Alessio Michelini Photography

Another great video by Aaron Nace of Phlearn.com which is going to explain us what are the difference between Levels and Curves in Photoshop.

(via FStoppers)

For many photographers use a color checker nowdays it might sounds very old school and pretty useless in this modern era, but while it sounds a bit retró, a color checker is actually really useful, and in this video Mark Wallace is going to tell us why.

(via Adorama TV)

I've never been a big fan of The Frames, I've never watched Once, and I would lie if I say that I know at least 5 of his songs. But Glen Hansard is one of the artists that deserve respect, regardless of whether you like his music or not, like David Bowie or Bob Dylan. You can't say their music is shite and they are not artists. You just can't. You can say you don't like them, but you can't define them as Artists. He is a gentleman, a great performer, and he still tell jokes on stage, and if you can put a smile on your audience face it's already a success.
Now, lets talk about the photography point of view of this gig.

The gig was three weeks ago, when at 9pm in Ireland is still bright, and the stage at the Iveagh Gardens was far smaller than the one at Longitude, the festival I went a couple of days before, but still pretty big, especially because they had to fit a pretty big band. Lights were ok, well, they probably were good to really good to be honest, but the sunlight was still way stronger than the stage lights, and if you don't put a bit more (and I say, a bit) of smoke, it's difficult that these lights can create any proper shapes, shapes that give the sensation of depth, but said that, overall it wasn't a bad gig to photograph at all, and it was a bit cloudy, so the sunlight was filter and it didn't give me any hard shadows, which is a good thing.

He is not a Rock'n Roll star, so don't expect him to jump off the stage or to smash his guitar on the drums, but nevertheless it's still a pretty dynamic stage, lots of different artists, and Glen Hansard is pretty characteristic subject to photograph. I paid attention to the drummer (Graham Hopkins, who plays the drums in The Frames as well), which was a pretty interesting subject as well.

At the end it was a pretty good show to photograph, and definitely a great show to see, regardless if you like him or not. 

Down here the usual pictures, hope you like them, and by clicking here you will be redirect to the full set on my flickr account. 

(yes that white thing he spat was a plectrum)

After so many shitty photo releases, here something cool for you: in the press instructions for Roger Waters, it states that "Photographers will NOT be asked to sign a Release Form!". This is pretty amazing. And it's not only that, but it also suggests to the photographers the best moments to shoot. I would love to see these papers in every gig.

(via Music Photographers)

In the next months I've planned a couple of travels, a short one in Connemara, and a long one in October, where I'll spend a week in Creete and a week in Italy at home.
So, as I'm planning to do some nice landscapes, especially with my new filters from Lee, I'll need to have with me a good tripod, and while in Connemara I can bring my old & very sturdy tripod as I will drive to there, I can't do the same for Creete & Italy, as any kilos I can save on my luggage is precious, and in case I'll have to do some hiking, bring a 2.4Kg tripod on my hands is not that pleasant. In theory I could put on my backpack, but in reality it doesn't fit, it's too heavy, and it's not very practical. So I decided to invest some money on a new tripod for when I travel, and after I read a billion of reviews, I decided to buy the new Manfrotto BeFree, a nice little tripod that once it's folded, it's only 40cm long.
Anyway, this is not a review, as I bought it only last night, but hopefully this weekend I'll spend some time with it and I'll try to write a proper review next week. So far it looks a little beast, but lets wait until I've tested it on the field.

I've been thinking to replace my Cactus V4 wireless flash trigger from a while, as they are not bad, they work most of the times, but not all the times, especially when you have to fire 2/3 flashes at the same time. So I'm starting to take a look around and see what other options I have, and while in the past I wasn't really a big fan of Yongnuo, after I bought a Yongnuo flash few months ago I drastically changed my opinion about this brand, and their new flash triggers seem to be pretty good, still not au-pair with brands like PocketWizard, but you can get 4 transceiver for the price of one PockerWizard. But are they good? Dunno, but according to this video review by Phil Steele it sounds like a good product, not perfect, but still good.

If there were any chances that I could go to photograph The Cult, now they are gone.
Only one publication and they have all the copyrights of my pictures? No thanks.

(via Music Photographers)

He played a couple of weeks ago in Dublin, and that's the reason why I didn't go.

(via Music Photographers)

I always loved reflectors, they are inexpensive, portable, easy to use, and extremely effective, and I use them everytime I can.
In this video by SRL Lounge's editor Lauri Laukkanen, he is going to show us how he shot one of his pictures using only the sunlight as a main source of light and using two reflectors to bounce the light into the subject.

(via FStoppers)

Phoenix was on my have-to-photograph-before-I-die list from a long while, and they didn't play in Ireland for years (someone told me 'cause they had a bad experience on an irish festival years ago), so I couldn't miss their performance at longitude. To be honest I had mixed feelings before, I love their third album, not that much the new one, and Phoenix could be one of the bands that are amazing live, or simply terrible, despite of how their album sound (example: White Lies, decent album terrible live band). Thankfully they fell in the first option, and actually I was really well impressed by their live performance, they still can't beat Foals, but they were pretty good.
As they were the main band of that thay, all the lights were for them, I was a bit worried from the giant red screen, but at the end the pictures turned great, and, if possible, got even more better photos than foals (a couple of them are already on my main site in the Music category).
Anyway, a great band to see and photograph. Here the usual pictures, and as usual you can find the full set by clicking here.