An Outdoor Cellist

forrey · Nov 5, 2011

A friend of mine who's a cellist asked me to take some photos/make a poster for his upcoming recital so I managed to drag him out into the woods today and get some shot. Haven't processed all of them yet, but these are my favorite 3 so far.

Would love to hear feedback on these! feel free to be brutal

1.

2.

3.

mommy-medic · Nov 5, 2011

Viewing from phone so if it's not like this in full size ignore me, but I like #1. In #2 and #3 a hand is oof.

tingeliM · Nov 6, 2011

I like numbers 1 and 3. The second seems too oof allover.

c.cloudwalker · Nov 6, 2011

Funny timing. Just this week, I shot a little cousin of mine who is also a cellist

Any reason why the first two are in landscape? Most solo musicians, I shoot either for square or portrait orientation. Square fits album covers and promo pieces that get sent out very nicely. Portrait fits handbills and posters very nicely when the text is overlaid but it means knowing what the text will be and already having the basic design down.

Landscape is not unknown in posters but not as common as portrait and pretty rare for handbills (flyers.)

Also only in the first one does he seem totally in focus. From the parts of the other two that are in focus, it seems to me you must have shot this at a pretty low speed and he was moving.

And last, the choice of clothes surprises me. What kind of music, what kind of recital does he do? My cousin brought clothes to the shoot that she would wear for a concert. His clothes fit the playful mood of the images, and go well with the way he is holding his instrument, but I see them (the shots) as better for a magazine article about him than to end up on a poster advertising a recital.

giulionic · Nov 6, 2011

tingeliM said:
I like numbers 1 and 3. The second seems too oof allover.

I agree

forrey · Nov 6, 2011

Thanks for the feedback! I agree that 1 and 3 are better than 2

c.cloudwalker said:
Funny timing. Just this week, I shot a little cousin of mine who is also a cellist

Any reason why the first two are in landscape? Most solo musicians, I shoot either for square or portrait orientation. Square fits album covers and promo pieces that get sent out very nicely. Portrait fits handbills and posters very nicely when the text is overlaid but it means knowing what the text will be and already having the basic design down.

Landscape is not unknown in posters but not as common as portrait and pretty rare for handbills (flyers.)

Also only in the first one does he seem totally in focus. From the parts of the other two that are in focus, it seems to me you must have shot this at a pretty low speed and he was moving.

And last, the choice of clothes surprises me. What kind of music, what kind of recital does he do? My cousin brought clothes to the shoot that she would wear for a concert. His clothes fit the playful mood of the images, and go well with the way he is holding his instrument, but I see them (the shots) as better for a magazine article about him than to end up on a poster advertising a recital.

Haha I know I'm still a newbie here because I still do a double-take when I read phrases like "I shot my little cousin..."

Ahem, anyway, about the orientation, the photos are for a poster so I wanted to get some in Landscape (I personally like Landscape for posters because at the music school here there are always a ton of posters all over and they're mostly portrait so Landscape ones stand out a bit more). Also, this is the first time I've ever really done a shoot like this so I was experimenting a lot just to see what would work. Would you have any advice for how to arrange the words for a Landscape vs. portrait poster? (basically just his name, "in recital," time/date/location, and a few composer names maybe)

I was also a bit surprised by the clothing choice, but this recital is going to be a very laid back event and he's playing some cool non-classical stuff (a lot of pizzicato type stuff, should be cool, check out this one, he's doing it minus the beatboxing: )
But anyway, he said he overall just wanted a relaxed, playful, "just chillin with my cello in the woods" feel (direct quote) to the shots.

Thanks for the feedback!

forrey · Nov 6, 2011

P.S. here are two more from the shoot:

4.

5.

c.cloudwalker · Nov 6, 2011

forrey said:
Ahem, anyway, about the orientation, the photos are for a poster so I wanted to get some in Landscape (I personally like Landscape for posters because at the music school here there are always a ton of posters all over and they're mostly portrait so Landscape ones stand out a bit more). Also, this is the first time I've ever really done a shoot like this so I was experimenting a lot just to see what would work. Would you have any advice for how to arrange the words for a Landscape vs. portrait poster? (basically just his name, "in recital," time/date/location, and a few composer names maybe)

I was also a bit surprised by the clothing choice, but this recital is going to be a very laid back event and he's playing some cool non-classical stuff
But anyway, he said he overall just wanted a relaxed, playful, "just chillin with my cello in the woods" feel (direct quote) to the shots.

Thanks for the feedback!

Ok, I get the landscape orientation, if it is to be different from the rest. That's a good enough reason. And I get the clothes... My little cousin is very, very serious about her music (too much so for my taste actually) and she would never even think of showing herself laid back when on display :er: I deal more with rock/pop music so maybe she knows something I don't...

As far as text on the poster, I would just lay it out over the image. Keep it simple (most fancy fonts are not that easy to read,) and clean. The layout would depend on the size of the end product and which image you choose. Also try to not put text over important parts of the image, obviously. And take out your watermark but put in a small copyright line with your name in the lower right corner. Free advertisement and protection of your image. It's hard to tell you much more because I work mostly by intuition and that's not so easy to explain

But, if I were to use #1, I think I would try his name in the darker part at the top in white print although it my not be dark enough, skip the lighter band and put the rest of the info in the greener grass.

By the way, in #5, he is looking the wrong way. There should always be more space in front of the eyes than behind.

And since I gather you are also a musician, I will share something that happened to my little cousin recently which has to do with control of your image. A very important part of any performer's life. She was being featured on a national TV show and she forgot to ask for previewing rights to the video. She will never forget again because something got totally screwed up in the sound and she sounded atrocious. Not good. Nothing to be done about the show but she got the video pulled from the channel's website, although I couldn't believe they put it up in the first place, and an apology put in its stead...

Cheers.