Photographers and Album Covers

Here I will talk to you about a few of the photographers that are involved in creating album covers; I will look at some of the photographers who created the album covers that we looked at before. i will also expand on this and look at the different aspects involved in the images themselves and help shed some light on creating such great album covers. The following photographers that I will look at are; Roberto D'Este - Rihanna Cover, G. L. Wood - Nicki Minaj Cover, and Nigel Parry - Eminem Cover.

Roberto D’Este
This album cover of Rihanna was created by D'Este and shows Rihanna in a professionally posed position, in what is most likely a basic, but professional, photography studio. As mentioned she is posed in a way that suggests she, and the photographer, are creating a flirtatious, and 'sexy' atmosphere, which is why D'Este has composed her in this way. D'Este also seems to picture his subjects at a very straight angle, treating his subjects very realistically, rather than distorting or exaggerating them. When creating this image, it is clear that D'Este has used a basic type of portrait studio lighting, called the Split Light; this is because you see that you have a strong highlighted side and a strong shadow side, hense the split light. After doing the studio work and taking the shot it seems that the photographer has then used a small number of digital enhancements, one of which is the black and white effect; the image also appears to be quite high in contrast, but this can be caused by the tonal qualities of Rihanna skin, but there is also evidence of strong shadow highlight which may be the reason for this.

Nigel Parry

This album cover produced by profession photographer Nigel Parry shows Eminem walking down the middle of a road. The cover is apart of Eminem's album 'Recovery' which features our chosen song 'Love The Way You Lie'. The concept of it can be very clever and amusing, this is because it shows a symbolic reference to the album, because it shows Eminem walking down a road, which suggests he is 'on the road to recovery'. Judging by the lighting of the image, it appears that the photographer has used natural lighting, the image also suggests that the image was taken around midday with patchy cloud cover. For example, if you look near the feet of the subject (Eminem) you can see there isn't much of a shadow, this is common when using midday, natural lighting because the Sun is approximately overhead. The image itself also has a graphic feel, this because a set of diagonal lines draw you into the photo, giving the image a sense of realism, and that it also plays around with the use of negative and positive space. This is seen in the image because you see that from the edge of the image to the middle it changes from one space to the other; the negative space, being the sky and the positve the road and then you have Eminem who draws your attention back out from the image giving it realism. This technique is key when compositioning the image so that the image is 'balance'.

G. L. Wood

This album cover is produced by professional photographer G. L. Wood; the album cover is apart of Nicki Minaj's album Pink Friday. This image taken by Wood shows Nicki in a posed image, she is seen looking away from the camera, brushing her hair behind her head, which is quite a classic modeling pose. She doesn't seem bothered nor at least concerned about, this is a technique which the majority of photographers use and it is called a rapport. This is when the photographer will create a mutual respect with the client, either by general conversaton or through context (i.e. a similarity, common interest). I think that Nicki and Wood are looking to create a flirtatious atmosphere but they are also trying to keep her looking natural, as if to say this is me. Also the image also makes use of a type of portrait studio lighting, called Loop Light, for example in this image the light box would be more to the left of the camera, you then see a loop of shadow light begin to build towards the left side of her face.

Album Research

This is the CD cover of Rihanna – Good Girls Gone Bad. The front of this CD cover features Rihanna in a dress. This album features her looking toward the camera, and it seems as though she is trying to look seductive in order to promote her album to appeal to men’s sexual drive to women.

This is the CD cover of Jason DerÜlo – Whatcha Say. This album features Jason on the front of this album; it is just again a close up of his face. This is advertising him and showing people what he looks like and who he is.

This is the CD cover of Nicki Minaj – Your Love. This album features Nicki on the front of this album looking slightly to the left. She is trying to promote that she I feeling happy or just smirking.

The Creative Process

We first got the idea for our music video by listening to the lyrics. It’s a story line for an abusive relationship, so we thought we’d match the video to the lyrics. But then we listened to the female version of the same song and we decided that the music video would look a bit better if we added the beginning verse as it would make the video more original, we agreed that the music video should focus on the female protagonist as she is the first one to sing and the actor the audience would want to see more of as they follow her struggle in life. We decided to use the stereotypical story line of a weak female standing up to the abusive partner because a lot of people can relate as that is how most abusive relationships end, they either get help or fight back, fighting back seemed the better choice to use in the music video as the lyrics don’t show her getting out, they show her getting more involved.

The outfit ideas for the female protagonist were based on the emotions vulnerable and angry. Whilst someone feels vulnerable they dress comfortable to take away any stress they can from their life, so we dresses the female protagonist in baggy simple jeans with a black tank top and little make-up. Making her look simple and difficult to read or it can be seen as her copying her partner to be like him. Whilst in the scenes where she is fighting back she is dressed in clothes that represent anger, the idea for these clothes came from my (Sarah) life, as I used to be a weak person but when I got stronger I dressed ‘louder’. So we dressed the female protagonist in a black, layered, punk mini-skirt with fishnet tights, big black boots and a white tank top. Whilst the bottom half of her outfit consist of mostly black ( showing mourning and anger of lost time) her tank top in this scene is white meaning a new start ( e.g a blank canvas). While the male protagonist clothes are the same styled outfits throughout the video showing no change in his emotions or character. We dressed him in baggy jeans ( showing his comfort in the situation) and dark t-shirts which represents his anger throughout.

To get our location ideas for our music video, we fist watch the original music video produced by Eminem and Rihanna. We decided on using Costa Coffee in a flash back as Costa is a good meeting place for new couples. Next we decided to use James' house as the prime location, as it fits the settings very well. Finally we decided to use a back alley for the choruses as it fits the lyrics very well, the grimy streets fit the anger of eminem. Then Sarah came up with the idea of filming at a beach to show how secluded her character is.