Treacherous Orchestra - Band Photography

We had quite a time getting these done. Turning up early we were met with a locked door and not a soul in sight. Not a good start but our man Mutley eventually turned up with the keys and we swung in to action. We had chosen the main hall in the complex in SWG3 which is usually a club, It's big dark and has a lovely concrete floor. Ideal. All the gear was hulked in and whilst i got the lamps and flashes warmed up the boys got their make up done, by the very capable Ashley Jane. Ashley did a great job of getting things tweaked the way I and the camera wanted them and needless to say it was a great source of entertainment.Now taking photos of 11 people all of wildly different heights and shapes is no easy task. People move around and block the view of others, sometimes the light deflects badly and directing people to the correct position is a job which needs a good deal of patience. We started out trying to capture the classic band in a crowd shot. We nailed this after not to long and then moved on to jumping, moving around, looking all directions etc. This got everyone going and some momentum started to gather and enthusiasm lifted. After we had a good deal of these standard type shots in the bag we moved in to more adventurous territory. It struck me that 11 people in one picture is not an easy thing to make stand out. Luckily the Boys have plenty of charisma and all look individual and different but to capitalise on this I started to organise them in to rank and file got them to march, stand to attention, at ease and so on. This created a pleasing composition that stood out far more than the ad-hoc group shot.So with group shots done we moved on to individual portraits. This is when the enthusiasm dried up and people began to become a little self conscience and stiffened up. My clever solution to this was to shout abuse ( given that i know them all this was quite easy ) and kind of attack and jab them with the camera. This not only created a cloud of foul language and insightful insults but also managed to create some nice animated shots that really got across some character. I also used these portraits to make up another group shot in post, where everyone is well lit, full frame detail and not obscured by anyone else. This again gave me control of composition and resulted in a sort of action figure toy soldier sort of feel.When I went through the edit I was pretty pleased. Lots of good standard shots and the more constructed compositions stood out well. However I still felt I could achieve more edge, make them a little scarier more engaging. So I simply started painting peoples faces out, I know this is photography sacrilege but it achieved what I was looking for. In my view each member of the band had enough distinguishing character that removing their faces would actual highlight this. It's true that people are drawn to other peoples faces but I think after a certain amount of faces is in one page it becomes confusing and actually harder for people to look at. Painting peoples faces away is something I've always done through illustration and drawing. I have often concentrated on peoples character and tried to convey this rather than a realistic representation of how they look.— More at http://www.treacherousorchestra.com/gallery/— And the post on the album design and promo material is here.