Ian Chantler  

George Pequero by Ian Chantler

March 2025 - George Pequero

About the Image(s)

Saturday 22nd February saw me at the Royal Philharmonic Hall Liverpool as Luma Creations photographer it was to the day the 50th anniversary of Brothers Francisco and Oscar Carrasco arrival in Liverpool as 2 very young children after their family were exiled from Chile they went on to form Luma Creations and also form there own music Group, Gruppo Luma I had access all areas around the stage and managed to capture this image of George Peguero a Cuban singer, songwriter and poet who like the other guest artists gave a fabulous performance.
I know people will say the face and guitar are too bright but I love the extreme contrast also removal of the stage furniture behind him but for me it shows how it was on the night, as always the Groups thoughts would be very much appreciated.

How I did it

Canon EOS 5D Mk III lens Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art 016 focal length 85mm, f2.8 250s ISO 1000
Basic adjustments to RAW file made in CS6 converted to mono using a gradient map on an adjustment layer, sharpened using a high pass filter highlights dropped shadows opened slightly, some localised dodging and burning and cropped down from the top, and 2px border added.

3 comments posted

Ella Schreiber   Ella Schreiber
Hi Ian: Another interesting image of a performer. The mic & stand are great leading lines right to George your subject. Obviously, the lighting was challenging looking at your camera settings. I'd suggest burning the light areas by his knees, guitar and the other light/white dots. If possible, remove or crop the mic stand on the left-hand side of the image. My eye found them distracting.   Posted: 03/10/2025 06:01:53
Peter Clark   Peter Clark
Ian - a really well executed image of the singer/guitarist performing captured under difficult, but dramatic lighting conditions. I have no real issues re. the brightness of the face and guitar although the brightness of the latter could be slightly reduced.
As Ella noted the various light spots around the image need to be cloned out and I would suggest a crop to remove the stand at the LH edge of the image or simply clone it out.   Posted: 03/14/2025 06:13:58
John Gilkerson   John Gilkerson
Ian, a fascinating story and a super portrait.
For me, the bright face and guitar add necessary contrast to the image.
I agree with Ella and Peter that the various bright spots should be removed.   Posted: 03/15/2025 04:32:37

 

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