Concert Montage opinions please

mmmatt

hey there!

Well a couple weeks ago I shot a 4 day music festival called "The Big Wu Family Reuinion" at the beautiful Harmony Park in Geneva, Mn. I have a lot of history with the The Big Wu as well as with the festival. This was the 10th time this festival has been done and most likely the last time. The Big Wu have also lost a bunch of fan support and have been going through a slow dissolve over the past few years.

Anyways, I shot about 30 bands and a bunch of patrons during the 4 days and I will be selling prints of bands that sign off on a release through my site. I have been asked to donate a print by a production company that is putting on a benefit event with a silent auction. The Big Wu is headlining that as well and they want a 16x24 that they can auction off. The charity is set to help MN schools that are struggling to keep music in their curriculum. The print will be signed by the 5 band members and matted. I am providing the print, and they are matting it and getting it signed.

So, I decided on a montage and I am not very experienced with montages so I would like some opinions. I decided on the main photo color with closeups in black and white because it is so tough to match colors with stage lighting and this was horrific stage lighting. these shots are all shot at iso 3200 with a 5d and either an 85 1.8 or 135 f2L wide open.




I need to print this tomorrow so any opinions would be wonderful.

Thanks in advance. Here are the galleries so far http://www.lightcraft-photography.com/Big%20Wu%20Family%20Reuion%20X%20July,%202009 in case you are interested in seeing more.

Matt

mmmatt

couple more views. The all color one is close but the drummer shot is the one I will really have troubles with. Lighting by the drummer was awful... pretty typical.

mmmatt

somebody throw me a bone?

jeffreaux2

I like the color BW mix the least....and all color most.

You could possibly punch up the look with a lighter color BG with some grungy texture layed over it....and some funk cross processing on the photos. These are the types of shots that can be experimented with endlessly. Get outside the box with them!

mmmatt

jeffreaux2 wrote:

I like the color BW mix the least....and all color most.

You could possibly punch up the look with a lighter color BG with some grungy texture layed over it....and some funk cross processing on the photos. These are the types of shots that can be experimented with endlessly. Get outside the box with them!

Thanks Jeff. I will try playing with the color more.

Matt

Qarik

To be honest I am not really diggin the montage. It is not bad..but it doesn't really make me want to bid for it either. Off the top..I don't like the vignette framing or the the arrangement of the shots. The photos themsleves look okay.

heatherfeather

I'm with Jeff

One other thing... the font. Looks like it should be on a wedding ivitation. Or either that or they are some kind of opera group. In my opninion the font should reflect the style of the band. Do they have a logo? DEFINATELY get ahold of it and use it if they do.

mmmatt

heatherfeather wrote:

I'm with Jeff

One other thing... the font. Looks like it should be on a wedding ivitation. Or either that or they are some kind of opera group. In my opninion the font should reflect the style of the band. Do they have a logo? DEFINATELY get ahold of it and use it if they do.

Thanks guys. They have a lot of logos... wife of the drummer is an artist and has designed many for them but they would dominate the montage I think. The text is similar to their title on their website. That's the only reason I used that one. I will look that over too.

Here is the logo from the event flyer. this is the style of their artwork... real detailed cartooney stuff.


Quark, thanks. I did the vinette thing at the last minute because the lighting was so different on each shot and I was looking at a way to merge it all together. Not real good at this stuff, and that is why I posted.

Matt