Broadway Baby

Bryce Wilson · August 23, 2012

Took on a pro-bono job last night. This young lady is in high school and is an aspiring opera singer. For portfolio purposes, she has produced an album, oops I keep forgetting, CD of show tunes to use for submissions to schools and universities to show some of her range.

I really like helping out energetic young people and as I've not done an album cover before, I readily agreed to do the job when asked.

Why, oh why, why, why, why, do young girls NEVER listen when I advise against wardrobe choices with bare arms? It seems that although I go quite in depth about this, almost all show up with at least one bare arm top. Here I thought my wife was unique in not paying attention to my advice!

This was my idea for a show tune album cover. Did the shoot around 10:00 PM with a half an hour window and ended up with about 50 images. This was the first one that caught my eye as a possibility and I have quite a few more to go through, I thought I'd throw this out there for comments.

Keep in mind, this isn't a commercial album per say, but a portfolio/resume CD with no budget.

I may get energetic and put a head shot of her in the "Now Showing" poster window. Thanks for any thoughts or comments.

divamum · August 23, 2012

Love the concept - definitely works! A coupla things:

- I'd replace all the placards - and possible darken the door glass to minimise the inside ones - since they scream "movie" not "Broadway" to me.
- if you have any where you're slightly turned and/or she's slightly to the right, the intersecting line of her head into the placard won't be distracting (I'd love to see a bit more door, as it were, so you can see where the door ends and wall begins. Does that make any sense?)

Bryce Wilson · August 23, 2012

Removing the window posters is an EXCELLENT idea!

Although I'm going to hate every minute of doing it.

Later, when I have time and motivation, I will go through the rest and see what I have.

B

novicesnapper · August 23, 2012

I was wondering on the #2 show on the movie title marquee. Maybe you could put the CD name or something on there, in place of the fuzzed out show name? Very pristine image, considering the setting and people coming and going lol.

Hackbone · August 23, 2012

Very nice job, your doiing alot of variety lately. Congrats.

Bryce Wilson · August 23, 2012

novicesnapper wrote: »

I was wondering on the #2 show on the movie title marquee. Maybe you could put the CD name or something on there, in place of the fuzzed out show name? Very pristine image, considering the setting and people coming and going lol.

Theater manager was very cooperative with this.

Broadway Baby is the title of the CD

The second line is the young lady's name. Last name fuzzed out for privacy purposes online.

Bryce Wilson · August 23, 2012

Hackbone wrote: »

Very nice job, your doiing alot of variety lately. Congrats.

Thanks Charles, your past help has been immeasurable.

Bryce Wilson · August 23, 2012

I took this one and played with it a bit. I kinda like it.

Although I truly dislike the graphic artist thing, I guess it's worth it. I know that back in the '70's I purchased albums that didn't have covers this nice.

divamum · August 23, 2012

Waaayyyyyyy better. Better pose, better expression, better position, and it's much more stylish without the posters. I'd straighten out the tilt (or adjust perspective - not sure which it is) and arguably crop it down to lose the zigzag neon which is more movie than B'way theatre (you can take some more off the left to keep it square for CD - you could even clone out the ticket booth to clean it up)

While yes, there is some graphic art involved, a CD cover is seldom "just a photograph" - the other stuff is part of the final product, and you've done a great job!!

Bryce Wilson · August 23, 2012

Good advice on the zig zag Diva, but I kinda like the ticket window.

AND......

This is the version I think I'm going to present to her...

divamum · August 23, 2012

Love the comp. Will you kill me, though, if I say I preferred the brighter colours of the one before you cropped it down? ~ducks and runs~ :tiptoe

Such a great job on this, Bryce

Sam · August 23, 2012

Go with the brighter colors!

Sam

3smiles · August 23, 2012

Bryce I love the second one!! You have really changed things up lately and I really like a lot of what you have done!

anonymouscuban · August 23, 2012

Bryce, don't like that last one brother. Brighter ones are better.

Bryce Wilson · August 24, 2012

Thanks so much everyone for the comments and suggestions! It is greatly appreciated!

Due to popular demand, I will be presenting this version along with several others and allow her to choose.

Thanks again!

Icebear · August 24, 2012

Home run! (Oops, wrong metaphor)

Bryce Wilson · August 25, 2012

Thanks Bear!

Well, you guy's and gal's were right...

I did change the final image a bit before showing it to her (used the clone tool to turn the top into an entire dress) her response to the brighter color image was...

WoooooooW.....OMG......I look like such a Diva!......I Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Job didn't pay dollar wise, but it sure had one hell of a fringe benefit! I feel good all over!

lifeinfocus · August 25, 2012

Lighting
Could you describe how you did lighting? Probably not a bounce shot? Off camera one or two flash? Umbrella?

Thanks
Phil

Bryce Wilson · August 25, 2012

Here ya go lifein... (BTW, I'm doing a shoot in Auburn tomorrow, it's so close to you I'll wave!) Wish I could remember the name of the nightclub I went to in Midland back in the late seventies.

The first part of the session was done with two off camera lights (one bare speed light on the marquee and a shoot through umbrella on the subject) and a reflector. I knew for sure that I wanted the marquee to be lit well and wanted to make sure I had well lit shots of it from the right angles (as you see in the first image) to be able to use it in other shots that the background was going to be darker and moody.

The final image was lit with an off camera shoot through positioned camera right placed just behind and above the subject. A BAWR was used just outside the frame camera left. In fact, in the non album crop you can see the reflector. The final image used a cut and paste of the marquee from one of the earlier images taken with the bare speed light taken at about the same angle.

lifeinfocus · August 25, 2012

Bryce Wilson wrote: »

Here ya go lifein... (BTW, I'm doing a shoot in Auburn tomorrow, it's so close to you I'll wave!) Wish I could remember the name of the nightclub I went to in Midland back in the late seventies.

The first part of the session was done with two off camera lights (one bare speed light on the marquee and a shoot through umbrella on the subject) and a reflector. I knew for sure that I wanted the marquee to be lit well and wanted to make sure I had well lit shots of it from the right angles to be able to use it in other shots that were going to be lit darker and moody.

The final image was lit with an off camera shoot through positioned camera right placed just behind and above the subject. A BAWR was used just outside the frame camera left. The final image used a cut and paste of the marquee from one of the earlier images taken with the bare speed light taken at about the same angle.

Thanks. Maybe someday I could watch you at work. I have a lot to learn.

Phil

jmphotocraft · August 26, 2012

Bryce Wilson wrote: »

Thanks so much everyone for the comments and suggestions! It is greatly appreciated!

Due to popular demand, I will be presenting this version along with several others and allow her to choose.

Thanks again!

This is awesome, although I liked the tilt better. Maybe a little liquify filter on the arm? Women are notorious for ignoring every other magnificent technical and artistic victory in the photograph, and fixating on the one body flaw.

Broadway Baby

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