John Marshall: Music Man

The ‘Red Carpet’ arrivals at The BRITs run from about 5pm to 6:15pm at which point the celebrities and guests sit down to dinner. John explains: “For general red carpet stuff I use one body, the EOS 5D, with the 24-105 mm f/4 lens and Speedlite 580EX II flashgun with Lumedyne power pack. I will also be looking to get long exposure tripod shots of the entrance area as the light is rapidly disappearing,” explains John.

He adds: “The 24-105mm is a great lens for ‘people photography’. As I’m actually working for the event, my brief is to get the celebrity with logos and branding in, along with the atmosphere, I haven’t got the massive drive to get just head shots or ‘money shots’ of the celebrities, which the other photographers have.”

All of the guests proceed from the red carpet into the branded area where they pose for a select handful of celebrity photographers including Dave Bennett, Richard Young and Dave Hogan. Once the guests are seated for dinner, John shoots all the table shots and full 360º panoramas, while his colleagues photograph the celebrities with their goodie bags.

© John Marshall

A ‘stitched’ panoramic image of Kylie on stage

To create the 360° panoramic shots, John uses a Canon 14mm lens on an EOS 5D body (for full frame), mounted on a tripod with a special head. He captures several shots to cover all angles in a 360 sphere around the camera. The shots are then stitched together - a unique technique his team has spent years perfecting.

For The BRITs John has picked out key places to give the online viewer an idea of: what it’s like to stand at the podium, to be on the stage, and what it’s like to be photographed.

For the table shots John dons his second EOS 5D body with the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM zoom and utilises ‘Gary Fong’s light sphere 2 photojournalist’ – a flash disperser that fits over the Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash head in an upright position to create a flattering look.

© John Marshall

U2 sit down to the dinner table

He believes: “the very best thing about the 5D over all other cameras is the preset. I am constantly flicking from wanting to do flash or ambient, and the set ups are so different, that having the ‘C’ button set up for this means you can have your no light set up completely ready or you just flick it to the manual setting and you’ve got you’re flash set up done. That is huge, worth throwing away all the other cameras for.”

The BRITs boasts two stages that could post a logistical problem, but John solves it by erecting cameras on tripods with either a 300mm or 400 mm f/2.8 lens attached. “While cameras and lenses are getting better you can still shake and ruin a shot with excitement. Once I set them on a tripod I can leave them and move easily across six or seven tables (about 50 feet) between the two stages.”

John has found creative solutions to unfavourable angles that arise when the stages are much higher than the shooting angle. “I hate live shots where you are looking up the nose of an artist. That is why I tend always to move away from the subject and to the side. That helps compensate for the fact that I am often much lower than the stage. Using a long lens can help get the mic out of the way and gives me the opportunity to get two artists close cropped in the same shot.”

Timing is, of course, crucial when shooting all of the live performances that are a big part of the BRITs: “The best shot can often be at the end of the song. Many artists such as Amy Winehouse only step back from their mic at the end for a millisecond before the lights fade, and that’s a great chance to get something.”

© John Marshall

Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse on stage at the 2008 BRITS shot on a Canon EOS-1D Mark III

John’s team shoot top quality JPEG images, but never use RAW because it’s too slow for them to process. “Our system is so sophisticated now and with the internet facility at the venue we now upload over 200 images to The BRITs website within minutes!” In addition his team puts out its images to the press via two picture libraries - Redferns and LFI.

Using Aperture photo management software and Apple Mac computers with 30” monitors, newspapers and wire services caption all the images on the spot and transmit them that night for immediate publication. After John finishes the shoot, he checks on his editing team. “We‘ve got it down to a fine art, and have always managed to hit our deadlines. The media unit is dismantled by about midnight and then there’s nothing there: the walls are gone, and the room you were in doesn’t exist. They pull the plug on the electricity, so you have to work at speed. It’s quite scary to watch the room you’re in disappear around you.” Then it is on to photograph the 3,000 revellers at the after-show party!

John takes great pride in his work. However he says: “the biggest stress is when you feel you missed a shot, all photographers know that feeling. It’s your own high standards that create the stress. No one else will know but you!”

John is prepared for every eventuality and makes sure that he has some back up cameras at the ready - two more EOS 5D SLRs and six lenses are hired in to cover the BRITs. He recalls: “Every nightmare that could happen has happened: corrupt cards; no film (and asking fellow photographers for a roll of film); no card (now set cameras not to shoot without a card); battery dying; and even dropped film in the old days. We all learnt by our mistakes!”

In his very busy schedule John also does pro-bono work for Nordoff-Robbins, the Music Industry’s chosen charity that offers music therapy to people with learning disabilities. “It’s such a privilege to photograph some of the therapy sessions. The teachers are the amazing, and the way they communicate through music is incredible. The list of major artists who have given their time and support to this charity is endless. Ozzy Osbourne holding little India when he visited the centre with Sharon was a wonderful image her mum will treasure.”

© John Marshall

Ozzy Osbourne shows his softer side at a Nordoff-Robbins charity event