A picture is worth a thousand words
I speak to two leading, live music photographers and do the legwork for my own photography in order to relate why it is so important to invest in good photography and how to get the right image for you and your band.
Firstly, as an independent band, you will need photos for the following:
- Press kits – to give promoters, venues, management, media etc…
- Support to media for articles and publicity
- Promotional materials like flyers and posters
- Websites – including social networking avatars
- Album art
These photos are not to be taken lightly. It will be the images that represent you to the world and will be used for when you get publicity in newspapers, magazines and blogs. So do you really only want the only options for a journalist to be you holding a mobile phone in a mirror? And don’t forget the impression you will leave with a music industry exec about your professionalism.
Robert Lawrence of 616 Photography in Birmingham said, “Having an exciting, professional photo when you pass over the desk of some record label rep could be the deciding factor as to whether they keep it or bin it.”
Strike a pose – live music shots
Lacuna Coil, Birmingham O2 Academy, 1/02/10, Copyright 616 Photography, Alternative Vision
Lawrence is a freelance photographer and music journalist for Alternative Vision. He has photographed little-known unsigned acts to the majors of rock and metal.
His take on photography relies strongly on giving a visual sense of how the band makes its fans feel when on stage. – “I really look for action shots at live gigs. I love it when the band jumps around and the lights hit from behind. It just shows people how stimulating and enjoyable the band is when it performs.”
Ed Salter, an award-winning photographer based out of London and Oxford agrees, “It’s always nice when the band plays up to the camera a little bit, a bit of interaction with the camera goes a long way.”
Tips for the live photographer
Salter has photographed household names like Duffy, Sum41, The Charlatans and Feeder.
He gave me his tips for a photographer that is tasked with capturing the essence of the live performance.
“At a live gig you usually get to shoot the first 2-3 songs with no flash and you have to deal with the crowd and bouncers at front spilling beer on you! Sometimes things can get a little messy at the front, especially when it’s a metal/punk band.
“You obviously can’t tell the band how to stand, so you have to move around to get the shot. I always get to the gig before the band I am shooting comes on to get an idea of lighting and the stage setup. Often the lighting will be very different between the support band and the headliners though, which can be pretty frustrating as you can’t predict it at all.
“Shooting RAW files is a must I think to get the right white/colour balance.
“Get the fastest lenses you can afford, but be careful the lens can focus in low light. The 50mm F/1.8 lets a lot of light in, but really struggles to focus in the low light situations of gig venues.
“Using a longer lens, for example 70-200mm enables you to take more unique shots of the musicians and their emotions, as opposed to the more typical full length shots (though typically magazines do tend to still print more of the full length shots).”
Picking a photographer for a live gig
Fear Factory, Wulfrun Hall, 17/02/2010, Copyright 616 Photography, Alternaive Vision
Photographers like Lawrence are freelance and usually will offer an unsigned band a good deal if you want to hire him for a live music gig.
He said, “Bands would be looking at around £30 for the night plus my expenses for travel etc. I would retain the copyright because that can get expensive for bands. But if the band wants to buy the rights of a couple of shots for use on albums then we can negotiate.”
In my experience, it’s all about the networking. You’ll find good live music photographers at gigs. Often they are hired by a venue / promoter to be a resident photographer-type.
Talk to other bands too about who did their photography. You’ll soon find someone.
You can also take a chance on college students. They will often work for nothing so that they can increase their portfolio and work on their technique.
Ready for your close-up?
So live music photography is important but so is the studio shot of you and/or your group.
In order to find out how it works, I did it myself. I set out to find a decent studio photographer to take shots of me. I had a budget of £100 and a good idea of how I wanted my photos to look.
I started cruising Modelmayhem.com and Starnow.co.uk to find photographers in my area. Obviously, the key thing for me was to look at their portfolio to see their capability and quality of previous work.
If the portfolio ticked the right boxes for the style I was going for, then I contacted them with my needs and enquired about rates and availability.
Here’s where the stumbling blocks appeared. The lesson I learned that I pass on to you is shop around.
One photographer was going to charge £100/hour with full rights to photos, another was going to charge me £30 as a sitting fee and then £10/photo after that.
Other amateur photographers like Spatch Photography (the resident photographer for the Hakamou acoustic nights) would only charge £40 and then 50p/photo.
Some of the college kids would do a good deal but due to schedule conflicts couldn’t fit into my timescales or could only do outside shots because they didn’t have access to a studio.
www.foto-smith.com
In the end, I found Steve Smith whose bread and butter is wedding photography but is no stranger to the local music scene and was keen to get some new material for his website. We negotiated a deal and set a date. Two hours was enough time to get tons of shots in about five different outfits and settings.
Speaking to Lawrence again about his thoughts on studio shots, he immediately said it can be a bit boring and tedious to get the right shots especially when you are dealing with three, four, five members of a band.
Studio shots are great for album artwork and publicity use.
Salter says, “I think having good quality graphics and photographs are really important even in this day and age. When records were the main medium, it gave quite a large area for the photo to be printed on which in some ways was better.
But today with iPods etc having artwork on them is still important. As devices get bigger screens this will help make it even more important to have great artwork.”
The techie bit
According to the authors of the DIY Music Manual, here are the formats that you will need in your possession and when to use said format.
- Web – GIF and JPEG files
- Press – TIFF or BMP, but can get away with high res JPEGs
- Printers / Merchandise – TIFF, BMP, JPEG or GIF
In summary…
- Play up to the camera during live photographs – it shows future attendees of your gigs what they are in store for
- Network to find good photographers for both live and studio settings
- Have a good idea of budget and style and be prepared to shop around for the right photographer
- Be willing to negotiate on copyright to maintain affordability
- Get some high res photos just in case
- Start taking your photographic images of you and your band seriously as integral to the overall brand and reputation of your act and performances
- And don’t end up on this blog…or this Top 100…
Details of the Rokpool Photographic Competition
