DwightMcCann
4th of November 2006 (Sat), 19:49
I am working with a band, Shalonda & A Touch of Soul (see my .sig). Today we finished up on images to go with Bios and did some full band promo shots. The Bio images I used are:
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/BandMembers/DavieWilson-400Web.jpg
The odd color border accommodates the drop shadow on the page which is http://a-touch-of-soul.com/Dave_Wilson.htm, and also
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/BandMembers/BillyGonzalez.jpg
which is on page http://a-touch-of-soul.com/BillyGonzalez.html. These two head and shoulders portraits may look like two minutes work but they took about 30 minutes each. Just getting them into their outfits required ongoing nagging ... each time I would remind one that he needed to change from his grungy t-shirt the other would stop changing! Very much like herding kittens.
We then shot a few band Promo pictures. Getting six musicians to do anything in a coordinated manner that doesn't include music is amazingly difficult! We did a couple at my house with available light:
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/PhotoGallery/Band/SATOS059.jpg
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/PhotoGallery/Band/SATOS172.jpg
and a couple at a friend's house using bounce flash:
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/PhotoGallery/Band/SATOS205-Web400.jpg
In the picture below I did the bounce with the flash facing about 105 deegrees to the right and straight back onto an off white wall as the celings were darkish wood and added an odd color cast.
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/PhotoGallery/Band/SATOS185.jpg
It is a bit tricky thinking up ideas and then acting as the Director to get everyone ready and into place. While it may look as though they all just sort of wandered into their spots and I shot a frame or two, each shot takes about 30 minutes to organize and arrange everyone, shuffle them closer, get all the heads showing and all the eyes on the camera. If you need to give one person directions to move a bit left or right, everyone else seems to take that to mean they can shuffle around as they please, and you are back to ground zero unless you are very clear that you only want the one person to move.
Another interesting issue today was that two of the guys were very concerned about their weight ... to the point that they just weren't going to like any of the pictures. One also had a bad skin blemish in the middle of his forehead (oh, memories of high school!) and another on his nose and that bummed him out. Of course I tried to assure him I would fix them, but he was still unhappy with himself!
Please don't take my complaints to suggest that they weren't all very cooperative, appreciative and willing to work ... they really tried to do what needed to be done and were very pleasant. I guess I am just warning those of you who try this sort of thing that it is an effort and very little just takes care of itself. :-)
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/BandMembers/DavieWilson-400Web.jpg
The odd color border accommodates the drop shadow on the page which is http://a-touch-of-soul.com/Dave_Wilson.htm, and also
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/BandMembers/BillyGonzalez.jpg
which is on page http://a-touch-of-soul.com/BillyGonzalez.html. These two head and shoulders portraits may look like two minutes work but they took about 30 minutes each. Just getting them into their outfits required ongoing nagging ... each time I would remind one that he needed to change from his grungy t-shirt the other would stop changing! Very much like herding kittens.
We then shot a few band Promo pictures. Getting six musicians to do anything in a coordinated manner that doesn't include music is amazingly difficult! We did a couple at my house with available light:
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/PhotoGallery/Band/SATOS059.jpg
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/PhotoGallery/Band/SATOS172.jpg
and a couple at a friend's house using bounce flash:
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/PhotoGallery/Band/SATOS205-Web400.jpg
In the picture below I did the bounce with the flash facing about 105 deegrees to the right and straight back onto an off white wall as the celings were darkish wood and added an odd color cast.
http://a-touch-of-soul.com/images/PhotoGallery/Band/SATOS185.jpg
It is a bit tricky thinking up ideas and then acting as the Director to get everyone ready and into place. While it may look as though they all just sort of wandered into their spots and I shot a frame or two, each shot takes about 30 minutes to organize and arrange everyone, shuffle them closer, get all the heads showing and all the eyes on the camera. If you need to give one person directions to move a bit left or right, everyone else seems to take that to mean they can shuffle around as they please, and you are back to ground zero unless you are very clear that you only want the one person to move.
Another interesting issue today was that two of the guys were very concerned about their weight ... to the point that they just weren't going to like any of the pictures. One also had a bad skin blemish in the middle of his forehead (oh, memories of high school!) and another on his nose and that bummed him out. Of course I tried to assure him I would fix them, but he was still unhappy with himself!
Please don't take my complaints to suggest that they weren't all very cooperative, appreciative and willing to work ... they really tried to do what needed to be done and were very pleasant. I guess I am just warning those of you who try this sort of thing that it is an effort and very little just takes care of itself. :-)