I understand that not everyone is photogenic. I get that. I also understand that some people hate having their pictures taken, but you understand that band pics are a requirement to put on business cards, web sites, social sites and so on.
The top 3 classic mistakes people make with band photos
1. Train tracks
Dopey picture-taker: “Train tracks are cool. Let’s take a photo standing on them.”
No, not cool. Not now, not ever. Having a photo taken on or around train tracks is just plain stupid.
There is an ENTIRE ARTICLE devoted to how much train track band photos just plain suck. Need I say more? Don’t do it.
2. Woods
Dopey picture-taker: “Woods are cool, because there’s like, leaves and sh*t there.”
Again, no, not cool, not now and not ever. You’re not camping; you’re trying to promote the band. Trees and sh*t are not the way to do that.
3. Cemeteries and/or old buildings (usually for metal bands only)
Metal bands do this crap a lot. Cemeteries are not cool and will not make you look bad-ass whatsoever.
A lot of metal bands also like old crumbly buildings/mills/etc. because they think that looks cool to take a photo in. Nope. All that does is wreck shots because the lighting is horrible, and using the flash makes your band look like the photo was taken with a potato.
What’s the one thing in common all 3 above have?
The background, as in the person taking the photo placed way too much emphasis on the background and not the actual band itself.
Bringing attention to the band is the entire point of a promo photo, so it’s a bad idea to place your attention on a “cool background,” because that takes focus (literally) away from the band.
How to do band photos right? Use a plain background.
Some of the best rock star photos you’ve ever seen were all taken using plain, no-pattern backdrops:
4 easy ways to get better band photos on the cheap
1. Paper
How do pro photographers get that oh-so cool white backdrop? Paper. It’s standard fare for just about any professional photography studio to have a large, wide ream of white paper mounted up high so paper can be rolled down at any time for the backdrop and for the subject to stand on. When the paper gets mucked up with footprints and so on, no problem, just tear off and pull down another large sheet.
If you happen to know someone who works in a paper mill, you’re fortunate because you have a direct line to get some of those big-ass paper rolls on the cheap. However bear in mind those rolls are heavy and it’s a two-man job to lift one.
You don’t need the roll on stands like the pro photographers have. Just roll out enough so you can tape to the wall and cover the floor for where the people will stand, and you’re good to go.
2. Dark fabric
Go to Target or Wal-Mart or whatever general merchandise store is near you and buy a very large sheet of solid color fabric (and no, don’t buy a king-size bed sheet for this purpose because that doesn’t work here.) Better colors are of the darker variety, and if you’re unsure which go to with, get a charcoal color.
Tack that fabric up on a wall, or hang on a line outside if you want to use the sun for lighting and you’ve got your backdrop.
Tip on outside photos: DO NOT take your photo at high noon, because the shadows of your eye sockets will be very prominent. Take your photo at 10am or 2pm, or any time when the sun is not casting huge shadows. In fact, overcast days are the much preferred for proper “flat light.”
3. Lying down on the carpet
This is one everyone forgets, but it is so, so easy.
Example: You have 4 band members. Lie down on the floor side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder. Have someone stand over you and take the shot shoulders-up. In the photo, you will appear to be standing, but in fact you weren’t.
Carpet is perfect because it doesn’t reflect a thing, has no patterns, hides shadows easily and you’ve most likely got a light source right above you for even, perfect lighting.
Tip: To make it easier on the photographer, have him or her stand behind your heads to take the shot. Then when you bring the photo into your photo editing software of choice, rotate the photo 180 degrees and you’ve got your normal orientation back.
Like I said, this one is really easy and really works.
4. Performance
Three examples of awesome (all from here):
(Tip: Need some amplification? We can help.)
All three show the player actually playing, concentrating on the instrument and NOT looking at the camera…
…and that’s A-OK. Why? Because it’s interesting to see. You as the player may consider them boring. They’re not, because to the non-musician it looks cool the subject is doing something in the photo that they can’t do. Believe me, performance shots work.
And yes, photos taken at practice work too! Do you have to jump around and try to “look cool?” NO! Just play. Have someone just grab a digital camera and take 50 to 100 photos of the band while playing from a bunch of different angles (near, far, from-floor, from-ceiling, behind-drummer, etc.), then go through them afterward and pick the best ones. It’s easy!
Do you need an expensive camera to get the good shots? NO! As long as you have a point-and-shoot digital camera with a better-than-cell-phone-cam lens on it (which they all do,) that will work fine.
Three free online image editing tools anyone can use
If you’ve got some cool photos but they just don’t “pop” enough, here are three image editing tools to put in your bookmarks:
Pixlr-O-Matic
Pixlr Express
Pixlr Editor
The one you’ll probably like the best is Pixlr Express. Very easy-to-use, lots of cool filter options and has almost zero learning curve. If you know how to get a photo into your computer, you can use Pixlr. Seriously. You can get those oh-so awesome colorizations and focus options that you thought only people with Photoshop could do in no time at all…
…but you can’t make train tracks, woods or cemeteries look good no matter what, so don’t even go there. 🙂
The First Topic Photo is absolutely hilarious. Why in the world would you rock Kiss esque’ makeup and stand in the woods pointing at a random object off screen. Hilarious! The Train track theme should only apply to buskers or hobo bands that collaborate on an album, a’la your “Working Mans Band”. The Metal one is hilarious too because this is totally common. It fits sometimes because Metal Album covers and art generally have a tongue in check “B-Horror Movie Feel”. Funny read.
That was Immortal, one of the great early bands of the Scandinavian Black Metal scene. Respect. They f***ing rock, and use corpse paint, which is where Kiss got their idea, and glam’d it up. —This being said, Immortal has some of the silliest music videos/pictures in metal history. Sorry Immortal, your music is awesome, but your videos suck.
KISS started in 1973, complete with facepaint. Immortal are from the 90’s. You do the math…
IMMORTAL IS AWESOME! Which is why that picture is perfect
Or you could just hire a professional music photographer like me!!
That’s not “Kiss esque’ makeup”. That is called Corpse Paint and it belongs to a subgenre of Metal called Black Metal. Very very popular in Scandinavia and Europe.
White face paint is also very popular with clowns. ‘Nuff said.
Looks pretty “Kiss esque” to me. The music should be more important than the look. Face paint and tomfoolery should be left to sideshow acts or vegas performances not metal. See early UFO, Sabbath, and later the thrash scene. No one rocking face paint. Sorry to all the lovers of “Immortal” and other Black Metal, but if you have to dress or create an appearance to cater to your music, you should probably be spending the time on practice and precision and not theatrics.
You can hire my son–he’s a pro photographer/film maker and plays guitar so he can relate, having been in a band as well!
My band’s guilty on the railroad (an abandoned station, closed down factory shots, hanging out on a vacant house’s porch. BUT we’ve got some good live shots, so I guess there’s hope!
As a professional photog myself, I shoot bands on a regular basis. The biggest hurdle during performance shots is microphones! You have to have impeccable timing – knowing your performers is key to knowing when they will turn away from the mic – even for just a split second to cue the band or take a breath….. That’s why you hire a pro, like me!
For more examples of what not to do, ever, don’t forget about the Hall of Douchebags – http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/
A basic background is all well and good, and yes, it focuses more on the band. But if you are in quite a niche band, you need a background to compliment your style. For instance folk metallers Alestorm use old maritime backgrounds such as sailing ship decks to accentuate that they sing about pirates.