DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> Band photography...
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 25 of 58, (reverse)
AuthorThread
08/06/2007 12:06:41 PM · #1
Im shooting some promo shots of a band next week and I am having trouble coming up with some ideas.

Well thats not true, I have plenty of ideas, but the problem is that its a hardcore band, and my ideas so far are a little too "soft". Most of the ideas have been playing on the fact that the band has a girl in it, but are too light hearted to carry the right image for them.

They are all very fun people, but image is important. So essentially I am looking for some fun ideas for a band photo that dont include any of the following:
a brick wall, abandon building, fire escape, alley way, or any other band photo cliche.
08/06/2007 12:08:43 PM · #2
Check out Jason_Cross's portfolio. He does a lot of local bands. You might get some good ideas.

Message edited by author 2007-08-06 12:08:49.
08/06/2007 12:31:35 PM · #3
Check out sher 's Tyrone Vaughan Band shots.

Wow!
08/06/2007 02:19:00 PM · #4
The ones Ive come up with so far that I dont think will work but still might take cause they are fun:

The whole band in a bed, but with only her sticking out of the top of the sheets but 5 pairs of feet sticking out of the bottom, implying that they are up to something under there.

A pile of clothes in the background, with the foreground being a knees down shot of the whole band with "nothing" on.

I think maybe taking something like a mock 80s glam metal dress up type thing could be fun too, but again dont know if it will work.

I think one that might work good will be everyone sitting at a bar,back to the camera, with thier ass cracks hanging out (plumbers ass)(this might actually be feasible)

I think another good one would be to do a sewn panoramic shot of sorts, taken from the middle of a round table, while the members eat chicken wings...agrily and messily.

Same kind of shot as above but done as a poker game (or a strip poker game!)
08/06/2007 02:41:44 PM · #5
hardcore as in hardcore punk?
hardcore straight-edge?
hardcore metal?
death metal?
screamcore?
christian...santanic?
neither?
hip hopish hardcore metal?
cover band?

so many things can be called hardcore...
pictures are very important in music it us usually the first thing seen
I think you should sit down with the band and ask them what they are going for lighthearted shots like sitting at a bar or crazy shit like drinking blood and body parts so many possibilities
Do they play originals? what does there music say?
can you turn one of there songs into a photo?
just some random off the top of my head

08/06/2007 02:47:25 PM · #6
Originally posted by electrolost:

hardcore as in hardcore punk?
hardcore straight-edge?
hardcore metal?
death metal?
screamcore?
christian...santanic?
neither?
hip hopish hardcore metal?
cover band?

so many things can be called hardcore...
pictures are very important in music it us usually the first thing seen
I think you should sit down with the band and ask them what they are going for lighthearted shots like sitting at a bar or crazy shit like drinking blood and body parts so many possibilities
Do they play originals? what does there music say?
can you turn one of there songs into a photo?
just some random off the top of my head


They are pretty much a border line posi-core oldschool hardcore band.
The music is really upbeat, no stupid unneccesary breakdowns so kids will mosh, the lyrics are relatively positive as well.
08/06/2007 02:50:19 PM · #7
//www.myspace.com/myturntowin
08/06/2007 03:26:28 PM · #8
No "Brick Wall" shots.
08/06/2007 03:27:30 PM · #9
Joey Lawrence has been doing some good band stuff lately.
08/06/2007 03:28:54 PM · #10
Originally posted by pawdrix:

No "Brick Wall" shots.


Covered that in the original post haha.
08/06/2007 03:30:24 PM · #11
This here is the best what NOT to do site when shooting a band.

It's hysterical for starters and has a ton of the worlds most horrificly bad band shots.

You'd be crazy not to look at that site before shooting. You'll see every corny band cliche conceived and then some. Worse than Spinal Tap...
08/06/2007 03:56:25 PM · #12
well, according to that site, i suppose most of my shots seem pretty cliché. what i shot, though, was exactly what the band AND the recording studio wanted and they were thrilled with the photos. so thrilled, in fact, that i have several more photo shoots scheduled with very well known people in the music business. what i'm saying, i suppose, is that you can certainly have some input on the type of photos you want to shoot but, ultimately, it's the client you have to please.
08/06/2007 04:04:02 PM · #13
Originally posted by sher:

well, according to that site, i suppose most of my shots seem pretty cliché. what i shot, though, was exactly what the band AND the recording studio wanted and they were thrilled with the photos. so thrilled, in fact, that i have several more photo shoots scheduled with very well known people in the music business. what i'm saying, i suppose, is that you can certainly have some input on the type of photos you want to shoot but, ultimately, it's the client you have to please.



This is great and NOT cliche...


Also very cool...a little Morrison Hotel-ish but cool.
08/06/2007 04:05:41 PM · #14
Cliche doesnt always mean bad Sher, it just means cliche.

One of those captions hit the nail right on the head: something about "you can tell what this band sounds like just from this picture" and ive found in my experience with bands and music etc, that this is 100% true.
08/06/2007 04:07:44 PM · #15
Originally posted by pawdrix:

Originally posted by sher:

well, according to that site, i suppose most of my shots seem pretty cliché. what i shot, though, was exactly what the band AND the recording studio wanted and they were thrilled with the photos. so thrilled, in fact, that i have several more photo shoots scheduled with very well known people in the music business. what i'm saying, i suppose, is that you can certainly have some input on the type of photos you want to shoot but, ultimately, it's the client you have to please.



This is great and NOT cliche...


Also very cool...a little Morrison Hotel-ish but cool.


What? No way, those are both very cliche shots, but they work. Stairs are the new train tracks and that is clearly an abandoned place. Sometimes it works.

Also...Im completley against having an electric guitar in a picture if its not on a stage, in a house, a studio or etc.

Is that guy going to plug his electric guitar into the abandoned half stack and hope that joint still have some electric runnin?
08/06/2007 04:24:51 PM · #16
Originally posted by ajdelaware:

Stairs are the new train tracks and that is clearly an abandoned place.


Abandoned?

Hey, that's where I live pal.

Almost everything's cliche....except for my work (which is all 100% original btw) but how much can you really do with 4 dudes?

They gotta stand somewhere but you're right NOT in an alley, on railroad tracks or in front of a brick wall. LOL


That's one of five that I did for a guy T Young. There are more maybe better but this was the only one I could find. I don't have the final but there's room up top for the text and in other parts of the frame.

It's funny, one comment I got here at DPC someone asked if the girls were in the band but I assume if you know the band you can rule that out. Like if Springsteen or Sting were walking alone down the street...their fans would get it, right?

I think a band walking down a "gritty" street with their gear might be cool. You know...their guitars...bass etc like they're going to a gig but the street has to be gritty, of course or else it wouldn't be a band shot. If the drummer is carrying his sticks that would look silly...so give him a cigarette or something rolled up.

Message edited by author 2007-08-06 18:17:20.
08/06/2007 04:27:18 PM · #17
I went through a flickr group of band photos and every one was:
abandoned factory, fire escape, infamous brick wall, train tracks, or folk bands sitting in a field playing acoustic guitars with the drummer hitting a single snare.
08/06/2007 04:33:13 PM · #18
if you're shooting for cd covers or cd artwork, you have a limited amount of space with which to work and have everyone's faces show.
08/06/2007 04:38:21 PM · #19
Originally posted by sher:

well, according to that site, i suppose most of my shots seem pretty cliché. what i shot, though, was exactly what the band AND the recording studio wanted and they were thrilled with the photos. so thrilled, in fact, that i have several more photo shoots scheduled with very well known people in the music business. what i'm saying, i suppose, is that you can certainly have some input on the type of photos you want to shoot but, ultimately, it's the client you have to please.


Nothing wrong with clichés in band photography. Let's face it, it's clichés that tell the viewer what type of band she is looking at. Give the wrong impression, and you'll target the wrong audience. So please DO use clichés.

Photographers who want to do it different just to do it different are wrong. Arty farty band pictures are cool, if the band is called The Mars Volta. 'cause that defines their music right. Try arty farty on the Ramones, and you'll end up with the wrong audience: audience unhappy, band unhappy.

The great challenge is ofcourse to find the right mxiture of cliché and originality. If you can, you're a great artist. If you can't, stay on the safe side, and DO use those stairs, railroads, whatever needed to get the message across
08/06/2007 04:53:11 PM · #20
To me though, those cliche settings dont say anything about what the band sounds like though. I usually can tell what a band is going to sound like based on what the members look like (with a 95% accuracy ha!) I think a lot of times use of those settings is a cop out, its saying - man I dont really want to invest the time to think about who im shooting, so Im going to stick with the standard formula.
08/06/2007 04:53:42 PM · #21
you can take a peek at my music work here

website

i use a few walls but i feel bigger environments with lots of space behind the members works well too.

i like your idea of themed shots! those are always fun
08/06/2007 05:10:11 PM · #22
Might consider using one of their song titles as a theme. Deadweight could be interesting, for example.

08/06/2007 05:11:38 PM · #23
I don't think Taterbug will mind my giving up this idea he shared with me a while back but neither of us have attempted it... How about the whole band sittin' on a sofa in the middle of the street with a bus going by behind them... Would take some good timing and a couple of good backs to move the furniture back and forth...
08/06/2007 05:12:32 PM · #24
Would be better if the bus were headed for the couch...
08/06/2007 05:32:35 PM · #25
You have to get input from the band, and at least have some idea what they want. I recently shot a band's album cover for them, they wanted it to look like the Beatles Help album cover. So i gave that to them.
Front
Back
I also gave them each person individually and it is all over their Myspace page. Sometimes you got to give them what they want.
I like using a song title or lyric idea too, I think "Oh yeah" is in one of their songs.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 03/28/2024 09:34:19 PM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 03/28/2024 09:34:19 PM EDT.