Press photos for musicians: what to shoot and how

When a blog writes about your single, a promoter books your show or a playlist curator looks you up, they need a picture. If a good one is easy to find, they use it. If it isn't, they grab a blurry phone shot from your Instagram or skip the image entirely. A small set of press photos, ready to download, decides how you look everywhere other people put you.

This guide covers what bookers and editors look for, the shots a set should include, artist press photo ideas, how to shoot them cheaply and where to keep them so they're always one link away.

What press and bookers need from your photos

People who use your photos are working fast and fitting your image into their own layout. They need four things.

• Shapes that fit. A wide landscape shot for article headers, web banners and your Spotify header. A tall portrait shot for posters, phone screens and festival lineups. A square crop works for avatars and social posts.
• Enough resolution. Print needs the full-size file from the camera. Websites and email need a lighter copy that loads quickly. Offer both.
• Room to work. Leave space around you in at least one shot, so a designer can add a headline or a date without covering your face.
• A credit line. The photographer's name, written the way they want it. Editors print it under the photo, and photographers often ask for it in their terms.

Spotify's artist image guidelines are a good test of a set: the avatar must be at least 750 × 750 px, the header at least 2660 × 1140 px, and profile images should carry no text, advertising or busy backgrounds. A set that meets those works almost anywhere.

The shots a press photo set should include

A useful set is small. Five to ten strong images beat 40 similar ones, because the person choosing has seconds.

1. The main shot. Landscape, clear, you (or the whole band) in focus against a simple background. The one you'd be happy to see everywhere.
2. A portrait version. The same look, framed tall, for posters and phone screens.
3. A close-up. Head and shoulders. Works as an avatar and survives being shrunk.
4. A wider, environmental shot. You in a place that fits the music: a rehearsal room, a street, a kitchen in daylight.
5. A candid. In the middle of something (tuning, writing, loading the van), not looking at the camera.
6. For bands, each member alone. Editors and local press often need one person, and lineups change.

Mix color and a plain background across the set so it works on light and dark pages. Keep the look consistent with your current release, so the photos and the album cover feel like the same era.

Artist press photo ideas

• a plain wall in window light, with one strong color in your clothes;
• the room where you make the music, slightly untidy, as it is;
• outside at the edge of the day, when the light is soft and low;
• in transit: a car, a train, a stairwell, a loading dock;
• for bands, everyone at different distances from the camera instead of in a line;
• an object from your world in the frame (an instrument case, a notebook, a jacket) to give the picture a story.

Bring two or three outfits, so a single afternoon gives you different looks for different releases.

How to shoot press photos on a small budget

A recent phone camera and good light get you most of the way. Light matters more than gear.

• Use daylight. Stand near a big window or shoot outside in open shade. Avoid direct midday sun and overhead room lights.
• Steady the camera. A cheap tripod or a stack of books and the timer gives you sharp photos and lets you be in them.
• Shoot a lot, keep a few. Hundreds of frames in an hour is normal. Pick the handful where you look like yourself.
• Trade with a photographer. Photography students and local photographers building a portfolio often shoot for a credit, a fee you can afford or music for their own work. Agree in writing what you may use the photos for.
• Edit lightly. Correct color and exposure, crop to the shapes you need, and stop there. Heavy filters date quickly.

Whoever shoots them, make sure you can use the photos on your releases, posts, press and merch, and write down the credit line straight away.

Keep them in one place, next to your bio

Press photos only work if people can find them. An editor who asks for a photo wants a link, today, with the bio and logo in the same place. That's what an electronic press kit is for. Update the set whenever your look changes, at least with each new era of releases, and retire old photos so nobody runs a picture from years ago.

How Audora keeps your press photos ready

Your Audora Library holds everything a press kit needs. Upload your own photos, logo and artwork and they sit next to what you make with Audora: a bio in three lengths, cover art and a logo made to the stores' spec, all yours with full commercial rights. What you make is saved, dated and tagged to its release, images download in full resolution and bios copy with one press.

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Your public artist page plays your songs and carries a press page with your press bio, photos and logo, plus a press kit to download. Credit the photographer on any artist photo, and the credit shows on your page, your press page and your press kit. When an editor or booker asks for photos, you send one link.

Press photos are part of a release done right, alongside the pitch, the cover, the Canvas and the promotion around the day. You'll find the exact steps for your release, dated to your release day, in your Audora account, and Audora keeps adjusting them as it learns what works best for its artists. The guide to releasing music walks through the whole release, and what every track gets lists everything that comes with each one.