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Author Topic: What music do you listen to when processing your images?  (Read 14935 times)

Dave (Isle of Skye)

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What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« on: August 30, 2013, 06:37:19 pm »

I've found over the years, when processing and working through my images on the PC, that some good foot tapping music helps me concentrate on what I'm doing and the time just flies by as I disappear into a world of my own. I'm also a bit of an aging heavy rock/metal/blues type person, so I tend to go for early AC/DC, Rory Gallagher (not the acoustic stuff), Free/Bad Co, Stevie Ray Vaughan etc and I am currently enjoying the deep and heavy tones of "Heaven and Hell Live from Radio City Music Hall", which was a collaboration between Dio and Black Sabbath, Dio's voice had pretty much gone by the time they did this live Gig (he was in his late sixties), but Tony Iommi's guitar riffs are just sooo heavy, that it still works well.

So, does anyone else play music as you work on your images and if so what do you listen to and more importantly, what would you recommend?

Dave
« Last Edit: August 31, 2013, 04:41:40 am by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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Chairman Bill

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2013, 06:55:11 pm »

Plenty of Rory, and Free, but also Buddy Guy, Freddie King, BB, Robin Trower, Peter Green, Gary Moore, Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Rush ... and maybe some folk in the blues mix

Ken Bennett

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2013, 08:05:30 pm »

Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider, John Hiatt, and a collection of old time and traditional bluegrass music. Very relaxing.
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Tim Lookingbill

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2013, 11:22:45 pm »

For editing sunset landscapes I play this...

Urbie Green: "Here's That Rainy Day"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zGkRAtJQ9A

For doing a lot of spot healing brush I play this...

Thievery Corporation: "Beatfanatic-Cookin' (version)"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu6LPsDxMyA

And to bring out character in portraits...

Tom T. Hall: "Ramona's Revenge"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9WsX4gXyDU

« Last Edit: August 30, 2013, 11:28:23 pm by Tim Lookingbill »
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John Rodriguez

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2013, 11:53:57 pm »

Pink Floyd.  Deep House.

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walter.sk

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2013, 07:57:15 am »

Jazz and blues.  But no matter what I listen to, I have found that once I start really working on an image I don't hear the music.  It gets completely filtered out.  Same happens with radio news or any other sound source.  I found this out when I tuned in to a program I really wanted to hear.  Heard the beginning, and after working on my images I realized the next show had been on and I never noticed.  Nor had I any memory of the program I wanted to hear. 

I think the sound simply acts like white noise, blocking other distracting sounds.
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jjj

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2013, 09:11:50 am »

Jazz and blues.  But no matter what I listen to, I have found that once I start really working on an image I don't hear the music.  It gets completely filtered out.  Same happens with radio news or any other sound source.  I found this out when I tuned in to a program I really wanted to hear.  Heard the beginning, and after working on my images I realized the next show had been on and I never noticed.  Nor had I any memory of the program I wanted to hear. 

I think the sound simply acts like white noise, blocking other distracting sounds.
I seem to vaguely recall a recent article saying people worked better with some ambient sound as opposed to silence.

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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2013, 11:43:47 am »

Jazz and blues.  But no matter what I listen to, I have found that once I start really working on an image I don't hear the music.  It gets completely filtered out.  Same happens with radio news or any other sound source.  I found this out when I tuned in to a program I really wanted to hear.  Heard the beginning, and after working on my images I realized the next show had been on and I never noticed.  Nor had I any memory of the program I wanted to hear.  

Yes that's exactly it and even though I use headphones and have the sound cranked up to 11, I find I am still only listening to it on a sort of semi subconscious level, but still very much enjoying it and how it allows me to really hone in on what I am doing and get into the zone (a modern term I know, but I cannot think of any other way to describe it). I can only assume the music is stimulating whatever the creative part of my brain is and at the same time, allowing me to really concentrate on what I am doing, by shutting out every other distraction.

The missus usually brings me a cup of tea after a couple of hours or so, which always ends up going completely cold, even though she puts it right in front of me.  ::)

UFO have a live box set out from various BBC recordings I've just discovered, so I think I might give that a go next, or possibly something by Michael Schenker ;D

Dave
« Last Edit: August 31, 2013, 12:01:42 pm by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2013, 04:22:58 am »

Bach, mostly. Mozart. Shostakovich for the darker, more dramatic scenes.

Jeremy
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framah

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #9 on: September 01, 2013, 11:11:12 am »

Streaming of WRTI jazz out of Philly whenever my local community radio station isn't playing blues or reggae.
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Philip Weber

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2013, 02:08:54 pm »

All instrumental...nothing with lyrics as those seem to distract me. When working on images, I want the music to be in the background. When I have music in the foreground, all I'm doing is listening to it. While my musical tastes are wide and I like many of the artists already mentioned (seeing Rory Gallagher play in San Francisco is a wonderful memory!), I like artists such as Dean Evenson, Peter Kater and his collaborations with musicians like R. Carlos Nakai (Native American Flute based music in general works for me), Nawang Khechog, Paul McCandless, William Eaton, etc. There are many more out there in the genre of world/new age music that I listen to while "getting out of the way" for the creative muse, too many to mention and fairly obscure at that.

I also like a bit of incense in conjunction with the music.  

I find post processing flows best for me in a meditative-like state and the above assist me in this way.

Phil
« Last Edit: September 01, 2013, 04:03:25 pm by Philip Weber »
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rgs

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #11 on: September 01, 2013, 03:39:50 pm »

I have a music degree and have directed orchestras and bands as well as playing french horn professionally for 40 years. This may seem strange to many of you but I don't listen to any music when doing any other work. I cannot concentrate on anything else when music is playing. I simply cannot help myself, when music plays, I listen - to the detriment of most anything else. I rarely even play music when driving. When I play music, I stop and listen.   
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keith_cooper

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #12 on: September 01, 2013, 04:39:54 pm »

None whatsoever... I find it immensely distracting

...however I take regular breaks from the computer and have a grand piano downstairs :-)

What gets played really does depend on how I feel, I find the very definite change most refreshing
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David Sutton

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2013, 04:12:42 am »

It's probably to do with teaching music for the last 25 years, but I can't work on my photos and listen to anything, it really breaks my concentration. When I want a break I may go into my studio next door and play something. But if I think about my photos while doing that it ruins the flow of notes.  :)
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LawrenceBraunstein

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2013, 07:13:44 am »

I’ve been following this thread with interest (has such a question ever been asked before on this forum?). Now that some fellow musicians have responded, I might as well add my own two cents. I’ve been a professional musician for all of my adult life and come from a musician’s family (I am a violinist). I have always found it extremely difficult doing anything while listening to ‘classical’ music (sorry, I really don’t listen to much anything else). Even while driving, when I find myself in an unfamiliar part of town and/or traffic conditions become hazardous, instinctively the radio gets turned off! My best post-processing takes place in a quiet room, devoid of distractions (like music, or even other human beings). Not that it’s impossible for me to work in another, less ‘ideal’ environment. It’s just seldom my best work. Just as a passing thought, I’ve often found it quite intriguing, the connection between music and photography. Even for those photographers who do not have a musical background (Ansel Adams, Don Worth, Huntington Witherill, just to name a few), music often plays a predominant role in the lives of so many photographers. Perhaps it’s some form of kindred love.

In any case, "thank you" Dave (Isle of Skye), for asking the question! It provoked a few enjoyable thoughts.

Best regards,

Larry
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Tim Lookingbill

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #15 on: September 02, 2013, 07:57:26 am »

I was a trombonist in a swing band back in the early '90's (my 21 Trombones link being a new find for me) and my guess the connection with music and photography may have something to do with creating a dream like state of mind in order to get a flow going similarly experienced with movies and their accompanying soundtrack providing flow to the plot line. Photography is about telling some type of story for the creator and viewer.

I don't play my music loudly and only in the background in another room just to add some ambience. Empty silence in front of a computer for any extended period of time can create its own metronomic dead tone which can eventually get on one's nerves after a while.
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sharperstill

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #16 on: September 02, 2013, 08:02:49 am »

Boards Of Canada
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RFPhotography

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #17 on: September 02, 2013, 09:03:11 am »

Depends on my feeling at the time, but mostly hard rock.  Puddle of Mudd, 3 Doors Dow, A7X, One Bad Son, AC/DC, Kid Rock that sort of thing.  But blues and jazz finds its way into the mix at times.  As do female vocalists like Sarah McLaughlin.  Then I have a whole pop mix with the likes of Elton John, America, Simon & Garfunkel, Jim Croce. 
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HSakols

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #18 on: September 02, 2013, 10:40:12 am »

My photo studio is in a separate building (man cave).  After teaching kids all weak long, I look forward to having time alone to work on images.  Lately I've been listening to a 1990 box set of the Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident, Dave Mathews Band, and Pat Matheny.  Maybe I work on photos so as an excuse just to listen to music?
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: What music do you listen to when processing your images?
« Reply #19 on: September 02, 2013, 10:54:46 am »

I think it is because we are all creative people (whether you realise it or not), so not only will there be photographers on this forum, but also musicians, poets, actors, sculptors and every other form of creative artist. I don't know what it is that drives us all, other than we seem to have been born with an overriding need to create something, anything, and so much so that we probably have little control over it, we just need to be creative, it's in our DNA, and for me, music seems to help stimulate that creative process. I mean it's not that I can't work without music, I can, it's just that it seems to help me to really focus on what I'm doing, without having to think about what I'm doing, or even about how I am doing it - it's all a bit of a Zen thing I suppose, and I just wondered if anyone else did the same thing and it seems as though there are more than a few that do.

The word Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 (dʑjen) (pinyin: Chán), which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "absorption" or "meditative state".

Do people ever ask you how you worked a particular image and the steps that you took to complete it, and you think to yourself 'you know what, I don't really know, I just sort of did it and here's the result', although of course that could all be down to muscle memory, but that would be a whole new topic I think.  :D

Dave
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