June 13th, 2007. my garage, Lakewood.

I don't really shoot bands. I lack the spunk and creativity that makes band photography what it is. So what could I do? Rent a couple of strobes, and basically say "look really serious into the camera!".. and go from there. So again if I totally really didn't know what I was doing since this wasn't really my thing, at least I had the advantage of controlled lighting, and that in itself can add something you otherwise couldn't conjure ordinarily.

This is of Another Rising. I used to go to school with their bass guitarist and so we're old friends. He asked if I could shoot his band, and these are a few photos from our third shoot together. I shot these in my garage and set up the strobes directly on either side of the guys to get that harsh look on the singer's face (guy in front), even if it didnt have that effect on the guys in the back. (I would have used the third that I had, but I really had no space.. Its really cramped in my garage) I also funneled the light with some cardboard so that it only shone on the guys and not the background. They had asked for a pure black background, and so I did my best not to illuminate the backdrop that I had, and later cleaned it up with Photoshop CS (originally you could see half my garage in the first one). I kept desaturating the red channel, and eliminated the yellow, green, and magenta completely, though it really didn't do anything. I also burned or dodged a few details too.