Let’s get one thing straight here right away – good photography can make or break whether or not people will hire you, feature your music in their magazine, or even just stay on your web site for more than 10 seconds. Is the image you are projecting about your music accurate and compelling?

Following are tips and ideas about how to translate your music into a look and feel that calls attention.

THE BASICS

Let’s check out an example of the way, sadly, that many musicians handle their images.

1. It’s a dark snapshot taken with a point-and-shoot camera.
2. It doesn’t pack a visual punch equal to his amazing ukelele skills.
3. He looks like he’s being sent to time-out.
4. The image is too dim to be picked up and published by an interested writer, or envisioned on a poster by someone booking acts for a festival.

In the end, grandma and his friends may love it… unless grandma is a print journalist who wants to feature him.

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A better way to go about it.

1. It’s got great contrast because was taken with a DSLR camera, and then edited with a free online editing tool.
2. It reflects the idea of crisp, professional playing.
3. He took more time to relax and have fun during the shoot, which brought more confidence into the photo.
4. The image is something a promoter or fan would be happy to print out and use.

DETAILS, AND MORE ABOUT CAPTURING YOUR SPECIFIC STYLE

Show them what you are about.
Just as it’s important to be able to describe your musical style in a few words, it’s also a good idea to repeat that with your visuals. So what is your style? The depths of a goth ocean? Lighthearted powerpop? Wacky? Then be sure to keep that as the theme of your photographs. Interact with your band members in the photo, set up a scene. If you don’t like to act and want to have a straight portrait made, even the depiction of the motion of adjusting a collar says volumes. People won’t be able to hear you on a flyer, so make it good!

Be yourself.
If you are relaxed you’ll get better pictures. Jump around, loosen up, be silly a bit, breathe. It’s often good to have the camera on rapid-shot setting to capture the more casual look people have on their faces right after looking at the camera.

Avoid the cliche’s, unless you want to break them out of the mold!
The two most tired out themes of musician photos are:
1. Person walking down train tracks.
2. Band in front of a brick wall.
Those two setups are so ubiquitous that they have become an old joke in the music industry. You’ll find tons of articles making fun of them. However, the only reason those don’t work is because people think they can just stand in front of a wall and it will have meaning. Sorry, but it doesn’t, it’s generic. However, it’s really easy to break out of that mold. Some say that such rules are made to be broken, and they sure can be. So if you REALLY want to stand in a row on the train tracks, in front of a brick wall and are ready to WORK IT… go for it! Just make sure that instead of blankly staring at the camera, you are *doing something*. Act out the name of your latest album. Tell a story. Have a herd of cattle running at you up the tracks. Or people in cow suits. Be pounding on the brick wall. I think you probably get the idea now.

Use good equipment if you can – and edit your photos after taking them.
Professional photos are great if you can hire someone, but if you are low on cash, a friend with a decent camera will be fine, or you can find a student photographer who wants to add more to their portfolio – just be sure to credit them for their work if it gets published. Try to use natural light where possible. If you want to go low fi and use a polaroid for that retro indoor flash vibe, that’s fine, just be sure to give the photo a lot of contrast using a photo editing program to heighten the look! Editing can be crucial, especially if you don’t have access to a good camera. You can use free tools online, or offer up your image to the Fix My Pic group on flickr.com to see what other folks can do to spice up your images.

Make sure you have high resolution images taken, in color.
Most publications will want high resolution (usually 300 dpi) images, so keep those versions ready on your computer in case you need to send them out, or link to them from your web site. It’s easy to convert color images to black and white if necessary, but obviously if someone needs color shots of your band, you’ll be out of luck if all you have are black and white. The easier you make it for folks to use your images, the more likely they will!
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AND IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO… FOCUS!

In the end, it’s about capturing your sound, distilling your spirit, and translating that into an image that folks can take away to better remember who you really are… which is probably what you have been doing with your music, right? Enjoy!