Shooting musicians for promos and CD cover artwork

[simonrenton]

Greetings all,

I'm new to this forum and very new to taking the photography gig seriously in terms of wanting to work professionally in the field. One of the areas I'm interested in working in is providing album artwork images for musicians and artists to use in their portfolios and promotion/products.

Now I need lots more experience in lighting and model direction along with building story boards for this kind of shoot, so what I was wanting to do was see if there were other togs on this forum who might be interested in shooting a guitarist (me!) in either a studio or other location that was visually interesting/appealing/evocative based on this purpose.

What I would like to get out this session would be a) some good photos of me and my guitar!; b) exposure to how other togs would use lights and props to tell the story; c) model direction, or at least see how the interaction between the tog and model works in practice; and d) composition ideas.

The challenge for anyone interested in this idea is that I'm not particuarly photogenic (that's why I make sure I'm normally behind the camera!) and that I've got a 'good head for radio' as they say. If you reckon you can work with craggy, hairy and ugly, then maybe this could your thing!

The guitar would be an acoustic classical guitar if that helps set the scene.

I'm heading back to Melbourne for Xmas with the family, so sometime in the new year would suit me.

Any ideas on location/props/clothes etc... would be good to hear about on this thread.

Looking forward to hearing from anyone interested.

Cheers,

Simon

[Onyx]

Hi Simon, welcome to the forums.

Certainly an interesting concept. We have plenty of likeminded musicians here - as evident in the guitar thread (one of the longest in this forum's history I believe).

Whenever you're willing to volunteer as a model, I'll certainly be willing to volunteer as photog.

[simonrenton]

Thanks Onyx. Can you point me in the direction of the guitar thread? I did a search and couldn't pic k the one you refer to.

Thanks,

Simon

[gstark]

That would be this thread. Enjoy.

[simonrenton]

Oh... I see! Looks like this is already well travelled territory. No probs if this thread was met with a bunch of yawns! I'll go back to my box now...

[gstark]

Well traveled, but still fun.

If you look carefully, you'll find some fairly recent images of this old fart playing his '77 fretless Fender P. In the family we have a couple of other Fenders, an Epiphone, a Gretsch Golden Eagle, and a full size upright.

Music is big here.

[simonrenton]

That's great! I'm an acoustic lad though. One Richard Howell 1984 concert classical, a 1975 Yairi classical and a 92 Maton steel string are my babies. I missed them all terribly when I was overseas for a year.

[Reschsmooth]

I still miss my Yamaha semi-acoustic 12 string and 71 tabacco burst Les Paul. Bought when I thought I could play, sold when I realised I never would.

[Dargan]

"If you reckon you can work with craggy, hairy and ugly, then maybe this could your thing! " I think you've described half the forum

[simonrenton]

Then I am among friends...