie: is he picking his nose?)…is this Rock and Roll, or is it just a same old same old performance shot that bores me to tears?”
This step is hard because, invariably, there will be tons of shots that are technically spot on and it’s really hard for me to get rid of “perfect” shots.
Now I have to look and them and ask, “Will this shot need to be cropped more then 20%?” With low light situations, you’re dealing with high ISO settings and lots of noise. The more you crop these, the more noise and pixelization you gonna get…they degrade rapidly. If I have to crop more then 20% and/or can’t get a good composition…out it goes!
So, now that I have twenty to thirty “great” shots of the lead singer, now what? Still too many to be presenting.
Walk away! Yep, just walk away and don’t even look at them for at least two days. When I return to them, with fresh eyes and perspective, I try to decide honestly, harshly and rationally (a rational photographer? HA!) which three…four at the most, are the best photos of the lead singer.
And then I repeat the process for the guitarist, the bassist, the bassoonist…what have you.
Once this is done for all the categories of photos, I’m usually a sniveling mass of goo and need to tie on a good bender, after which I’m ready to give them all one last look over…and now I can begin post production work!
Hence, today’s title…the love/hate thing. I truly love the artists, the crowds, the excitement, the adrenalin…the whole experience of shooting a live show. But I truly hate having to weed through all the photos in an attempt to make myself look good and, more importantly, to make the artists look good…I hate it because I always feel I got it wrong.
This is usually the point where I decide that it’d really be a whole lot easier if I worked for a music magazine and had an editor. That way, I’d be able to enjoy my work, enjoy the show…and just turn all the shots over to the editor and let them do all the sweating!
Hey, Rolling Stone…I’m available!
So…how do you decide when you got it…and when you suck?
Slainte
Gareth—The Celtic Camera Photography
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