This is not my usual type of photography, but I was at a Highland Games the other week and figured I’d snap some photos of what was happening. The environment for this one was challenging too, because it was an open air stage, with fairly bright sunlight and I was using a telephoto lens because I was a good distance from the stage.
The band, if your curious, are called the Kilmaine Saints and they are a celtic rock band who play a lot of fast paced, fun music inspired by both Scotland and Ireland. It’s all pretty light hearted but performed with energy and a mixture of traditional instruments and a modern style. If you’re in the PD, MD, VA area then you can probably find a nearby show if that’s your sort of thing.
The original isn’t horrible, bit of motion blur but that’s to be expected given the lens I was using. Bit flat and the stage is messy which is distracting. People who shoot this sort of stuff regularly probably know how to frame things better in the first place. Although it’s an imperfect shot I like the way it captures a bit of the energy of the band playing so I thought I’d see what I could do to make the most of it.
So the first thing I did was to crop in more tightly, removing some of the distracting elements from the picture. I also reduced the saturation on that blue wheel on the right which otherwise draws the eye. Then I darkened the background and increased the exposure on the core subjects (thank you Photoshop for making that so easy to do these days). The end result, while hardly a masterpiece at least keeps the focus on the important elements of the photo instead of all the clutter.
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