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Bass in the Dark

Bass in the Dark
Canon 7D + Lensbaby, 80mm, f/4, 1/100s, ISO 800

 When I revisit old concert shots, I occasionally stumble upon some under-exposed ones that seem to have potential. Instead of trying to get the exposition corrected, I sometimes go deeper into underexposition to try and get a mood out of them. This is a photo of bassist Gilles Coquard at a Sébastien Charlier concert. It was shot with the lensbaby, and I like how the silhouette is picked up by a tiny bit of backlighting. I think it works, but I’m not quite sure and I’d certainly like to hear what you think.

Junior Trainspotting

Junior Trainspotting
Fuji x100s, 35mm, f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 400

 A fun little shot of kids in the Square des Batignolles which overlooks the very busy St-Lazare railway station. This isn’t a straight x100s jpg (for a change), it’s a raw edited with x-equals’ XeL 2.0.

The Mighty Horn

The Mighty Horn
Canon 7D, 80mm, f/4, 1/50s,  ISO 1600

In all my years of concert attendance, I have only ever seen a bass saxophone played three times. The third and most recent was the Madd Vibes Brass Band concert I attended a few weeks ago where frontman and Fishbone founder Angelo Moore whipped out (so to speak) his bass sax for a few bowel-churning solos. The photo was edited in Lightroom with XeL 2.0.

Pedro’s Intensity

Pedro’s Intensity
Canon 7D, 80mm, f/2.2, 1/80s, ISO 1250

Pedro Kouyaté is an intense musician in all meanings of the word intense. There are magical moments in his live sets where he seems to lose himself in his music, which I suppose is the whole point about transe music in the first place. Check him out live if you ever get the chance! The photo was edited in Lightroom 5 with XeL 2.0‘s Agfa Scala emulation.

How To: Embracing the Shadows

How To: Embracing the Shadows

Published by Ben Felten on 19 avril 2013 | Leave a response

Earlier this month I published a « how to » article on the X-Equals blog detailing my process for black & white concert shoots. In particular, I focus on the post-processing in Lightroom using XeL B&W. It’s entitled Embracing the Shadows, you can find it here, and the images features are Thomas in the Shadows and Trumpeter [...]

Fillin’ the Bellows!

A third shot from the Amsterdam Klezmer Band concert in April 2012 in Paris, this one from accordion player Theo van Tol. As a photographer, I love accordion players: the instrument offers such graphic possibilities… From the same concert you can check out photos of trombone player Joop van der Linden and trumpet player Gijs Levelt.

Surinder

Surinder is a tuk-tuk driver I met and befriended the first time I went to Delhi in 2011. He offered to walk me arond the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib Sikh temple, which I readily accepted. This is a portrait of him after the visit.