Beatles Album Cover : One shot or cut and paste?

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I've been puzzling over this Beatles album cover. Was it a single shot with elaborate positioning and a telephoto lens to avoid shadows, or was it a cut and paste job?
 

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This sort of thing was all the rage in the latter part of the 1960s - so much that the studio I worked for in 1969 had two permanent setups for high-key and low-key. We even had a stock of black jerseys for sitters who came in wearing lighter clothes but wanted a low key effect!
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
This sort of thing was all the rage in the latter part of the 1960s - so much that the studio I worked for in 1969 had two permanent setups for high-key and low-key. We even had a stock of black jerseys for sitters who came in wearing lighter clothes but wanted a low key effect!
Click to expand...

Can you imagine people these days... "Wear someone elses jersey? Are you serious?"
 
I think it's a composite. I struggle to see John/ George/ Paul in a line with lighting that wouldn;t cause shadow crossover or Ringo's right side (from front) being slightly brighter than Paul's. Shadow lines at nose suggest to me they all stood in roughly the same place individually and the image was composited after. I think you can can see John's right shoulde in front of George's left which would be brighter.

I'm not great at lighting but I like these sort of reviews as I find them a real learnign experience.
 
Read what Paul McCartney says about the cover here: https://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/paul-on-robert-freeman
Quote from the interview: " People often think that the cover shot for Meet The Beatles of our foreheads in half shadow was a carefully arranged studio shot. In fact it was taken quite quickly by Robert in the corridor of a hotel we were staying in where natural light came from the windows at the end of the corridor. I think it took no more than half an hour to accomplish."
("Meet the Beatles" was the American title of "With the Beatles" - the cover being discussed here.)
 
Brian G said:
Read what Paul McCartney says about the cover here: https://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/paul-on-robert-freeman
Quote from the interview: " People often think that the cover shot for Meet The Beatles of our foreheads in half shadow was a carefully arranged studio shot. In fact it was taken quite quickly by Robert in the corridor of a hotel we were staying in where natural light came from the windows at the end of the corridor. I think it took no more than half an hour to accomplish."
("Meet the Beatles" was the American title of "With the Beatles" - the cover being discussed here.)
Click to expand...

Well, there you go then.

Thanks for what may well be the answer.
 
Has anyone identified Ringo's camera from "A Hard Day's Night"? I seem to remember lusting after it at the time! Yes! I am that old!

lwlies.com

On Location: Ringo’s wander in A Hard Day’s Night

Retracing the Beatle’s solo stroll through West London in Richard Lester’s 1964 music film.
lwlies.com lwlies.com
 
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Pixbarmy said:
Has anyone identified Ringo's camera from "A Hard Day's Night"? I seem to remember lusting after it at the time! Yes! I am that old!

lwlies.com

On Location: Ringo’s wander in A Hard Day’s Night

Retracing the Beatle’s solo stroll through West London in Richard Lester’s 1964 music film.
lwlies.com lwlies.com
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I think it's been identified as a Pentax SV. There are also photos of Ringo and the other Beatles using this camera (early sponsorship/product placement?). There are several on ebay! Looks like some of them have Takumar lenses with that distinctive yellow glass (they contain radioactive thorium, which causes the glass to discolour over time, apparently treatable with UV light).
 
Retune said:
I think it's been identified as a Pentax SV. There are also photos of Ringo and the other Beatles using this camera (early sponsorship/product placement?). There are several on ebay! Looks like some of them have Takumar lenses with that distinctive yellow glass (they contain radioactive thorium, which causes the glass to discolour over time, apparently treatable with UV light).
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It's definitely a Pentax of some kind. Finished in black, which must have been unusual in those days.
You can clearly read the makers name in several shots.
I'm no expert on Pentaxes, so I'm afraid I don't know the exact model.
There's a good quality Hard Days Night video on a dodgy russian video site: https://ok.ru/video/839899941505 it's dubbed, but if you only want the visuals then it's watchable.

I have an old Canon 35mm f2 lens that has a "radioactive" thorium element that has gone yellow - apparently leaving it out in the sun for a few hours fixes it.
 
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I think that Paul was also a keen photographer. Lots of shots with Linda and the kids. "Eastman" influence? She was a photographer herself.
news.artnet.com

Paul McCartney Has Curated a Retrospective of His Late Wife Linda's Photographs—See Them Here | Artnet News

The Linda McCartney retrospective is co-curated by her two daughters, and offers an intimate look into the life of her family.
news.artnet.com news.artnet.com
Apologies for thread hi-jack!
One of my favourites in terms of photography is the one with Les Paul and THE guitar in focus. Wow!
View: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/266486502923543938/
 
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I've been looking at this image since I was 12 years old.
It's a composite, I would say. As I looked at it on the cover of my vinyl, at 12 years old, I could see it was a composite even if I wasn't thinking much of how and why the photo was done.
That's how easy it is to fool a 12 year old LOL
 
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Could this have been done with a number of flagged lights camera left and have a gap between John, George and Paul. John in front and Paul in the back. Ringo is below the others so depending on the height of the lights he wouldn't be in shadow. Just a small gap between the top three and a long lens so the size of heads was mostly maintained would do it. Looking at Pauls Head he looks to be a bit behind John and his head is smaller as a result
 
Trillian said:
I've been looking at this image since I was 12 years old.
It's a composite, I would say. As I looked at it on the cover of my vinyl, at 12 years old, I could see it was a composite even if I wasn't thinking much of how and why the photo was done.
That's how easy it is to fool a 12 year old LOL
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wookie6262 said:
Could this have been done with a number of flagged lights camera left and have a gap between John, George and Paul. John in front and Paul in the back. Ringo is below the others so depending on the height of the lights he wouldn't be in shadow. Just a small gap between the top three and a long lens so the size of heads was mostly maintained would do it. Looking at Pauls Head he looks to be a bit behind John and his head is smaller as a result
Click to expand...


Post #9 pretty much deals with it.
 
simon ess said:
Post #9 pretty much deals with it.
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Missed that, thanks. If you wanted to do it in a studio then a single light left of the sitters and just arrange with space in between so no shadows fall. It is a great album cover and I really like the fact it was such a simple set up. I bet the printer was an expert dodge and burnexponent
 
wookie6262 said:
Missed that, thanks. If you wanted to do it in a studio then a single light left of the sitters and just arrange with space in between so no shadows fall. It is a great album cover and I really like the fact it was such a simple set up. I bet the printer was an expert dodge and burnexponent
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I would suggest you go back and read the PaulMcCartney interview, and what he says about the shoot.
https://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/paul-on-robert-freeman
 
Brian G said:
I would suggest you go back and read the PaulMcCartney interview, and what he says about the shoot.
https://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/paul-on-robert-freeman
Click to expand...
I did, it was natural light in a corridor. I presume that light came from the sun , a single light source, to the camera left and perhaps the corridor wall provided a bit of a reflector effect. I was saying you could recreate the effect in a studio rather than it was created in a studio but I may be wildly wrong.
 
Trillian said:
I've been looking at this image since I was 12 years old.
It's a composite, I would say. As I looked at it on the cover of my vinyl, at 12 years old, I could see it was a composite even if I wasn't thinking much of how and why the photo was done.
That's how easy it is to fool a 12 year old LOL
Click to expand...

You had better see what Paul McCartney said about how it was taken...
 
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wookie6262 said:
I did, it was natural light in a corridor. I presume that light came from the sun , a single light source, to the camera left and perhaps the corridor wall provided a bit of a reflector effect. I was saying you could recreate the effect in a studio rather than it was created in a studio but I may be wildly wrong.
Click to expand...
I thought the original discussion was about how the shot was created, not how it could be re-created.
 
It's as Reply #9.

Bob Freeman was a good friend of mine and introduced me to living next door to him in Chelsea Studios back in the 1970s (don't ask me which year!). He had gone to Cambridge Uni, came to London and dropped out and into fashion leading to music photography. He did a few covers of Vogue and also the first Pirelli calendars < Which I so wish I still had! It's all a bit of stoned haze but fun times. I met all sorts of famous people at his place as you can imagine - Proper talented celebrities, not the TV plastic ones typical of nowadays.

I have a signed limited edition print of that classic photo "To Robin in friendship" framed and hanging on my wall in front of me now! I also have an Andy Warhol silk screen of Mick Jagger alongside it but that's quite another story from my heady days living in Chelsea!

Bob was The Beatles official photographer in the early days and went to America with them and I think shot their next album cover in colour of them looking down over a balcony. Unfortunately I have lost touch with Bob but last I heard he was living in Spain after a spell in the Far East.
 
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