Advice for these promotional shots?

[Louisa911]

I've just started live band photography, (and photography in general), small local gigs and such, and one particular band have asked myself and a college friend to help out with their new EP material.

One aspect of this is taking some promotional publicity type shots of the band- as a group, and individual shots. And then some live gig ones.

As for the individual shots, I think I can manage those- have access to a studio etc. and I'm also okay with the live gig shots. But as for the photos of them as an entire group (theres 4 of them) I'm struggling to think of ideas to make the photos stand out- I've been trying to think of interesting locations, you know the sort that are usually found with band photos, for example bold lighting in dark areas, interesting compositions and so on.

I was just wondering if theres anything I will need to consider when going ahead with this, anything that will help give my photos an extra 'pop' haha. Got to get them done quite soon and the weathers pretty bad all week up here, so flat lighting outdoors may be an issue. I have a Canon 300D with kit lens, hopefully getting a 50mm f1.8 this week, and a bog standard tripod. Any advice here would be great thanks, just dont want them to look like a bog standard snapshot.

Also if anybody is familiar with the Lancaster / Morecambe areas and can think of any good locations for this type of shot, let me know!

[andy-xr]

Is the Co-op still going, at the back of the Grand? We did a few shots in the car park up against the wall there many years ago in my band days

Somewhere down on the canal past the Water Witch would be interesting (mayb on a boat, depends on the genre of music) as would the woods in Williamson Park

[Monochrome]

Have you got any decent lighting gear for a location shoot? You'll need some to experiment with dramatic lighting, otherwise explore everywhere at and look for somewhere with the best ambient light. I would shoot it at night or dawn.

Edited by Monochrome on Monday 19th January 00:09

[Louisa911]

Thanks, yeah the co-ops still going. will check it out tomorrow, cheers!

Any particular camera settings to bear in mind, for a typical outdoors shot, stood by a wall etc etc?

[VxDuncan]

IMHO that band shots in a gritty urban enviroment has kinda been done to death (unless you have the perfect conditions and the band has the right look. Ideally, and maybe this is taking the whole thing too far, you'd be in a position to manage the bands whole image, you know, name, logo, dress, style etc, all tuned to a common 'feel' that fitted with the genre you where working in. Much the same way that a wedding might have a common theme through the invites all the way to the table setting, or a film might have certain production values that would be maintained throughout (Think how weak films such as Sin City or V for Vendetta would be without strong production ideals).

Think about what the band means, and what message they are trying to portray, and them how that can be communicated to the public. Hopefully that will spring some ideas.

Do you have to find a "set" for them at all? I seem to remember you're a bit of a drawing god - maybe you could simply caracature them, or photograph them in front of a blue screen them photoshop it out and put a different (possibly abstract) scene in? Or model them in a 3D graphics package? Or plastacine and animate them in stop frame?

If the brief was traditional photography I'd try and avoid the cliches and do something different. Have a look on Strobist (.com?) to see if you can pick up any lighting / style tips. I believe the strobist style will certainly big the next big thing in portraiture (if it isn't already), even though it is a bit "American".

Anyways, I'm rambling. I'm off to bed. Good luck!

[arej]

I am in no way an expert on this or have done anything like it, however if I was to do this I would have a think about what type of band they are and what their music represents and try to think/find a location that represents that. I agree with VxDuncan that the urban style has been overdone (even though it works) and the strobist stuff often produces very dramatic and eye-catching photographs. Sorry I can not be of any more help than that, I hope it goes well for you.

[Dai Capp]

Agree with what's been said - for me the bands image will dictate the type of shot. However trying to do something different if they are a gritty rock band will be challenging.

Have a look at some older stuff for inspiration. These guys were doing some pretty interesting stuff without the advantage of digital or computer processing. The photos were therefore largely 'hunted' not 'cooked'.

Philip Townsend did a lot of stuff with The Stones and has got an exhibition running at Castle Galleries if there is one near you - or have a look at http://www.philiptownsend.com/gallerystones.php?pa...

Cheers

DC

[Dibble]

How about:

• The Ashton Memorial/Williamson Park?

• The new bridge over the Lune?

• Up around the Castle/Prison?

• In and around Thurnham Street/Dalton Sqaure?

[Dibble]

And of course the Midland Hotel at Morecambe?

[VxDuncan]

There's four of them? Get them to lie down, heads together in a cross shape ( like the blades of a windmill). Shoot striaght down from above. Crop to just the heads/shoulders. Different type of portrait that should stand out. Bonus points for having them spinning round on a merry go-round at the time and freezing motion with a burst of flash or even better having them lying upto thier ear'oles in mud.

I'm really not sure the traditional type shots will be distinctive enought tbh.

[EmmaP]

Much depends on the sort of image they wish to portray. It is very important that you discuss this with them first. I did some shots of my friend's band recently and knowing they were a hip-hop group I thought of The Beastie Boys. My friend agreed that this was the sort of image they were after. So, I did some research into past and present promo Beastie Boys photography. I printed out a selection and showed the to the other guys before the shoot.

The only time that we could do the shots was early evening so I used fill-in flash. It is hard when you can't book the weather but with experience you'll learn to deal with whatever you are faced with. More often than not I never know what I am going to find until I reach a location so 'be prepared' is the motto. This will be a good learning experience for you. Try lots of different approaches - view point, framing, composition, focal length, close-up, distance. Leave lots of room for cropping to enable the final image to fit the square format of the CD cover and allow for the overlay of text and graphics.

Quite often the simplest ideas are often the best. Pink Floyd of course demonstrated that this is not always the case.

[Fordo]

what about some light painting at night?

I havent seen light painting used for band promo photos before

long exposure for the light painting, and fire the flash to catch your subject.




the aboves probably not the best example.

this dude does some amazing stuff, might be good inspiration:

http://mcaleavy.org/gallery/people/

Ive been having endless fun light painting with sparklers lately

[EmmaP]

This guy's work is amazing:

http://www.gullickphoto.com/

And Jill Furmanovsky is well worth a look. She did some fantastic work with Oasis:

http://www.rockarchive.com/jill-furmanovsky-prints...