The Making of a Band Promotional Photo

This week I shot a promotional photo for the band Shed Nuisance. The band practices in an old shed (which is where the name comes from) so it seemed natural to me to incorporate the shed in the photo. I wanted to give the band a bit of a gritty look, so I chose split lighting for a dramatic effect and planned on doing some post shoot work in Photoshop.

I’m interested in any comments or thoughts you have on the photos. Please post your comments.

Here is a set up shot and more detail on how I made the photo.

The Lighting Set Up

I used a three light set up. Two strobes are placed at 45 degrees behind the band members, one at camera left and one at camera right creating the split light effect. This positioning also gives a nice rim light effect (highlight outlining the models) creating separation from the background. I use Pocket Wizard Plus II wireless triggers to remotely fire these lights.

There are two gobos (the cardboard squares on stands) to keep the light from hitting and flaring in my camera lens. I position myself with the gobos between me and the lights for shooting so I am in the shadow they create.

The third flash in the center is high over my shooting position and adds fill light to the front of the band members filling in the harsh shadow created by the split lighting. I used an umbrella on this light to soften the light and allow it to wrap around a bit. This light, a SB800 strobe, is triggered by the light from the slpit lights with a SU-4 Wireless Remote TTL Flash Controller. If I had another pocket wizard I would have used it, but I only have 3 and the third is on my camera to fire the other two.

The Exposure

I set my ambient exposure (for the background) to be about a stop and a half under exposed (a little dark). Then I adjusted the power output of the two split rim lights so that they looked good; not too bright or hot, but bright enough to give the nice rim light effect. I had an assistant stand in each of the locations I planned to have a band member at and shot a test frame. Once I was happy with the way it looked, I brought in the overhead umbrella light and adjusted it’s power output so that it would fill in the harsh shadow created on the front of the models by the split lighting.

The Post Production

I begin as I always do by adding three adjustment layers; levels, curves and hue and saturation. With these I make my basic corrections for white and black point, contrast, and color saturation respectively. I adjusted the contrast slightly higher than I normally do and I also intentionally left the color balance a bit cool.

During the photo shoot, I shot test frames that indicated an issue with the snow. Being so reflective, it was over exposed. Therefore I duplicated the base layer, darkened it until the snow looked better and then added a layer mask with a gradient to allow the original layer with the properly exposed upper portion to show through.

Next I wanted to blur the shed in the background a bit to keep focus forward on the band and reduce the busyness. I masked off the band members so that they would not be blurred and applied the guazian blur filter on the background.

To create the gritty effect I was going for, I again created a new layer and applied a lot of sharpening which pumpied up the contrast. I added so much that it looked bad. Then by reducing the opacity of that layer it blended in with the original bringing it back to a point that was acceptable to my eye.

As a final step I added a vignette to the photo darkening the edges. A viewers eye tends to go to areas of highlight and darkening the edges helps hold the viewers eye on the band members’ faces and not wander off the edge of the frame. This is a technique Ansel Adams used often, although not as dramatically as I did here.

Stock Photography Pricing Resources

In this post you will find links to stock photography pricing resources that will assist you in determining fair value for the commercial usage of your photos.

In my seminar, The Business of Photography, I talk a lot about how to place a value on one’s work. It is not an easy thing to do and there are a lot of factors to be considered when placing value on your work. Every Photographer has different circumstances, production and overhead costs. All these factors affect your costs, and therefore need to be factored into your pricing scheme. This is why there is not a simple answer to what you should charge for a photo’s use.

In this post I do not intend to try to detail this entire process. My intent here is to provide a list of tools that give you a glimpse at the stock industry’s baseline, and a place to start your own pricing negotiations.

What is your cost of doing business?
If you want to really dial in your production costs, the National Press Photographers Association web site has a Cost of Doing Business Calculator. This is a great place to start in determining what your business costs are so you can determine what you need to be making on your sales.

What are you actually selling?
I can not stress enough that you should not be selling your actual photos. You should not be selling your ownership of photos outright or the copyright you have on them. You should be selling licensing rights or usage rights to your photos.

In short, this means you allow a client to use your photograph and they pay you for that right. This process is a negotiation. You are the creator, the copyright holder, and in power of what happens with your photos. I never outright sell my original photo, digital file, negative, or slide, and always reserve rights to use or sell it again. I may sell exclusive rights to a client prohibiting my use of it in other ways for a specified amount of time, and I charge more to do this, but eventually the rights return to me. I never give or sell my ownership or my copyright of an image I create.

Learn about usage rights and licensing
Understanding usage rights and negotiating can be very complex. You do need to be familiar with it.

ASMP Licensing Guide
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) web site’s Licensing Guide is an excellent resource for detailed information usage rights and negotiating.

PLUS Web Site (Picture Licensing Universal System)
The PLUS Coalition is an international non-profit initiative on a mission to simplify and facilitate the communication and management of image rights.

Pricing Resources

My number one tool for pricing is a software program called Photo Quote. Cradoc’s FotoQuote Software costs $139.99 at the time of this post, and is well worth it! It lists usages by category and has an extensive Coach section that helps you sharpen your negotiation skills.

A second resource I always keep at hand is Jim Pickerell‘s book Negotiating Stock Photo Prices . The book is available on Amazon. This is also a very trusted book of standards and has great information on the process of selling stock and negotiating licensing fees. Jim is also available for pricing consultation if you have a really unique situation.

Free On-Line Resources:
These are not nearly as comprehensive as Photo Quote or Jim Pickerell’s book, but they are free.

Stock Photo Price Calculator available at the Photographersindex.com website.

Stock Photography Price Calculator available at the
StockPhotographyCalculator.com web site.

Another good free resource is to check some of the major stock sale websites which often have calculators built in to give clients a starting point for usage fees.

Network!
Join and participate in forums of with your peers.

Travel & Outdoor Photographers Alliance (TOPA). I am a member of this free Yahoo News group called TOPA, . It is a focus group for the discussion of business issues pertaining to the licensing of stock and assignment images for the travel, outdoor, and adventure markets – both editorial and commercial. If you have an interest in this field, I recommend you join. It is a great forum where experienced photographers share with the intent of educating less experienced and aspiring photographers.

Shakodo is offering a free service “where amateur and professional photographers can talk openly in a public forum and make the entire photographic service process more transparent, especially in the pricing area”.

Editorial Photographers (EP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and profitability of editorial photography. Their mission is to educate photographers and photography buyers about business issues affecting the photo industry, and in the process raise the level of business practices in the profession.

ASMP. American Society of Media Photographers is the premier resource for community, culture, commerce and publications relating to publication photography. ASMP is the authoritative voice of publication photographers worldwide.

I hope the above stock photography pricing resources are helpfull. If you know of any other resources that should be listed here please let me know. If you have a photo club or organization that would be interestd in my Business of Photography class, I’d be happy to talk to you about presenting.

Reza Deghati interviewed on NPR

Reza Deghati is considered among the world’s great photojournalists. He has recently released a book, Reza War and Peace: A Photographers Journey.

On December 13, 2008 National Public Radio’s (NPR) Scott Simon interviewed Reza. The interview discuses the book and gives us a look into the life of an extraordinary journalist. Reza has witnessed some of the Middle East and Asias recent conflicts up close and come away with an intimate look at his subjects. He seems to be able to create art and find intimate moments that have far greater depth than you might think possible when documenting conflict. It is confirming to hear his belief that being emotionally connected to your subject mater is what gives a photograph depth and power. This is something I have discovered in my recent work from Ladakh.

Listen to the interview here. At the NPR site you can also see a photo gallery of Reza’s images.

Reza War and Peace: A Photographers Journey

Annie Leibovitz on NPR

National Public Radio (NPR) has an interview with Annie Leibovitz. NPR’s Renee Montagne speaks with her about the circumstances behind some of her celebrity portraits.

Listen to the interview and see some of her photos on NPR here.

In a previous post, I shared my thoughts on Annie Leibovitz’s new book, Annie Libovitz at Work, A First Look.

How Camera Lenses Are Made

Have you ever wondered how your camera lens is made? I came across this interesting video that gives you an inside look at the process. It actually is showing television camera lenses being made, but you get the idea. Check it out.

Point and Shoot Digital Cameras as a Travel Tool

The Washington Post recently presented its readers with some tips for using your point and shoot digital camera as more than a tool to capture holiday moments and travel memories. I thought this might be of interest to those of you that have taken my Digital Point and Shoot Photography class or my Travel Photography Seminar. So here are their tips and a few of my own.

On a piece of paper, write your name, number, e-mail, info and any specific instructions about returning your camera, then take a picture of it and save it as your first photo. If you lose your camera en route, the finder will know how to contact you.

Photograph maps, guidebook pages, fliers, store hours and other info instead of carrying them with you or writing them down. Use your camera’s zoom to get detailed views.

If you’re traveling with someone, especially a child, take a picture of him or her every day in case you get separated for an instant visual of what he or she is wearing.

Before you leave your hotel for a meal or sightseeing, snap a picture of the outside of it and any nearby street signs or landmarks to help you find your way back.

Take pictures of your rental car from all angles as soon as you pick it up. If you get blamed for any damages upon return, you can use the pictures as evidence.

Before you leave on a trip, take a picture of all your important documents like driver license, passport information page, credit cards (showing their numbers) and e-mail this photo to your self. If any of these belongings are stolen, you will have a copy accessible any place you can access your e-mail. Make sure to delete this photo off your camera once you have downloaded it.