I can see it now “you tell us not to buy pickups because they do not affect the tone, but you are telling us to buy something not even related to tone!”
Well... if you think about it, not wasting money on things that won't make a big change could help you using that money for things that may actually help you as a musician/band.
Don’t waste money on pickups when they don’t make a difference to the audience, spend your money on things that will get you more exposure and further your music career like high quality band photos to use on promotional content.
@@InGovWeMistrust If you have to sell a picture of yourself to promote your music, you shouldn't be playing music. If you're actually playing good music, it will sell itself. All this "image" garbage has reached a point of overshadowing the music itself. That's why music has become so disposable. This is not acting in movies, needing to sell the image of your face. This is music. Play the music. It's sound first, not image. Some of the greatest bands remained mysterious for a long time, without the cheesy photoshoots. Now we want to see them posting what they're eating for breakfast on a tik tok video? No wonder music is so dead. Bunch of cheeseballs.
Really dig how your channel is becoming full on multimedia. Covering mixing, tracking, instruments, speakers, camera work. Really handing all the tools to the youngins and I'm here for it!
This video is FULL of information you can only provide to others with experience. I just really appreciate that there must be a lot of "losses" that lead to these wins. The knowledge you have about instruments, recording, sound, and photography doesn't come easy without an investment of time and effort. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Glen.
Thank you for the knowledge :) My old band Forces had a photoshoot behind a venue and we had everyone in the band show up a hour before load in and hired the photographer to also take pictures of the whole show. As a band you're already suppose to be wearing the fit for a show and one that you'd want to be photographed anyways during the summer time, so that was one way to get that done with a bit less planning required.
Wow Glenn, your portrait photos are amazing. I have been around professional photographers and sales people at different times in my life and a lot of their gear was not the newest or most expensive. And yes they will try and sell you gear that is expensive and most times is way above what you need to acheive your goals.
Great timing on the video, Glenn! My wife is a photographer, mostly doing events, family photos, etc. She’s expanding into concert photography and promo shots for bands. There’s such good advice in here! Thanks and FUCK YOU, Glenn!
My Dad was a huge photo nerd with dozens of cameras, but I don't think any of his favorites were made after 1970. He'd even set up his digital cameras to shoot similar pictures to the old ones. You definitely don't need the newest thing.
Oh man, film is a *lot* of fun to work with, but its pretty hard these days to find places to develop negatives. But developing black and white photos from negatives is a lot easier than people think (color, however is a whole trauma of its own, not for the faint of heart). Its a bit like tape. All good fun till you realise just how fucking expensive getting tape is these days when a roll of tape costs more than a plugin that ultimately will do the same thing. Which is a shame. I dont really think tape sounds better, but I love the workflow. No time alignment, commit or die and if you cant play the whole damn song in one take, its time to git good. Films a bit like that. Theres no fixing it in photoshop. You need to compose the photo by taking a good photo. Commit or die, basically.
Glen it’s really helpful that you’re doing more videos about overall modern musicianship which does go beyond just playing well. A companion to this video on music video production would be very helpful as well. Personally a video on camera angles for shooting seated guitar players would really be a life saver. Please keep this stuff up, we know tone is in the speaker and we need to change our bass strings. But camera work for musicians is a real challenge!
Great episode! How about one on best affordable, budget friendly youtube set up. Include lighting, camera recommendations, and lenses on older tech! Plus, film the episode using the basic older setup! With budget in mind, you could even have a dual camera setup!
That's actually really awesome. I've been going back to old school tactics because I got tired of modest turnouts at shows. I went back to printing out posters and flyers and flyering up music stores and record stores (even the Papa Johns next to the venue) and the results are phenomenal. Shows have been packed and the venues have been willing to pay. I might have to grab one of these cameras to keep the train rolling. If you're in a band that plays live, the best thing you can do is flyer your area and the venue. If a concert comes to town, hand out flyers outside the venue, and for fuck's sake, put QR codes on the flyer, so people can check you out and save the event on social media.
The music aside, I think about image a lot and how my band (when we’re ready to go public) needs an overall aesthetic in photos that make people say “whoa, they look cool! What does their music sound like?!”
@@whois3581 and that mentality of yours is why bands don’t stand out. How are you even going to get people to click on your music in the first place otherwise? Both are important in current year.
@@lanceolson5988 Bands don't stand out because they're playing the same old disposable music that been done a million times. That's why they feel the need to sell an image because the music can't stand on its own. You can have an interesting image, doesn't have to be a photoshoot of your face or "aesthetic" trying to look cool. If you're making good music, that's primary.
@@lanceolson5988 Think outside the box and be creative. Stop repeating the "formula" of what a million other bands have done. It's been played out and watered down so much. "You gotta take cool photoshoots and look really cool for the camera" is one of the lamest approaches you can do. Bands need to get back to a time when there was a sense of mystery. Where we wondered what they looked like or their opinions etc. Now for so long everything is just blasted out clear with no question, completely snuffs out the imagination from the listeners end.
Excellent tutorial Glenn. I still use my “nifty fifty” and a Cannon 600D with zero issues. My one piece of advice is to take into account your posture as a photographer. All I ever see is people shooting standing straight up looking eye to eye with their subject. Bring a footstool and don’t be afraid to squat or kneel. All of a sudden your image looks unlike 90% of what’s out there.
I completely agree with your opinion. 100%. Excellent advice. I notice that you didn't talk about the post-production of your photos. I guess that's not the point. For a few years I worked mainly with fashion photos, and Photoshop was almost compulsory. Especially for reasons of “consistency” throughout a series. But no photo can be saved without impeccable illumination right from the start. The eye is the eye.
12:45 Glenn I have taken 12mp photos from a pro shooter and made them into 36"x24" posters. Not cheap !!! The point is 12mp is enough to blow up huge and still be high resolution enough to exceed the resolution limits of the printer used for posters. (edit I commented too soon! 22:00 ) Guys do not complain about the cost of a poster at the merch table, it can be higher than a T shirt cost if you got cheap white T's
Another good tip about buying used cameras - it is the most economical to buy gear in a bundle. A set of a lens with a body will always be cheaper than buying them separately. The bigger the bundle, the cheaper each component is. Sometimes, you can even get stuff for free - just find a nice deal with a lot of gear and sell stuff you do not need separately - you can even turn it into profit.
When I was younger, I discovered the music that I loved (and still look back at fondly) through friends/family and my sister's then-boyfriend, I listened to sounds i liked and never even saw their album art or video's, just going in limewire and mix-cd's my friends made by themselves. When I then later found out what the band looked like, i was sometimes even a bit disappointed. Now in the age of youtube and spotify, it is definitely important with all the thumbnails, it decides what i do or don't click.
Great video! Some things to consider. When you buy a used camera, check how many shots it has. Sometimes you can use a mirror to redirect sunlight indoors, you can bounce it off for interesting results. If you don't have experience with photography, you can use automatic mode to do a test and then modify some parameters in manual mode. Try to avoid flash. But if you want to use it anyways, you can put a white paper in front of it, and keeping experimenting. Cheers from Chile!
I've been a professional photographer for around 30 years, and I thought your advice was pretty good. I agree that you don't have to pay a shitload of money to get a good camera. DSLR's that were made 10+ years ago are capable of producing great results. If I was to say anything, I would advise that you perhaps invest a little bit more money in the lenses. Remember, all the light has to travel through the lens first before it hits the sensor, so its important that the lens has good optics. Even old camera sensors can capture an incedible amount of detail, and if you put a shitty lens in fornt of that sensor, your pics won't be as sharp or as clear as they could be.
I spoiled myself and got the Canon RF 50MM f/1.2. Absolutely STUNNING! No CA, sharp as a tack corner to corner, amazing bokeh! The Nifty Fifty is going to get the job done and most of its weaknesses won't really be revealed in most situations. But man, once you get something like that RF 50MM you get a taste for it! It's an absolute BEAST!
I grabbed a couple of the Neewer lights recommended in this video and they really are fantastic.Super portable and much softer light than I expected. Thanks for the tip!
I was a camera nerd (mostly street photography) for a while but I didn't get into high end bodies or lenses. My main rig is a Canon 6D and a 24-105mm f.4.0. I have a 2006 Canon Rebel XT (works but needs cleaning), a Canon SL1 (smallest DSLR). and a pocket size Canon M200. It's APS-C, and I can adapt my EOS EF and EF-S lenses to it. When I still lived in Kingston, ON, I used to go to the local bars and shoot band photos, for the hell of it, and post them on Facebook so anyone in the band or their fans could see them. Most of my shots are therefore action shots, but I occasionally got good one on one shots, too. I'll use a phone if I have to, but I have collected a few digital and film cameras over the years, so...
A higher MP camera is nice for framing your shots wider, like with an inexpensive used Nifty Fifty lens (50 to 55mm range), then cropping in with editing software (several are free) later to compose the final image (emulating a zoom lens) and still retaining good resolution. More Flexibility at low cost. 🍺🍻
Love this kind of content on the channel man. The kind of stuff that goes into being in a band other than music needs to be in the spotlight more. I got a Lumix gh2 not to long ago and a decent 50mm prime lens and i love it. It doesn't do 4k but it doesn't need to.
I get what you’re saying about the DSLR vs smartphone sensors, and yeah, the DSLR photos were clearly better. However, that iPhone photo wasn’t too bad.
My first digital camera was a NIkon Coolpix, the one that twisted in the middle, with around 4.2ish mpixels; it's the camera that I shot my kids' childhoods on. I knew a guy who had the previous model with around 2.4 m - he frequently had perfectly good A3 prints displayed in a local gallery. That Nikon still takes great pix that look astonishingly like film. When I hit a nostalgiafest and flip through the old picture folders it's always a shock when I moved to a Panasonic with many, many more pixels and a much harder (probably noisier) look. Lover your vid and photo vids!
Glenn!!! Thanks SOOO much for the photo video. I really appreciate it. I have enough guitars but I could REALLY use your perspective on doing band photos. Our last one had some red flags LOL.
MarkusPix really has great Ideas on how to get results with cheap gear and being crafty AND you just helped to connect these worlds of music and photography.
I have no interest in photography or cameras, and found this to be fascinating. I had no idea there was so much depth in this stuff, and there were particular stylistic references. this was cool to discover, and now I may a few more youtube rabbit holes to go down to learn more useless information that might impress some girl at a bar who ends up leaving with the drummer.
Perfect timing Glenn! I'll be traveling through Norway for 20 days and looking to buy a videocamera to record footage of nature, but learning about photos is cool too. Thanks
So I have the D200 and i purchased SD SDHC SDXC to CF Compact Flash Memory Card Adapter Reader Type and it works great. it's the compact flash that you can insert an sd card. a life saver. that D200 is for sure a workhorse.
It's so true what you're saying about band photos. I went to watch a band called Asomvel at Bloodstock Festival largely based on their promo photo in the festival app. I'd never heard of Asomvel before, but the photo was silly and made me stop scrolling long enough to read about them and make the decision to catch their set. Really great band too!
used / refurbished units are a great way to get quality pro-level gear for not much cash.. spent about $500 usd and ended up with a nice and fairly complete Canon DSLR setup. As with anything, search around to find the best deals.
I remember photocopy advertising. Any pictures were of poor quality. That's also when people went outside so they could look at the photocopy stapled to a telephone or taped to a wall.
Great video, covers the whole idea of what you need to do after you get a few (3 sets…lol) songs down pat. Next job for our band once we get a lead guitarist sorted! Hmmm, I play bass, sound guy and now…photo dude…😂
OH ! you should sell prints of Stevie-T at sunset with his car. The shots are amazing and it would be so funny to have people recognise him, I would hang it in our practice room.
I totally agree with you! I still shoot stills on a Nikon D850. It's a few years old but with good fast glass, it's still amazing. And yes, I told my band we should schedule photo shoots monthly!
I'm not hyper into photography but this video is awesome. hope the algorithm will be nice and cooperate with this one, because i would love more videos like this one! Many many thanks and fuck you Glenn!
Yeah. Bought a Olympus E-M1 Mk2 used for about 500 bucks. Paired with the cheap but amazingly sharp Olympus 45mm F1.8 (90mm Fullframe-equivalent) it is just a beast of a camera. Not just for photos, but also for shooting video.
It’s more eye then anything I’ve been published in magazines and I used a canon rebel t 6 and a nifty 50 it’s all about composition and what uou do with the light provided. 0:43
Well said Glenn! While more of serious enthusiast and not a professional photographer, I agree with the "old-model" camera sentiment. I still shoot with a Nikon D600 (24MP) and a Nikon D80 (10.2MP) and just last week shot sponsor portraits for a charity I volunteer for with the latter and a pair of $88 Neewer umbrella lights ($88 for both) along with a Godox TT6895N. They turned out great, however I will add one piece of advice (hopefully another commenter didn't already) - if the camera you chose is capable of shooting in RAW, use it! You can always have it save in both RAW and JPG, but RAW provides so much more flexibility when editing (if you can afford something like Photoshop). For those unaware, RAW is not a picture, but the data straight from the imager. That means no in-camera processing as with JPG, and it can SAVE YOU BIG TIME! I wish I could post a photo here that I took out in Banff in 2021 of the local train station (STAY OFF THE TRACKS!). I was in a hurry and botched the exposure BIG TIME. Luckily I hadn't over-driven the sensor and the detail was still there, which the Camera Raw loader of Photoshop used to recover my mistake. I should mention that the RAW files are approximately three times the size but worth every byte.
Shooting RAW is like taking a DI off a guitar. It's your safety net! BTW, I failed to mention that 99% of these images are Jpegs straight out of camera.
That's good advice! And if anyone here is getting overwhelmed then just slow down, take a deep breath, and get ready to learn a few more basics, like the Exposure Triangle and how to focus on the eye by moving the focus points. Photography is its own beast and there are a lot of moving parts. But with a little practice and some explanation you can understand how to properly use your camera and get the kind of results that Glenn was getting. If you're stumped or frustrated just ask and we'll be here. After all, that's what this channel is about: helping you get the job done while saving you money by giving you the knowledge you need.
Megapixel count is important only if you're making large posters. For a recent Rideau (entertainment industry) trade show, I made 4' X 3' posters for our booth. I was very glad to have 36 megapixel images to work with. My usual photographer is a Nikon guy. He uses a Z7 and a D800, with some very good glass. It's great how good gear can help but knowledge is the key to a great shoot. Some very good advice offered in this video, Glenn.
I've printed at 24"x36" with a 20MP image and it looked good. I've seen 24MP photos blown up to 60x40 and they looked great! But yeah, there's something comforting about getting shots of the stuff that REALLY matters at 50MP like I did with my Canon 5DSR. But I've also seen 11MP shots printed at 17x22 and they looked great too. Some of that is going to depend on exactly how detailed the subject needs to be. I once shot one of the Blue Angels at an air show with my 5DSR and was able to read the pilot's name on the side of cockpit!
We've taken photos for all our albums and we've been fortunate enough to have a photographer that's also into out type of music, that has done all the work for free. We find the place where the photos are to be taken and we plan our looks but we always ask for his opinion on placement, background, etc before he takes any photos. Everytime the results have been better than we envision in our plans.
Glenn, thanks for the awesome video! I just remembered that I have a Nikon D200 somewhere at the bottom of my closet :) I had forgotten about it, and it takes 1000 times better photos than my iPhone. P.S. Ironing a T-shirt before a shoot is always a good idea :)
@@DankosaurousSnakeskin Schecter? Warren DiMartini already nailed the serpent motif, so you'll have to shoot for something unique. Is it possible to superglue a live snake to a guitar while convincing it to hold a pick with its teeth? Great concept for live performances but not so much on the animal abuse. And they say people have genius epiphanies when they're high...
5:42 this is the most important thing and is the way I have always approached music. I am not getting paid to play music. I am getting paid to set up gear, drive to venues, interact with punters, practice my parts. The gig itself is just a bit of fun with my friends.
Another thing to keep in mind. Re-size your goddamn images to a smaller size like 1000 pixels on the long end for social media. Don’t upload full resolution. It will get compressed and look worse. Another benefit to older cameras is you’re already using smaller files.
I actually try to avoid seeing what band members look like because I usually judge them before I judge the music. I'd rather look at sick artwork most of the time.
Loved the vid! Can you make more videos like this? I like the videos you made talking about the marketing side of being in a band. Also I think this was one your best videos you made in the last months? F*ck you Glenn!
This was incredibly helpful. My band is starting to look at the need to market our music, which will, as you mentioned, require us to be somewhat visible. So it's great timing for us. Thanks, Glenn! Also: when can we get "I Like Shooting People" on shirts or coffee mugs?
I love the cover photo from the 1983 self-titled Suicidal Tendencies. It takes the idea of a band photo and flips it on its head, literally. (But then they blew it with the "How Will I Laugh" cover -- in front of a fucking mausoleum.)
Awesome video Glen! It may have inspired me to experiment with photography for fun. Can you recommend where to pay attention when shopping for second-hand cameras? Thanks!
Another Cam I could recommend is the Panasonic Lumix GH-2. Still a beast for Video (1080@24fps) and ripps in the photo department. Got mine 2 years ago for 120€ incl. lens.
