A Study

smoke665 · Feb 5, 2017

Seeing the work of @jcdeboever and his comments on John Hedgecoe prompted me to read some of his books. This composition attempts to follow some of the instructions in his book, emphasizing patterns, creating distance in both the foreground and background with DOF and perspective, simplifying the image, use of a strong diagonal, and low angle approach. C&C?

IMGP2852.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

Derrel · Feb 5, 2017

It's a nice study in B&W. My C&C would be mostly in the prep...the main piano keys that are in the sharpest focus look like a bit of cleaning/prepping of the surface would have been most helpful. The dust on the keys is distracting to me. I've learned from experience that such small elements as dust are almost un-seen by the human eye (at least my eyes!), but show up moe markedly in close-range shots like this one.

I think this is pretty well-handled...mostly down to nits, like the space between the one white key and its neighbor...other than that, mostly pretty good as a study in the John Hedgecoe style. I love his books.

smoke665 · Feb 6, 2017

@Derrel So I guess at this point saying that the dust was "included on purpose" as a part of the composition is out of the question??? :02.47-tranquillity:

One of the most difficult things I'm having problems with is remembering to check for the "nits". While I was setting up I did think to myself I need to clean the keys, but then like a leaf in the wind, the thought was gone. The height/space of the keys is accentuated I think by the lower angle. This piano is probably 30 years old, and has seen it's share of abuse, so not sure there's much that could be done about the keys.

Just finished the 2nd book by Hedgecoe, and find that his style has a natural feel to me.

jcdeboever · Feb 6, 2017

Cool image, you seem to capture the fun I find in doing them. I too have a good memory, but it is short...

smoke665 · Feb 6, 2017

jcdeboever said:
Cool image, you seem to capture the fun I find in doing them. I too have a good memory, but it is short...

Thanks JC, I appreciate you leading me to him. Like you I have had other artistic diversions from building furniture, carving, drawing, painting, sculpting, so maybe that's why his instructions seem natural to me, as they also apply to many of the previous endeavors.