Music Business 107; Your PR package - Part 1, Photographing Performing Artists

Defining the task

Pictures are a static medium - you capture the essence of a moment in time. Live performers move, they are not static. Occasionally you'll want a portrait shot, but 95% of the photos used to publicize a live performance need to show the dynamics of a people, the individuality of the performer(s) and some quality that defines the performance that makes people want to see it. This is quite different than posed shots - in fact it has little in common with that style of photography. I'm not a great photographer, but I do know what works and what doesn't in the context of live performances. If you are going to put together a Promotional Package, it needs to help sell you to your desired audience. Lifeless pictures are not going to cut it.

Waiting for that perfect shot

People who take home photos often take them without a thought to composition. Portrait and wedding photographers look to avoid distractions in the background (sometimes adjusting depth of field to blur things that they can't physically get rid of in a location). Pro photographers know better than to cut off parts of peoples heads or their feet. They also know that the center of a person's picture is not their face, rather, its a part of the body that needs to be balanced in with the rest of the photo. If you center based on a persons face, and its not a close up, you typically get half of your picture showing the upper part of the inside of a building - acoustic ceiling tiles are not that exciting. Pro photographers pay attention to the background and attempt to avoid having things appear to be sprouting out of the back of peoples heads or shoulders. These sorts of things are very distracting, but often go unnoticed by an amateur photographer until the film comes back from processing..

Portrait and wedding photographers rarely seek to show motion in their work - thats not typically a desired trait for this style of photography. When photographers are first starting to take pictures of live performances, I often see the photographer sitting there waiting for things to be just right before they press that shutter button - This often results in missing action and waiting for a calm/lifeless photo opportunity. Composition is important, however, so is capturing the moment; for live performing artists, there is a need to show motion and dynamics. These sorts of shots don't occur at predetermined times, they occur randomly - you can't sit around waiting for that perfect shot.

The side effect of all of this is that you must take a lot of photos and recognize that potentially only 1 out 50 may be usable for your purposes. The best live action performance photographers realize this, and keep clicking away, looking for unique insights to the performance. Often its a subtle expression or a blurred hand movement that captures the feeling of the performance. Take a look at published pictures of any professional performer that you would like to emulate in some way and analyze the photos. Look at the placement of people in relation to things on the stage or props. Look at the lighting. Look at the motion and/or emotion that is being displayed. These things cannot be posed - they simply happen; often only for a split second.

How do you acquire the skills?

Consumer of Performance Photos

You'll have to help by defining what you want and provide the opportunity for the photos to happen. As with any other art form, each person will see things a bit differently and your challenge is how to communicate your vision to someone else without getting angry about it. This can be quite difficult, especially if you are unable to describe what you want and there are no similar examples available to guide with.

Realize that for every few hundred photos taken, you may only like a few. This is to be expected, but that doesn't mean that the person taking the pictures won't improve over time - you might get it down to a few pictures you like per roll of film (or, if using a Digital Camera, a few pictures per memory image capacity).

You also need to identify clearly what the goals of these photos are for. There are aspects of each person's performance that needs to be photographed. Make sure that this is expressed clearly up front and if possible, have each individual show examples of other performers where the intended goal is similar. You may end up restructuring your shows to be a bit more flamboyant if you discover that your act is not all that visually exciting at this time. This may require agreements with your other act members to effectively happen.

Don't hesitate to work with someone who is enthusiastic about this type of work but may not have a lot of experience in that area. You may end up creating a career for someone who understands what works and what doesn't for this specialized work. There is nothing wrong with working with an established photographer, just realize that it may take a number of photo sessions if this style of photography is something that they have not done before - you'll gain the benefits of experience with photo composition and knowledge of equipment capabilities that someone new to the field may not possess, however, many of the best live action performance photos have been taken quite by accident by people who happened to not know any better, breaking many of the established rules of image composition.

Producer of Performance Photos

Your challenge is to find out how someone's performance personality can be brought out on film. Sometimes you see a single picture and it leaves an impression on you - find out what it is about that picture that causes you to do this. Never try to force anyone to mimic exactly what you find in your favorite photos, simply use them as a guideline.

Some of the most humorous photos of bands that I've seen are where all the band members have a scowl on their faces - I guess the goal is to try to demonstrate that these people are angry enough to care. More often than not, one or more of the people simply look like they have to go to the bathroom and they had to wait until the photo session was over before they could be excused - my dog has a similar pained expression on its face when it needs to go out. Your goal may be to attain that serious look, but it often doesn't work very well if its posed, and you can bet that some promoter or club manager will see the same thing when they look at the photo and not take the performers seriously.

Some general comments about live performance photos - Knowing the following may improve your odds of getting usable pictures.

• People standing around are not even remotely interesting.
• Performers doing nothing between songs is not interesting.
• A singer should be singing or doing something related to the rhythm of the music.
• A keyboard player should be playing some keys.
• A picture of someone's back (ie. facing away from you) is not interesting.
• A guitar player (6 string/12 string/bass/etc.) should be playing the instrument and not staring at the floor or their guitar neck. They should be looking forward at the audience or at some other performer.
• A drummer needs to be pounding away on one or more of the drums and/or cymbals.
• Musicians who happens to be singing while playing their instruments is interesting.
• Look for instances where the performer appears to be making eye contact with someone (usually not with the photographer, since that often has the look and feel of a posed and/or amateurish shot - it may work, but many times it doesn't).
• Audience participation during the performance is good - it shows involvement and excitement for the performance.
• Performance in conjunction with special effects is good - if you have a smoke machine/fog machine and/or stage lighting - show it along with the performers.
• Proper framing is important. Views should include.
  Close-ups

  Upper body (including instruments if possible).

  Full body (including instruments).

  From the Audience Perspective

  Full Performance layout:

  This should show the complete stage area from a distance. Some photos need to show as much equipment as possible along with the performers. Show the audience as a part of the picture when possible. This will give a hiring manager some idea of the space required as well as the 'Look' and 'Style' of the performers.

Any lessons here?

• Don't look at your instrument any more often than you have to - look at the audience as much as possible. This can be a hard thing to learn to do, but it can be done.
• Singers should find something to do with themselves when they are not singing - standing there waiting for their parts will drain energy from the other performers. If they can't think of anything to do, hand them an instrument that doesn't make much noise (especially if they don't keep time that well) and make sure they follow the beat and energy of the music.
• Talk to the audience. Don't act as if they don't exist. Don't badger them with bad jokes or drivel. Find out what is important to them and talk that direction. If someone has recently won something, or they had a birthday - mention it and involve the audience. These are often great photo opportunities.

What pictures go in your PR package

• Your appearance/style.
• The type of gear you have.
• How much space you will be taking up.
• Audience reaction.
• Performance shots - how do you come across..
• Any additional skills you possess that is part of your performance.

These can be printed on normal picture stock (like photos you get processed on glossy paper), but be aware that you will be giving away large quantities of these pictures and most people will only glance at them briefly as they listen to your demo tape, or are talking to you. They can be printed on regular white paper using an offset press in Black and White (color is not required). Many people are creating their own layouts using a Personal Computer, Scanner, Word Processing software and a laser (or ink jet) printer. This approach allows you to change your PR package more frequently and tailor the pictures for a specific need or seasonal event.

Having a large selection of pictures to choose from can only help matters. Never put a boring performance picture into your PR package no matter how much you like the picture - It doesn't take much for someone to discard your PR package and pick someone else's.

What if we haven't played anywhere yet?

Equipment required

You could also have a good quality Single Lens Reflex (SLR) 35mm camera - too many automatic features here may prove more trouble than they are worth. You can use a less functional camera, but expect to get fewer usable photos. On the SLR Camera, a zoom lens that goes between 35mm and 70mm (moderate wide angle thru moderate telephoto) will allow you to frame things better than a fixed lens (usually 45mm to 50mm). In the case of a Digital Camera, its unlikely that you will have the features available on a SLR camera, however you can make it up by taking many more pictures.

A flash unit is important to have, however, white light (as most flashes provide) sometimes alters the mood. Be prepared to take pictures with lower lighting levels indoors. This implies high speed film for indoors or evening performances - ASA (ISO) 400 thru ASA (ISO) 1200. If photographing outdoors during the day, avoid film speeds above ASA (ISO) 400 and always use a fill flash to bring faces out of the shadows - I prefer ASA (ISO) 200 speed film for general outdoor photography. Digital Cameras adjust their equivalent film speeds automatically for the lighting conditions, so they tend to be more flexible in darker rooms; however my experience is that it is quite easy to get a washed out image when there is ample ambient light and you use a flash with them.

Expect to take, at minimum, 36 pictures when you first start taking performance photos. Odds are good that the first group of photos will not be as good as you want - if possible, consider 3 rolls of 36 exposures for your first few sessions. Once you get a few pictures that you like, you can start looking to fill in the other types of photos that you need. I usually brought my SLR camera with me every time I went to a new place and took 24 to 36 pictures as a record of being there. It also helped to have many photos that showed all of the various places we performed at.

If you have a Personal Computer, buy yourself a picture scanner. Learn how to use it and its associated software - you will be able to create photo montages and posters that would cost you a small fortune otherwise.

Professional Magazine requirements

Questions? Comments? .

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