{"id":9093,"date":"2011-07-14T23:41:34","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T07:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/?p=9093"},"modified":"2011-07-14T23:41:34","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T07:41:34","slug":"shoot-conceptual-band-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/shoot-conceptual-band-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Band Promotion: How to Shoot Conceptual Band Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are a new band, you will eventually need conceptual band photos for your CD packaging, album art, website, press kit, posters, shirts, and other stuff needed for band promotion. \u00a0Now you DO NOT want to slack off in this department because it\u2019s your way to get noticed. I will say it again: Good music is good music but good music will not go anywhere without great music marketing. \u00a0And we know it starts with good marketing requires good visuals sooo\u2026let\u2019s talk about band photos.<\/p>\n

Get someone with good taste.<\/strong> If you are an indie act and you cannot afford an art director, then you should at least ask assistance from someone who has good taste. Well, that\u2019s a rather vague order but that\u2019s the simplest way to put it. This could mean you ask some of your artist friends to help you brainstorm, or an art teacher, a band publicist. Tell them you have no cash but are willing to place their name in the CD packaging or your website. It is important that you ask help from someone who\u2019ve seen and studied lots of pictures already and are knowledgeable about the basics- rule of thirds, depth of field, etc.<\/p>\n

Define the output that you want.<\/strong> Write down the photos that you want-band portrait, solo full-body shots, mug shots, etc. and also indicate how you want to use them (website, merch, stickers). \u00a0Be ultra specific. It helps a lot.<\/p>\n

Let them listen to your music.<\/strong> Gather your artist friends, photographer, production designer, and stylist together and let them listen to your music. Choose at least 3 songs that you think best represents your band.<\/p>\n

Tell them how you want to be packaged<\/strong>. Before the meeting, write down a list of things, places, colors\u2026anything you want your band to be associated to.\u00a0 Write down words like dark, funny, expensive, cheap, DIY, hip, intellectuals, stupids, anti-art, crazy but nice\u2026you get the picture.<\/p>\n

Location.<\/strong> Do you have a location in mind? Ask your bandmates,family, friends, cousins, co-workers if they have a location that would look good in photographs. Make sure they\u2019re available and that they\u2019re willing to let you use these locations for free. List them down so you have easy options when you brainstorm. It\u2019s much easier to brainstorm if you already have options for location. Most of the time, the concept starts from a good location. \u00a0Take snapshots of these locations and present them during your meeting so the photographer would know what to prepare. If you can, please stay away from very common locations like red brick walls unless you\u2019ll put a new element in the picture.<\/p>\n

Clothes, Props, and Set.<\/strong> You should definitely hire a production designer who will take care of these three. Or, if you don\u2019t want to pay someone, you can ask your younger sister to do this for you. The important thing is you have to assign someone to look over these things because they are very important. The colors of your clothes must have a relationship with the colors of the set (either they blend or contrast). The props should be complete and well-picked. Breakables like wine glasses should have doubles in case it gets broken during the shoot. Find someone who\u2019s organized, meticulous, and who has an eye for detail. This is no easy job. But if you think production design is minimal and you are an organized team, then maybe you can do it by yourselves.<\/p>\n

Let the photographer do his thing.<\/strong> You already gave him a list of photos that you want but it doesn\u2019t mean that he won\u2019t experiment. Let him snap away. He knows what he\u2019s doing so don\u2019t get too bossy during the shoot. You already told him what you want, now it\u2019s his time to take over and do what he\u2019s good at. Unless,of course, if you have a director.<\/p>\n

Some more tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do not make other appointments during the shooting day or at least before sunset if you\u2019re shooting daytime. The schedule might say you\u2019ll be done by 2pm but that is only the target time.<\/p>\n

Do not drink too much before the shoot. Or, you\u2019ll just be a pain in the neck for those who want to finish the shoot ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

photo credit: safetysuit<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

__________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Unified Manufacturing<\/strong>\u00a0is an L.A. -based one-stop-shop that offers very affordable CD\/DVD\/USB replication, custom printing, promotional products, warehousing and fulfillment and many more. If you need an Instant Quote on a project and you want FREE SHIPPING, simply\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/a>. \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are a new band, you will eventually need conceptual band photos for your CD packaging, album art, website, press kit, posters, shirts, and other stuff needed for band promotion. \u00a0Now you DO NOT want to slack off in this department because it\u2019s your way to get noticed. I will say it again: Good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unified-manufacturing-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}