Before and after concert photos

I want to share some before and after examples of my photo editing with you. This is a vulnerable thing for me to do as a photographer, but I sometimes get asked “What corrections do you do to the images” or “Why do you edit the images”. Taking photographs is a small part of what I do. Administration, including editing and marketing, take up lots of my spare time.

Every concert is different. You never have the same light conditions, the venues are different and you can’t ask the artist to pose for you. Therefore, editing images takes varying degrees of time, depending on what corrections are needed.

I like my photos to look natural and realistic, clear. According: as little as possible as much as necessary, I edit my photos. Focus on creating the mood in my images and showing what it was like to be there. But never black and white.

Even with the right settings, photographers can’t always produce perfect photos.

Why do I always shoot in raw?

Shooting in JPEG can result in loss of image information as the picture is compressed. With RAW, I am able to produce higher quality images making it easier to edit.

All post-production work are carried out in Adobe Lightroom, and not Photoshop, by utilizing a variety of editing techniques. Basic settings such as exposure, vibrancy, contrast, and sharpening. And sometimes kinda every slider in Lightroom.

How much time does it take to edit an image?

It’s hard to quantify how long it takes to edit a single photo or even a full gallery. It depends on a lot of things:

• How long I was allowed to shoot? Most of the time, three songs but sometimes the whole show.
• Just a singer-songwriter or a band where every is not just standing around?
• How was the light? Red LED lights, almost natural or literally no light?

Sometimes I need just 30 seconds, sometimes 5 or more minutes for one photo.