I'm working on the next FREE Preset Pack for the Concert Photo Club. I'll be testing these out across a bunch of my own photos to ensure consistency. But if you want them to work on YOUR photos too, then shoot through a RAW photo from your own collection! This way, the presets will be more likely to work better for you. Here's how you can do it: 1. Export ONE photo as a RAW file. 2. Upload it here. 3. Comment "Done!" so I know you've uploaded it :) The preset pack will be dropping on June 1. Cheers! - Jade

and tell us the backstory - why is it your #1? i know you've got one ;) drop it below! --- i'll start us off with a photo of a friend, which sums up his personality pretty well. taking photos of friends' gigs still beats any other type of show.

I have to be honest, I didn't go very well. The show started an hour late, the band I was shooting was on last, and the bar itself wasn't a good spot for me (The window was a place that everyone smoked heavily, so all the smoke got inside, and I have asthma, my lungs are suffering.) Also the lighting was so bad most of my photos are unusable, and I wasn't able to use flash or another light source. I think I can salvage some, but not many. Out of about 2k photos I can maybe use 40. Here's an idea of what I was working with, and I'll post about the editing process later, but I wanted to share a not so good experience since a lot of these have been positive. Good things about the experience is the band members themselves were pretty cool and one of them also likes silent films a lot so we talked about Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. EDIT: This example photo is unedited and is a screenshot from lightroom, this is just one of the only usable ones I've found so far. This is of Flash Floods.

So after a lot of editing here are some of my shots! The bands in order are Flash Floods (@flashfloodsband), JACK (@imofficiallyjack), and Zuzu's Petals (@zuzu.s_petals) and it was at Kirby's Beer Store in Wichita, KS! Even though the gig was a difficult one to go through I'm glad I stuck it out and tried my best. I think I got some good results and the bands seem to really like what I had to give them.

As concert photographers, we tend to be pretty involved with our local music scene. I've got a new community feature for you to help you make some more connections in your city: Introducing... the Club Map! This will show you where your fellow concert photographers from this community are based, around the wooorld! (once you opt-in, of course) ❗️Action Steps: 1. Go and add your location to the Club Map. 2. Reach out to people in your city (check back on this map over time 😉) 3. If you meet someone IRL, take a selfie and post it here! P.S. Don't put your exact home location on the map. Just keep it approximate :)