French rock band photo shoot

Last week I stayed in Paris France to do a photoshoot of a French Rock band: INCRY. I have known the lads for more than ten years and used their music for the outro in my videos. The video is a slideshow of some of the exposure I shot of them last week. The real challenge was not knowing the location, having any other gear with me than my Canon 60D, a tripod with a hotshot mount attached to it and my Canon 430EXII Speedlite flash gun. They had brought a few lights which were not enough for the shoot but was used to add some atmosphere. Most of the shots were taken in a fully dark room to get a proper exposure and sharpness.

What did I learn from this?

In one word: Adapt! You need to be ready and think on the spot. Do with what you have.

Not enough distance between you and the subject?

Lay down, climb on furniture.

Not enough light?

Shoot in the dark with a strobe to freeze the action.

How to know what position to ask for?

Ask them what they have in mind and build from it.

Would I have requested anything different if I knew then what I know now?

A tricky question I must admit. While one cannot be truly satisfied with his work and it is easy to think of “what if”, one teacher used to say to me with “ifs” you could fit the Eiffel Tower in a bottle. The back clothes on a blown up white backdrop brought some Chromatic Aberration (coloured line surrounding the subject  [ we will review this in a future episode]). While I was not interested in using a back backdrop, I am quite keen on experiencing with a grey one as you can change its colour easily with light. One could say: you did manage to change the colour of your white backdrop? Well, it is true, but while obtaining grey form White is easy, achieving black requires increasing distance between the subject and the backdrop which I ran shot off, although it worked here.

Would I do it again?

Hell yes and more!!

Band details:

Name: INCRY Members:Kourros (singer), Noug (guitarist), Did (bassist) and Tatoo (drumer) Story: INCRY  was created in the end of 2001 from the initial complicity of the singer(Kourros) and guitarist (Noug) when they were both attending the ATLA school in Paris and soon were joined by the Bass (Did) and Drum (Tatoo); the band was born. They released a few EPs and singles during the first years and in 2008 the very first album came out: “Face au mur” which they played all across France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The venues were as mythical as the atmosphere: Le Gibus and La Cigale (Paris), festivals such as the Raismes Fest etc. 2001 they have toured often with the famous French band Vulcain. INCRY is more than 300 concerts!!! Their latest album, Rock.Fr comes out this month.