The Kitchen Violinist

rexbobcat · Aug 3, 2012

My roommate with his violin...in our kitchen. Ha.

I was bored and I have my AB800 here gathering dust so I just started experimenting. I want to be good at OCF SOOOO badly. But I just can't ever get it right to where I want it. I'm not even sure what I want. But anyways, here's about the only shot that was decent. I only took about 50 because my roommate was sweating. Heh.

tirediron · Aug 3, 2012

Not bad; it might be improved if the short side weren't quite as hot, and the broad side just a hair brighter (Drop the key down by 1/3 stop or less and place a reflector opposite), but still a decent shot.

rexbobcat · Aug 3, 2012

Ah, yeah, I didn't even consider a reflector. XP

The_Traveler · Aug 3, 2012

Well, I think this is pretty nice.
Great sharpness, good DOF, terrific expression.
I do think there is too much in the field. The entire top of the picture is the generally uninteresting top of his head and the center third has all the interesting stuff crammed into it.
- and he has a rather naked look with a pinkish non-serious color along with prominent veining in his nose exaggerated by the flash.

You could crop tighter to remove some of that bald spot, reduce the redness a bit and maybe even turn it BW to get some more seriousness into it, it comes out as a very fine shot, IMO.

rexbobcat · Aug 3, 2012

Ah, yeah, the B&W version does have a more...elegant, orchestral feel to it. lol.

kundalini · Aug 3, 2012

Where's the cooktop with boiling and bubbling pots? :lol:

Pretty good, but I like Lew's idea of a closer crop and B&W.

Derrel · Aug 3, 2012

The_Traveler said:
Well, I think this is pretty nice.
Great sharpness, good DOF, terrific expression.
I do think there is too much in the field. The entire top of the picture is the generally uninteresting top of his head and the center third has all the interesting stuff crammed into it.
- and he has a rather naked look with a pinkish non-serious color along with prominent veining in his nose exaggerated by the flash.

You could crop tighter to remove some of that bald spot, reduce the redness a bit and maybe even turn it BW to get some more seriousness into it, it comes out as a very fine shot, IMO.

Nice re-works by The_Traveler! (aka Lew) Lew's tighter crop WORKS WELL. Before I scrolled down and saw his re-works, I was going to post and say that the lack of space at the very top of the frame creates unpleasant visual tension. The way a subject is positioned at the edges of the frame, and especially the TOP of the frame, has a huge impact in how well or how poorly the composition works. The original shot's use of the space is not nearly as pleasing as Lew's TIGHT crop, well down into the forehead...it eliminates the tension, and brings the subject to FULL prominence in the frame! Lew's crop also places the violinist's eyes at a point roughly 1/3 of the way from the top of the frame, where in the original, 3:2 camera shot, his eyes were in a very dull mid-frame spot that's somewhat of a visual dead zone, so to speak.

The biggest issue with using a d-slr that shoots 3:2 aspect ratio is...the danged 3:2 aspect ratio...it is very often QUITE tricky to frame a head-and-shoulders shot in a 3:2 proportioned space and have the composition just fall into place. In many ways, doing people photography is a LOT more fun with a 6x45 CM rollfilm camera, or something else that shoots with a more-squat aspect ratio, like the 4:5 aspect ratio crops the Nikon D3 series camera offer as an in-camwera capture size. Many very experienced people shooters loathe the 3:2 format for the composition headaches it creates with many poses.

Almost any way one slices it, the 3:2 aspect ratio is either 1) too tall and too skinny, or too wide and not tall enough for MANY people photos! The cropped images that Lew created from a sharp original capture demonstrate that composition by CROPPING after the shoot is always a valuable method to consider. We ought not feel locked in to the 3:2 aspect ratio.