R+P Post 22: Planning my promo shots

We decided we needed two sets of promo shots- one lot in the studio, for the album cover as well as the website, and one on location, mostly for the website and associated social media. We wanted a good mix of professional-looking studio pictures and down-to-earth pictures outside of the studio, so that we can show off both our band's attitude towards music and their individual personalities outside of work.

We decided to look at the various promo shots of some of the influential bands we researched in order to get ideas for our own promo shots. We noticed certain kinds of promo picture coming up time and time again, and decided we could use these conventional shots to our advantage. We didn't do a lot of flat plans for individual shots, because we wanted a naturalistic indie style even in our studio shots, but to compensate for this we kept these images with us, as well as all our other influential images that we found through research, in order to reference them and imitate them wherever fitting.

An intimate shot of Alvvays. They band members are touching and leaning on each other, and this really helps to show off their closeness, personalities, and relationships, and show off the real people behind the band, despite the sterile studio setting. Click to enlarge.

A similar shot of the band McFly. Once again it is in a studio, but each individual band member's personality is shown off through their poses and facial expressions, and you get a sense of the good relationship between them through their close proximity and the fact that they are leaning on each other. Click to enlarge.

Some artists also have other kinds of shots to show off specific relationships. This is a promo shot of Best Coast, a duo rather than a full band, and thus they are more close than the average band. You get a strong sense of each person's personality and their specific link, with the singer laughing and pointing to the guitarist. Shots like this would be especially good for illustrating the relationship between Casey and her brother Hugh. Click to enlarge.

A shot of Kings of Convenience in a similar vein to the Best Coast one above. Here, the hand resting on the shoulder and the 'slice of life' look of the promo shot (and it is still clearly a promo shot, as seen through the eye contact with the camera,) as if the camera was interrupting a conversation, really cements the good relationship between these two specific people. Click to enlarge.

A promotional shot of The Smiths. Sometimes a little bit of messing around can really endear people to the artist- unlike dramatic poses in a studio, a more human connection can be made by seeing people in real places and situations, playing around like any person would with their friends, or in this case, bandmates. Click to enlarge.

A shot of Alvvays outside the studio. Here all the band members are messing around together, lifting up the singer and either acting humourously deadpan or smiling at the situation. This makes for an entertaining shot that people will like seeing, and thus they will end up liking the band too. Click to enlarge.

Echosmith sitting in a line. While it is taken outside of a studio, the bench forces them to be in order and gives off the sense of a professional shot of the whole band together (rather than a candid one,) but the location still gives off a feeling of authenticity. Click to enlarge.

Sheppard sitting in a line. Each band member is clearly visible and the shot is quite clean and ordered, as opposed to the messing around and candid shots that sometimes happen outside of the studio, but their personalities can still be gleaned somewhat from their clothing, body language, etc. Click to enlarge.