Local Band wants me to do a promo - help!

[musicmaster]

One of my friend's bands decided to hire me to do a promo shoot for them for $50. I've never done anything like this before, so I have no idea what I'm doing.


I'm pretty sure I have the gear to do it (check my sig). They are looking for group shots and individual shots. any ideas on what to do and more importantly where to do them?

[Rock Photo Star]

I'm pretty sure I have the gear to do it (check my sig). They are looking for group shots and individual shots. any ideas on what to do and more importantly where to do them?

let's see. you're unsure of your gear, you never shot people before [???] and you have no idea where to begin.

sounds like you ought to be paying someone $50 to teach you. lol.

man, with that criteria, I have no idea where to begin to help you.

what I can add for now is that $50 may seem like great money, but between shooting, processing and posting or printing time, you will probably spend at least 4-5 hours of time.

[musicmaster]

let's see. you're unsure of your gear, you never shot people before [???] and you have no idea where to begin.

sounds like you ought to be paying someone $50 to teach you. lol.

man, with that criteria, I have no idea where to begin to help you.

what I can add for now is that $50 may seem like great money, but between shooting, processing and posting or printing time, you will probably spend at least 4-5 hours of time.

I was primarily talking about flashes (I only have one external). I've done senior portraits before, but thats not exactly the same thing. Its not really about the money either. I've made $800 in the past month selling track photos, and this is kind of a side gig for some tax-free cash ;)

[bacchanal]

Train tracks, brick wall, chain link fence...bam, done! ;)

No but seriously...the promo shot (to make a bunch of dweebs in a band look cool) is probably one of the hardest things to do in photography. Many pros attempt these and fall flat on their faces time and time again.

My only suggestion is don't just have them stand/sit in front of some "cool" looking scene. If you're going to do "environmental portraits" actually get them to interact with the environment and or eachother...or at the very least, place them in an environment that has something to do with who they are.

[petrolhead]

I am no expert.

How about getting them together with their gear in an interesting setting and suggest they practice while you practice with your camera. That way it will feel less staged and you should get more relaxed photos.

[letsmakeart]

there are plenty of band promo shots on flickr, go and get inspired! flickr river allows you to search by keywords if needed (band and promo is a good start)

PS. this all seems a bit too much all gear not enough understanding. Gear is wonderful, but it's **** if you don't know how to use it.

[chadlabelle]

check out Tom Barns
hes amazing and has plenty of promo shots

also Gage Young

[Woodja]

super east they seem to love fisheye's if you have one

[lmulderi]

I agree with one of the above comments saying to get them to interact with each other or their surroundings rather than just stand there. Some of the best pictures I've seen have everyone doing something different, yelling, jumping, lying down, whatever. I've never done this or seen it done and just came up with this but it could look cool to get a picture of them all rocking out playing air guitar, air drums, etc... Call me crazy but I can picture the shot in my head...

It all depends on what type of band we're talking about here but for the most part, you can get pretty wild with photos like this in PS if you want.

[lmulderi]

and +1 on the fisheye too.

[scorpio_e]

The grunge look is in too...

[GageYoung]

Hey, someone referenced my name! haha awesome

Thanks :D