Magazine Covers

[CMoore]

I am kind of new to APUG and Photography. I did not realize, until i posted in another forum, that Annie Liebovitz could be such a Polarizing/Divisive topic.
Sssoooooo.....i am simply asking about somebody LIKE Annie Liebovitz.
When they shoot a cover, say for Rolling Stone Magazine, say of Keith Richards -
How many frames (round numbers) do they generate for something like that.....20-30-40-370.?
Then, who wades through all of that to decide what the magazine will see...does The Magazine see all of it.?
Or does it vary from magazine to magazine and from photographer to photographer...maybe some are cut more slack than others.?
Or perhaps this is a huge and unanswerable question.....
Thank You

 

[Theo Sulphate]

No idea, really, and it may depend largely on the photographer, but I'd say in the digital era perhaps ten times as many frames are made.

It likely also depends on whether this is a studio session or at a concert.

 

[MattKing]

With Annie Liebovitz, many of her current magazine covers are large productions which involve many players. Most likely the magazine's art directors and editors are directly involved with those shoots.
Historically, a fair number of the centerfold and covers for Playboy magazine were shot on 8x10 film, so most likely there weren't a lot of frames taken then.
Some covers are simply one shot chosen from many taken for the accompanying story. National Geographic works/worked that way.

 

[CMoore]

Right...OK.....so a Huge Question with many potential answers.
One would probably need to narrow it down to a certain decade and genre to get any kind of General Idea.

 

[tedr1]

The answer, as Mark has indicated, varies depending on how the photographer and the publisher are connected. For commercial projects of the Liebovitz kind there will be contracts in advance and the disposition of the exposures will be agreed in advance. The details of those terms can vary, some photographers may reserve rights to the use of some images after a certain time has elapsed, there may be restrictions on the various publishing mediums, online, hardcopy, fineart reproduction, books, etc, with different agreements for each. Then also the creative aspect enters the picture. Is the client's advance concept for the picture, made long before the session begins, something that is flexible that might require lots of trial shots, or is it fixed in stone in which case fewer trials are needed. Many variables are involved, and with digital image making memory is basically free so the sky is the limit.

 

[Ian Grant]

It's not time dependent, so what decade makes little to no difference, with people it's their attitudes and professionalism especially if more than one person. Ive worked with 100's of bands some are so easy to work with others there's always someone or more who play up is out of line making a shoot difficult.

However if they are footing the bill they know what they want and work at it so fewer shots needed for the good ones.

Ian

 

[ReginaldSMith]

Most Art Directors would want the final say. Photographers are hired usually at the general direction of the Art Director. But, Annie is a also a kind of celebrity, so perhaps she can demand editorial decisions with certain pubs. The subject will also probably have to approve when it is a commissioned shoot.

Don't know how A.L. works, so I have no idea how many frames would be shot. We recently went for a simple head and shoulders "directory photo" for where we live and the pro photog took like 20 frames. I was bowled over. 3 would have seemed more than enough, but he kept snapping away. I began to wonder if he was going to drag out a big fan......work it baby!

 

[jjphoto]

OP, why do you think there is a formula or number? There isn't one because situations and people are different.

Although in a different publishing field, I've shot dozens, maybe a hundred front covers for various magazines and typically supplied a selection of images to the publication, maybe just a few back in the film days to potentially dozens in digital. No one wants to wade through hundreds of mediocre images, just the best options and that can be a single image.

 

[jtk]

I am kind of new to APUG and Photography. I did not realize, until i posted in another forum, that Annie Liebovitz could be such a Polarizing/Divisive topic.
Sssoooooo.....i am simply asking about somebody LIKE Annie Liebovitz.
When they shoot a cover, say for Rolling Stone Magazine, say of Keith Richards -
How many frames (round numbers) do they generate for something like that.....20-30-40-370.?
Then, who wades through all of that to decide what the magazine will see...does The Magazine see all of it.?
Or does it vary from magazine to magazine and from photographer to photographer...maybe some are cut more slack than others.?
Or perhaps this is a huge and unanswerable question.....
Thank You

Never "submitted" a photo to a magazine.

However, I've been assigned by editors and art directors to make photos. I made as many shots as necessary: not many. Always published.

The "magazine" sees nothing. Editors and art directors do see.