15 Movement hit and miss

John Spence

Incorporating movement into a shot can offer a dynamic tangibility, but ensuring the image is still sharp shooting handheld in the low-light setting can be tricky. DP fan John Jobling (www.dphotographer. co.uk/user/johnjobling) offers us his advice: Try and guess when the lights are at their brightest and shoot on Continuous, to get one sharp shot out of say three or four. I grabbed this still using 1/60sec and 1SO 1600.

16Reaction satisfaction

To convey the emotion and atmosphere of a gig, be sure to include the audiences reaction. Festivals are particularly ideal for this as the natural light works wonders, but to catch the front light of the audience in a darkened concert hall you will have to wait for the lighting to fall on the crowd preparation is key.
John Jobling

Promotional shots

John Halpern

Break the rules and instead of offering one direction of leading lines, layer the image with several directions of interest. Repetitive angles can create vivid lines of interest, which when combined with the strata effect of offering contrasting sections of context, colour and texture, can generate an almost 3D effect.

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John Spence

John Halpern

Howard Shooter

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Think creatively: use a sheye lens, play with focus or tightly crop shots for arresting abstract shots but style the shoot, setting, props, outts and overall connotation of the image to exude the bands brand and not the other way around. Play with angles and vantage points, stagger the group to create interest or shoot each member individually, but carry a theme across the shots. This is ideal for use on the CDs accompanying booklet.
Chad Coombs

Creative but conscientious

19 Be a location scout
Jenny Potter

Do your homework before a shoot, instructs John Halpern. Know all the names of the band mates and be familiar with their music. I recently shot a CD package for a new singer-songwriter, Manda Mosher. I spent the day before the shoot scouting locations around Montauk, Long Island. I spotted two vacant beach houses, one pink and one turquoise. On shoot day in the span of under an hour, I was able to get front and back CD covers along with PR shots.

20 Turning pro
If you plan on making money from your music photos, youll have to be proactive. Be prepared to work a good few hours after the gig to upload images, label each photo with the details and send to various people, informs Jenny.

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