The 8 Essential Elements Of A Great Band Photo

When it comes to a band photo shoot, most artists put their faith entirely in the hands of the photographer. While that might be the best thing to do when working with a top pro, it still makes sense to have an idea of what to look for in case you’re not getting the results you want. Here are the 8 elements that make up a great band photo to help guide you during your next shoot.

A great photo:

1. It grabs the eye from a distance.

2. It has details. Once a photo has caught your attention, it needs to have details to keep the eyes interested.

3. It has contrast. Our eyes are first attracted to the brightest or the most colorful part of an image. After we’ve caught the eye, the eye starts to wander around and see what else there is to see. Anything that isn’t directly helping the composition takes away from it.

4. It has a punchline. Single and double punchline – action and reaction – A double punchline is when you have something in the photo reacting to something else in the photo.

5. It has a gesture. Gesture means the position of hands. In an image, gesture can also mean what is said by the positions of inanimate objects that mimic our hands or faces. Gesture means a photo with someone making a funny face in reaction to something else going on in the frame. For instance, a good photo is one where you first notice something odd, and then you notice someone else in the photo reacting to it. That’s both paying attention to gesture, and gives us a punchline.

6. It’s 3 Dimensional. Warm colors, red, orange and yellow, appear to move forward towards the viewer. Our eyes are attracted to them first. Cool colors, greens, blues and violets, recede away from the viewer.

7. It’s colors are in harmony. Colors tend to be harmonious when you have two colors balanced from opposite sides of the color wheel. You can get fancy and have two variations of a similar color balancing another opposing color. You can try to have three colors, all equally spaced on the color wheel.

8. It’s framed well. Framing provides depth, draws the eye of the viewer to a part of the scene, while the leading lines gives it dimension.

Capturing a great and compelling artist or band photo is not an easy task even for a professional sometimes, but if you take note of the above elements you’ll know what to look for to help guide your next shoot.

You can read more from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.