Thought I'd throw these up here and see what you guys though. One of the guys (the one with the shades) works with me and they've got a track about to hit the local radio so we went out and took some promo shots for their demo album, which is going to be released shortly. Not much of a rap listener, myself, but it's good, for rap. I've been working on a website for them (which is not quite ready), and now they've set me up as their photographer and after this shoot, they decided that they're "taking me with them". I've never done one of these before, so it was all new to me, as well. I brought some lights with me, but one of the crew was getting restless, so I just worked with available light. Anyways, what do ya' think?

 

I don;t know alot about photo shots, but in the first one, I can see the reflection of you shooting in his sun glasses.

 

that would be a hilarious photochop request on the site to fix it!

Nice shots, personable. Not super keen on the second to the last one (not your photo, he just looks like he's having a brain fart), but I like the last one a lot. Either way, you have a good eye sir!

 

Wow... those are really good. I especially like the last one!

Rich

 

Thanks guys! I took about 250 shots, but these were my favorite. So far I've processed about 17 for the group. The guy in the blue shirt totally did not want to be there, and that's why there's few shots of him. He just doesn't understand the need to have your picture taken when you're not a star, yet. No matter how you explain it to him, apparently, he just doesn't understand how the industry works. So he was a pain in my ***.

I'll see about taking myself out of the first picture, but I dunno how well that'll work.

Here's a few more.

 

they look like great pics

 

My new favorite

 

I have a hard time taking anyone seriously when they look like the guy with the hat on.




I really like this pic. Awesome colours and shadows.

 

Thanks. Here's a better edit of that one.

 

That is awesome. How did you darken it? Did you use the burn tool in Photoshop or something?

 

Looks like a manip of the RAW camera file. Looks really good, a little too much vignetting for me but it's still great.

Rich

 

My vignetting is usually very mild and hard to even tell it's there. But this seemed to fit the image. Actually for that image, I used an action called Fievel's Gothic Glow, I believe. A couple of layers with different blending modes, a light LucisArt exposure filter as well. There's even a B&W layer in there somewhere. I've got a highpass layer and an unsharp layer as well. I also upped the saturation and changed the hue of the door. No RAW here, just straight JPEG. Unfortunately I only had one card with me and didn't want to run out of room.

 

Looks great, you really know your stuff! Even the guy who didn't want to be there should be happy, and if he's not, he's an idiot.

 

Darkfire...

If that's a jpeg manipulation...

You got skills! That's a dramatic change from one to the other.

Great Job,

Rich

 

Thanks, Rich. Yes, it's all JPEG manipulation. I really wish I would write down what I do, so I can do it again, though lol.

 

The guy in the blue in the next to last pic in first post needed to do two things and it would have been a good shot. 1) ditch the stupid cell phone holder on his side (thats around his knee's almost mind you) and 2) look at the camera.

otherwise, they are great shots. The guy in the white long sleeve shirt, his shots turned out great. The one of him against the wall is very good, and the one of him sitting looking down, is a great shot all in itself, the one you edited to darken everything except him is good, but almost a tad to much. Somewhere in the middle of the process you did and the origional i think would be the money shot.

 

The guy in the blue is no longer with the group. Imagine that. He obviously does not think like the rest of the guys.

I recently purchased a strobe, so hopefully I can get back out there and get some more shots with these guys. And I agree. The long sleeved guy (Allgood) seems to be the best to photograph. All of his shots came out great. The last one is a bit much, but I intend to use it for advertising/promo work and the gritty/high contrast look will be eye-catching. I can always overlay it onto the other image, but I really like the high contrast look for what I'm going to be doing with this.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the shoot. It was my first one ever. We tried to go out last Saturday, but it was raining. This weekend doesn't look any better. I am happy, though, because this great looking girl has asked me to photograph her for her promo shots as well. So I'll actually get paid up front for this one.

In other news with these guys, the local pop station liked what they heard, and are going to play our song in a cage match sorta-deal. If we win, then we get a 30 minute on air interview and get put up against a major recording artist!