Mervyn and the Starbeats

Last month I was asked to photograph a band called Mervyn and the Starbeats who have been touring around Norfolk for a number of years. A couple of the founding members have been playing as part of the group since the sixties and the band play a selection of classics from that era as well as songs from the seventies. I was tasked with taking a simple group shot but wanted to make it more contemporary and less like the images that had been taken of them in the past.

One of the previous band photos

I decided to go for an image that was slightly more gritty, and showed them the sort of thing I had in mind. We ( my girlfriend Emma was helping with setup and reflector duties ) only had about 20 minutes to create the shot as the band was rehearsing straight after. A background close to their studio was found and away we went. The type of flint wall that forms the background in the shot is something that is very common to the Norfolk area. Both Emma and I felt it was appropriate as this is the County the group most often play in. This particular wall was chosen as it was shaded from the sun and a reflector was used to bounce light back towards the four of them. I asked the group to just relax into a pose that felt natural and said I didn't mind if they looked at the camera or not. I wanted the finished image to look like a candid shot.   Trouble was, as we were setting up, the sun disappeared and the reflector just wasn't as powerful as it could have been. It still bounced just enough light back towards the band members to add subtle catch lights to their eyes though, so it still managed to serve its purpose. I took a few different images of the band posing with and without instruments and once happy we had the shots we were after, packed up and travelled back to the house and downloaded the Raw files into Photoshop. I selected four that I really liked and edited them by upping the contrast and trying to give the images a slightly grungy look, something that was  prevalent on album covers from the Seventies onwards and still persists to this day. It's a stark contrast to the album covers from the previous decades, the 50's and 60's which have a far cleaner cut look. Once completed, I left the four images with the band and was thrilled when they got back to me a week later saying they loved them and that they would be used for promotional material in the future, starting with their new blog. Click on the link to check it out, http://mervynandthestarbeats.wordpress.com/       ( it's still in its infancy ) for future gig dates. If you happen to be in Norfolk, U.K. on one of the dates, why not go and see them, they're well worth a listen.  

Nikon D4 with Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8