I haven't posted in a while!
My cousin's son has been playing the violin now for a while and recently was accepted into the junior symphony as 2nd chair violin. The local paper did a story on him and wanted a picture so they asked if I would stop by after work and shoot a few at their house. Here are a few from that shoot. I still have a lot of learning about lighting, posing, etc, but it was a fun experience. I realize I could have benefited from a hair light, an actual background, and remembering my reflector would have been handy too!
Anyway, they are happy.... but I'd like to hear what you all think I did well and what I could improve on.
Thanks!
Quinn
Lighting for these was SB800 in a LTP softbox as key and a SB900 through an umbrella for fill.
D700 and a 70-200 VRII or 50f/1.4 afd.
one tip - keep your studio a bit brighter either by a bit of ambient light or having your modeling lamps turned brighter. that will take care of the dilated pupils.
Oh yes, thank you for pointing that out! I figured that low ambient light was the reason, but wasn't sure! I even tried cloning the iris to make them better, but I'm not much good at photoshop that way and they looked awful, so I left them dilated! .
Thanks,
Quinn
NP - I leave my ceiling light on in my studio all the time now. If you set your camera to say... ISO100, F8 & 1/160th and snap a shot without your strobes going off, unless your ambient light is EXTREMELY bright (unlikely), the picture will come out completely black (extremely underexposed).
This way you know there's no real impact on the photo's from the ambient when the strobes do fire. I do this to keep pupils from getting dilated and to help focus in an otherwise dim studio.
All and all, a bit of ambient doesn't impact the photo in any negative way at all, but helps in several.
#2 is a variation of a popular pose for violinists. In the more traditional verison. the bow is held with the fingers of the right hand, pointing down. That's a standard "at ease" method of holding your instrument and bow. (I'm a fiddle player). If you didn't try that pose, you might want to next time. I'm not saying it's better than your pose, just different.
I'm sure he and his parents are very excited. Both my boys played violin before moving to low brass, french horn and trombone. My younger son spent two years commuting to play in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. Send him my congratulations. That's quite an accomplisment!
Nice pictures! I think the backgrounds are just fine. For the first one, it's blurred away enough that it works. They should be very happy with these shots. Congrats too on his achievement!
Thanks everyone for the comments.
I worked through another few shots and thought I would add them to the post. (and no pupil dilation here )
Again, thank you all for being helpful and honest.
Quinn
5) http://doc5photo.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v40/p275743695-5.jpg
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