January 20, 2009
Lightroom News Interview: John McMurtrie, Music Photographer
John McMurtrie is in an enviable place for any rock music photographer. As well as being regular shooter for Metal Hammer and Total Guitar, he’s also the official tour photographer for Iron Maiden. John has been kind enough to take a few questions about his work and the role of Lightroom in his work.
Copyright – JOHN McMURTRIE/IRON MAIDEN HOLDINGS LTD
Hi John, thanks for joining us on Lightroom News. Did you get home for Christmas this year?
Absolutely! It is important to keep a balance between work and home life.
You’ve had quite a busy 2008, what would have been the highlights for you?
The Highlight of the year has to be the Iron Maiden tour on their private Boeing 757. 50,000 miles all around the world. Breathtaking locations and getting to listen to the greatest heavy metal band on the planet. On the first leg we went to Australia, south and central america, the US, Japan and India in 45 days. I shot over 35,000 pictures on this part of the tour.
Copyright – JOHN McMURTRIE/IRON MAIDEN HOLDINGS LTD
You shoot for quite a lot of magazines, and regularly do cover shots. What would be your favourite cover from this year?
My favourite cover shoot was with the band ‘Airbourne’. It was shot in the studio in Melbourne, Australia. The minute I got off the plane the band took me out for drinks until 3am. The shoot started at midday the next day and we were all a little groggy at the start. It was a great shoot with 4 rock chick models posing with the band. The cover had a fair bit of post production and ended up looking great.
Your work mixes both live and editorial shots of bands, do you have a preference for either?
I am happy to shoot both Live and portraits but prefer the control I have with posing a subject and controlling how I light my subject. I always research a band and shoot accordingly. I would never pose a band against a white wall and just click a few frames.
Copyright – JOHN McMURTRIE
I’m a believer that a good photographer can use any tool, but in the case of live photography, good high ISO response is king. What do you shoot with and why?
For live work I use the Nikon D3. It is the best camera in the world right now for low light photography. You can comfortably shoot at 2000 ISO without any noise in the blacks and the shots look punchy and sharp. Nikon have cracked it with the D3. I would never shoot a low light gig with film again.
The D3 and certainly the D700 are excellent in the high ISO stakes. As a Canon user, with the 5D MkII as a planned purchase, I’m mildly concerned with the black dots to the right of a bright light issue! Of course, with a large lens collection it’s not a matter of a change of camera for me. What advice would you have for the would be live shooter?
Stick with the system you are comfortable using. Sharpness has always been the issue with me. If a lens isn’t sharp I don’t want it. Nikon has always produced the sharpest lenses and their cameras are reliable. Photography equipment is not cheap but if you want a picture editor to trust you then it is important to get your gear up to spec.
Copyright – JOHN McMURTRIE/IRON MAIDEN HOLDINGS LTD
You use Lightroom as your primary photo tool. What got you started with Lightroom?
When I upgraded to the Nikon D3, Apple’s Aperture software did not support the D3 RAW files. This came at a time when Aperture was starting to slow down when processing large jobs. I was getting frustrated and tried out Adobe Lightroom. From the second I started using it I discovered this was the software for me. It processes RAW files beautifully whilst the user retains all control on the final look of the image. It is fast and a pleasure to use.
Tell us a little about your after the shoot workflow, getting images selected and making them available?
After a shoot I upload all my cards via a Lexar stackable card reader. 3 cards at once into my external drive. I then import all the files into Lightroom whilst keeping the original file destination on the external drive. I then go through each image one by one making slight edits. I have saved various colour changes in the preset menu and I will also copy and paste changes as I go along. Images for print I will flag them. Once I have gone through all the images I select all the flagged images (select all flagged option) and export at full res, either JPEG or TIFF. The exported files have the name of the band and original file number.
You mentioned to me that when you first started, you used Lightroom Forums.net, how was your experience there?
The Forum was a fantastic place to ask all the questions on how to do various processes. I had a few struggles at the beginning with creating contact sheets and I had answers within the hour how I could get things done. I also looked through a lot of previous questions on the forum and found it very useful.
If you could have one feature added to Lightroom, what would it be?
The ability to use Photoshop tools within the program without having to switch would be nice. One click and all the tools appear. As far as RAW processing it does exactly what I need it to do.
What’s your favourite feature in Lightroom?
The design and look of the program feels professional. But the best thing is the speed I can process 1500 RAW files without the program getting stuck with long delays. After a show on the Maiden tour I often had a short amount of time to edit and export the shots from a show. The fact I can get things processed quickly is essential.
And your least favourite, or one you think needs improvement?
Don’t mess with something that is not broke! It does what I need it to.
Copyright – JOHN McMURTRIE
Any final parting words?
The transition from leaving film behind and going digital was a tough one for me. Having shot with transparency for the previous 15 years you develop styles and techniques that give you your ’style’. When changing to digital you quickly discover what you had with film is gone and work has to be done to make the images look ‘real’. Lightroom has given me the control to create a ‘look’ and ’style’ that is my own and avoids images looking ‘digital’.
Thanks for your time, John!
You can see more of John’s photos and catch his blog over at http://picturedesk.co.uk