5 replies to this topic

[leighgion]

I had a terrible time photographically in this place. It was small, cluttered, and there were doors in awkward places. Down lights were very harsh and got switched on at the very end, ruining most of my shots of the soprano as I didn't adapt to the lighting fast enough.

 

Appreciate any input, but especially how the environment comes off. I did my best to select angles that would hide the worst of the environment and make it feel less small.

 

 

 

 

[leighgion]

How to take it when you post in the Critique forum, nobody critiques but several people hit "Like?" Are these nonverbal assertions that the pictures are fine? 

[TBonz]

I like the first image and the two posed shots.  I don't like the image of him playing to empty seats as much as the others...the empty seats are not really visible in the first image.  It is hard to say not knowing the room, but I think I would have shot that from the other side, or given the option I would have shot from there during the concert so that the seats were full.  And I would have shot one or two of the singer from the back of the venue to show her singing to the crowd.  It isn't as obvious in the first image but it really stands out in the other.  But my background is photojournalism, so naturally I want to capture the action vs. getting the images prior...

 

Hope that helps!

[Malice]

That's my opinion, too. What these images are lacking the most, is the crowd listening to the music. Or at least a handful of people, like a show-producer/organiser or a couple of stage hands, other people preparing for their practicing session, whatever. Like this the shots appear too much like an artificial setup.

 

Except for the last one with the singer, which is fine on its own.

[Merco_61]

It is mostly that they are good for what they are, but they need people in them. Good technique, but the venue seems to have been awful. Even if shot during a practice session before the recital, at least a person or two sitting in the chairs would have made those two shots less sterile.

 

What focal lengths did you use?

 

I like to shoot keyboard players, whether piano, organ or synthesizer, two ways. Either an action portrait where you see the concentration, the power and the joy of the performer or detail studies where you see both hands clearly. When at a glossy instrument like this grand piano, both hands and their reflections make for powerful photos.

 

I hit like, and then tried to write something but got distracted before I was ready to post, sorry about that.

[leighgion]

Thanks for putting a word in, all of you. I guess I really needed somebody to tell me I wasn't just making up excuses about the venue.

 

The original plan had been to avoid showing the chairs at all costs, but the reality was that I had about forty minutes (which, long story short, would be over an hour before the concert started), little space to spare, and the wall behind the piano was lamer than I could have imagined. It was an on-the-spot instinct to reverse directions, wedge my back against those (locked) doors (visible behind the pianist in the second shot) and shoot towards the empty chairs.

 

While like all of you, I was not thrilled by the idea of all those empty seats, there were literally no human beings to put in them and in any case, my priority was to try to make the pianist look as good as I could in the time allotted and suck up any flaws of the setting that I couldn't hide. The posed shot of Ángel is one of the only two I shot of him from the audience perspective that kind of worked, and only after a lot of cloning out power outlets, wires and bits of a really ugly and intrusive lamp. Empty seats or not, unfortunately the chair background shots were among the best I got of him playing. 

 

Far as Alvina the soprano goes, I'm straight up embarrassed I didn't get a single outright good shot of her, especially compared to the first shoot I did for them. The one posted just reaches "kind of salvageable in B&W considering how awful their old pictures were."

Peter, to answer your technical question, I managed to use three lenses over this rushed shoot: 70-200mm f/2.8, 50mm 1.4G and 55mm f/2.8 AIS Micro.

 

The first two shots were made with the zoom racked out to 70mm. Third shot was with the 55mm (still on after doing some hand shots I didn't include here) and last was the 50mm.