Press photos for musicians that work on every platform

Most artists have plenty of photos and very few usable ones. A selfie that looks great on Instagram falls apart on a festival poster, and a beautiful wide shot gets cut in half on a streaming profile. One well-planned shoot can cover almost every place your face needs to appear over the next year.

Shoot for three shapes, not one

Your photo will be cropped in ways you don't control. Plan for that before the shoot, not after.

• Vertical. Stories, reel covers, posters, phone screens. Leave space above your head; designers often need it for text.
• Horizontal. Website banners, YouTube, press articles, profile headers on streaming platforms. Keep yourself to one side so the other side can hold a name or a date.
• Square. Profile pictures on almost every platform, and the base for cover art. Your face should still read clearly when it's shown as a small circle.

The simplest trick: shoot a little wider than you think you need. A wide, sharp frame can be cropped into all three shapes. A tight frame can't be uncropped.

Header and profile sizes on platforms change from time to time, so check each platform's current guidance when you upload instead of relying on numbers from an old article.

Backgrounds and room for text

Busy backgrounds look interesting in person and messy at thumbnail size. For press shots, choose something calm: a plain wall, an open sky, a dark room with one light source, an empty street early in the morning.

Calm doesn't mean boring. Colour and texture help, as long as the background doesn't compete with your face. A good test is to shrink the photo to the size of a stamp on your phone. If you can still tell who it is and what the mood is, it works.

Think about where text will go. Promoters, blogs and your own posts will put your name, a song title or a date over the image. A frame with clean space on one side saves everyone time.

Resolution and files

Ask the photographer for full-resolution files, not only the versions they post. Store the originals somewhere safe, and keep a separate folder of smaller copies for quick sharing.

A few practical points:

• Never send a screenshot when someone asks for a press photo. Send the original file.
• Name files clearly, for example "Mira-Vale-press-2026-horizontal.jpg", so editors know what they're getting.
• Keep a few colour and black-and-white versions; some print media still prefer black and white.
• If a photo is going to be your cover art, check the requirements early. Many distributors ask for a square image at a fixed size; in CULT the cover must be a JPG of exactly 3000 × 3000 px.

One look, used consistently

Five photos from five shoots, each in a different style, make it hard for people to recognise you. A small set from one session, with the same light, styling and colour grade, makes you look like an artist with a direction.

You don't need a new shoot for every single. Many artists do one press session per release cycle or per year, and let the cover art and short videos carry each song's mood. When your sound or image changes noticeably, that's the moment for new photos.

Who owns the photo

This is the part most artists skip. In many countries the photographer owns the copyright in a photo by default, even if you paid for the shoot and you're the person in it. Paying for the session doesn't automatically give you every right.

Before the shoot, or right after it, agree in writing which uses are allowed:

• Streaming profiles and social media.
• Cover art for releases.
• Press, blogs and concert posters.
• Merchandise and paid advertising, which photographers often price separately.

Agree how the photographer should be credited and whether you may edit or crop the images. If other people appear in the shot, get their permission too. And if you shoot in a private place, a shop, a café or a metro station, ask whether you need permission there, because rules differ by place and country.

This matters for distribution as well: if a photo becomes your cover, you're confirming that you have the right to use it.

A shot list for one session

1. Three vertical frames with space above your head.
2. Three horizontal frames with you in the left or right third.
3. Two close-ups that work as squares and read well at small size.
4. One full-length shot for posters.
5. One detail shot: hands on an instrument, a microphone, an object from your songs.
6. A few relaxed in-between moments. They often turn out to be the favourites.