ALBUM PHOTOGRAPHY

07/01/12

The first and image that will make it in to the KPC competition was based on Peter Gabriel's first solo album, Car. Probably no surprise that a car was involved in the picture but to create the image I needed some heavy rain and a location where I could keep the camera tripod mounted in the dry and out of harms way. After driving back from Brooklands on New Years Day and fighting through some torrential rain I stopped off at the offices of the Canterbury Innovation Centre where I am based, the reception area has a sheltered area which was ideal to set the camera and park my car within a few feet of it. Gabriel's original shot was taken in a Lancia Flavia and the water was created by a hose, the image was originally taken in black and white and then very carefully colour tinted.

I done a few test shots and had the camera on a ten second self timer, enough for me to get in to the car and mimic PG's original sleeping pose. The settings were 1/6s @ F9 ISO 800, the definition of the water droplets was exactly what I was after and with a speed light off camera set on the dashboard it gave enough fill in light at 1/8th power to light me sufficiently along with the interior light. Post production was to crop the image in to a square and colour the image with a cinematic Cyanotype filter, some sharpening as well was added to bring out the texture even more.

My second shot was of the Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA cover. The twist was using a women, in this case Elika and a Union Jack as the backdrop. The cap was still used in the back jean pocket and the white vest as well to tie in with the original. Again square crop to go with the album design. Lighting was courtesy of two speed lights, some nice shadows created some definition in the image and the union jack (courtesy of the Westgate Cafe) worked really well. Looking to cover more of these album covers during the year as it was great fun, not sure I will be modelling again though!