It’s Spooky Season! Hayley Madden on Halloween

October 29, 2021

Happy Halloween!

As it’s spooky season, our very own Hayley Madden has unearthed some scary stuff from the vault, from when she partook in a shoot for the band; Pythia.

Pythia are an English symphonic metal band founded in 2007.

We asked Hayley about her shoot and post production experiences:

“The band had grand ideas for the first album and the imagery. As well as a strong promotional portrait, they wanted an album cover and a whole booklet with fantasy portraits for each song.

It was the first time I really used Photoshop for a commission with a tight deadline so it was pretty full on.”

Images ©Hayley Madden

“The great thing about Photoshop is it allows you to fulfil amazing ideas when money is an issue. Setting up a fire, getting a real horse, hiring a castle would have been way beyond our means.

Each image represents a song and each band member is in at least three shots. We hired a small studio for the day and I shot everything against a black background so I had complete control over the lighting. The band wore the costumes they wear on stage. All the backgrounds in the images are sampled photos. I created the weather effects, snow, rain and light rays…

I don’t see Photoshop as a way of cheating. It is like a DJ mixing samples to create a new song. When electronic music and sampling first became popular it was frowned upon by the trendy music scene, but it gave creative access to a whole load of people who could not afford music lessons or bands who could not hire a producer and studio. Now sampling is very much the norm.

Just as great music can be created in someone’s bedroom, so great imagery can be created without the need for grand sets and locations.”