5 Tips For Music Photography With Jeremy Saffer
When it comes to music photography, there are a few tricks and tips you can follow to make sure your photos come out professionally and visually appealing. From the right angles and poses to composition, we’ve rounded up 5 tips to help you capture stellar music photography images, offered by music and lifestyle photographer Jeremy Saffer.
1. Know Your Light & Surroundings
Before you even begin shooting, take time to assess the space and light you’ll be working with.Whether you’re shooting outdoors or in a nightclub, look at the environment to understand how the light partnerships, shadows, and elements like smoke and fog can play into your photo.
2. Think About Your Angles
A wide-angle shot can offer an impressive landscape view whereas a head-on or side view portrait can be great for showing emotion—so it pays to think about the types of angles you use in your photos. Jeremy suggests experimentation to see what works best for each shot and situation.
3. Capture Movement & Dynamics
From strobe lights to fast guitar bashing, music photos should capture not only the posed shots but also the moments of motion. Consider long exposure shots with shutter speeds of 1/30 or slower for dynamic movement—this technique is especially effective if your surroundings are dark or full of strobe lights.
4. Prioritize Posture & Facial Expressions
It’s important for your musicians to have a strong posture and facial expressions that are interesting and reflective of the music. This will provide a more powerful connection between the image and the music.
5. Use b Roll
B roll is essential to the success of a good music photo, and can consist of things like instruments, close-up shots of faces and hands, tilt shots, crowd shots. etc. With b roll photos, you can create a layered narrative within your images that will help tell a more complete story and capture the overall mood and feeling of the music.
Following these five tips should help you create beautiful music photos that truly capture the emotion and energy of the event. Be sure to bring the right gear and get creative with composition and angles to make your photos stand out.
