This year, I became far more active in photography for social media purposes rather than for concert photography. Since then, I’ve been more on the observing side of how the years trends developed and had a chance to observe where these photography trends were going into 2019. To top things off, with the amount of concert photographers using Social Media for exposure, it’s easier than ever to see these trends across the board as well as gain inspiration and expand your talents with new techniques.
Photography Presets & Textures
IG: @andreagonar – ¡Me volví a encontrar con @betaoficial en la final de #sessionsmx!
The preset trend was primarily started by travel bloggers and influencers in order to create an aesthetic feel to their Instagram feed. This eventually led to foodies, nano-influencers, and corporate brands to do the same, and slightly recently, presets have presented themselves in concert photography social media accounts. These presets set the mood for your photographs, and through photoshop, you can add finishing touches to give your photographs a more authentic feel by adding textures.
One of my favorite concert photographers that uses both techniques in the majority of her pictures is Andrea Gonar. The picture used in this example is from her work photographing Mexican rock band Beta at House of Vans Sessions MX.
Within the fashion industry and as part of my featured image on this blog post, the New EGG Magazine from Japan is actively using social media and these same types of presets for their editorial work. You can see samples of their images here where New EGG model Hitoe is featured as part of Oricon News’ Published Photos.
Social Media Marketing experts are always ahead of the trends as well. My favorite and very good friend, Sey Michelle, works with different presets which she sells on her website. Taking advantage of certain tones and colors can say a lot about the image you post on social media and your portfolio.
The (Continuing) Rise of Video & Cinematography
Animation of any kind is on the rise – whether it’s as simple as animated elements and captions, stop motion, or actual video; We’re bound to see more of it this coming year. Concert photographers haven’t taken to actual videos yet, though a lot of bands and musicians are combining photography and video into their social media accounts whether it’s footage from the audience or press; and while this is still the early stages of stop motion making a comeback, you can see a great example of it over on León Ramirez’s IG account featuring Say Ocean Band.
IG: @desde_1989 – La semana pasada, mis amigos de Tungas presentaron su nuevo disco en El Lunario.
Photo Double Exposure
Even though concert photographers haven’t jumped on the animation train, an alternative has been trending: double exposure photography. Double exposure has been around for quite some time, and there are two ways to achieve the effect: manually or digitally and concert photographers seem to enjoy doing both. One of my favorite examples for this is Daniel Patlan‘s account: He combines tones, textures, and the double exposure and without question raises the standard for concert photographers everywhere.
The really cool thing about double exposure is that you don’t always have to double up on the element by using a person (like Daniel’s example). Another favorite is Fernando Pacheco‘s photo of MACMORFI where the repeated elements are the stage lights. You can see what I mean here.
IG: @mconde_162 – De mis primeras fotos de concierto.
On Being Human
One of my latest favorite trends has been humanizing the band or musician you’re shooting; That’s actually one thing I loved so much about Japanese magazines rather than Western media; Photographers in Japan always show the human side of whomever they’re shooting in an attempt to show that they’re just people like us. We often feel starstruck when meeting bands we admire, and sometimes feel they’re an impossible reach from us, very often forgetting how humble they can truly be.
As a photographer, my favorite thing is to show just how much bands and musicians love music and their audience. I consider that, a job well done.
Humanizing bands and musicians is becoming more popular as time keeps passing. Whether it’s through audience shots at the end of a gig, shots between songs and audience interaction; it’s all done with the same goal. Another type of photo I’ve observed is candid shots of the musicians before and after gigs – these are slightly more common.
These are only a few of the many trends coming up for this 2019. What are your favorites?
