I've been a fan of the work of Annie Liebovitz for a long time - so like most other things I've taught myself in life - I decided to study the techniques and vision necessary to accomplish this style of image creation.

Rock Band Shoot Result

Breaking it down - it's comprised of many things assembled into a singular vision.  You need the subjects, wardrobe, location, set design, lighting, posing and post production work - to name just a few ingredients.    Not to mention all the necessary equipment to support this type of project!  It's a pretty big undertaking, all said and done.

So first, I studied the style and assembled the necessary equipment to pull it off.  Next, I worked on conceptualizing the overall intent -  This, to me is one of the most important steps in photography that differentiates the average photographer from a visual artist.  The photographer shows what's in front of them - the visual artist creates something beyond just a copy of a moment in time - it a process that can take many days of planning, design and labor both before and after the shutter is clicked..    In hand with this - is visualization - the process where I can actually see the creation in my mind - before ever touching a piece of equipment.    Once that's all set - then it's just a matter of logistics and becoming the director/producer/composer of the project.

So the search was on for talent - after poking around online on various ad and message boards I found a band to work with in the Sarasota area (Venice, FL actually).  The good news is they had access to a large rehearsal space with a high ceiling - especially important since some of my lighting had to go up on a boom to about 14' high in the air!!!  The bad news is I didn't have my assistant around for this shoot so I had to organize and load everything myself - I also didn't have anyone shooting the "behind the scenes" photos or video.  The good news is I had 6 guys on the location end to help out as "roadies" for me.

Here's one behind the scenes image I managed to get when a mom was taking a phone pic!

Behind the scenesThis kid wanted to be the lead singer! Rock Band ShootResults after post processing

There were a number of different poses and lighting setups but this is the one I was after - CLICK on the images to jump to the gallery.