Northern Ireland is synonymous with phenomenal musical talent. Duke Special, Rams’ Pocket Radio, Silhouette and Kyle John Suckling are just a few of the remarkable artists to hail from the busy Belfast music scene.
I was recently tasked with the challenge of capturing images for Kyle John Suckling’s upcoming release, an album so shrouded in secrecy that even the title remains strictly confidential.
I did have the chance to listen to a number of tracks in the run up to the shoot which were great but I decided to remain open minded as to how the images should look until things got underway. We covered the cliches (see above) to have something to fall back on if the main ideas didn’t succeed. Thankfully (I think) we managed to capture something positively different for the upcoming release.
Kyle is a remarkable performer he has toured with both Rufus Wainwright and Imogen Heap and shared stages with the likes of Van Morrison and Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy) in L.A. where Charlie Midnight (Joe Cocker/James Brown) produced one of his first songs.
I used both the X-Pro1 and Canon 5D cameras throughout the one hour shoot using 35mm lenses on both cameras (50mm equivalent on X-Pro1). Both cameras produced exceptionally sharp images but I particularly love the colour clarity and depth achieved by the X-Pro1 sensor. There is something extra rich about X-Pro1 images, there was also a little bit of multi-exposure work which the X-Pro1 manages with ease.
The final images are with Kyle and his management but I am pretty certain one of the X-Pro1 images will be the main album cover and promotion image. I wish I could post the good photos here but for now a test outtake shot is all I have to post.
The image has been processed with an Adobe Lightroom 4 preset I have been developing for gritty black and white portrait work. I have aptly named it FlixelPix-Grit and I may give it a public release once it has been perfected. (Watch the Facebook Page for details). Check out my other free Lightroom presets in the meantime. Grab a free Kyle John Suckling Song on Bandcamp.
