Fun Shots for a CD

sweet caroline

My friend and fellow teacher who is also a musician asked me to take a few pictures for his CD.

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adbsgicom

Like the series overall. Here's my 2-cents to throw in the coffee pot...

1. Like this on a lot. Pretty sure he's tilted back a bit which bugged me a little, but love the image and processing.

2. Didn't do much for me. No reason, nothing wrong with it, just didn't say musician/CD to me.

3. Wonderfully clever (and optimistic for a musician ). Like the shooting angle and the soft focus on the musician. His one eye is a little in the shadow (hats give me fits for lighting the face), and it looks a little reddish like he has some allergies. Love the concept and the overall image, though.

4. Love the lighting and all, but the pose with the radio doesn't work for me. If he were somehow interacting with it, or if it looked like he was listening to it, but just holding it up didn't work for me.

5. Classic, wonderful. Here the radio is great little prop. You may want/need a little space to the bottom to avoid the radio getting clipped when the image is used.

6. Same deal as 5. Love it.

7. Didn't work for me. Sorry.

8. Didn't work for me. Not sure why.

divamum

Caroline, I think tihs is some of the best stuff you've posted - LOVE these shots!

1 Nice light. Took me a minute to figure out what the cage was. Also, I find the close crop on his foot worrisome (especially if you wind up losing any room for cropping down to size etc etc).

2. Would work in conjunction with other shots; not sure it's a standalone. Will entirely depend on context whether or not it "works", I think.

3. B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T concept! Love the motion in the money; only nit here is the cropped arm on lh side, but not sure how you would avoid it. It's not a dealbreaker for me, because the content is so strong, but others may disagree.

4. Love the light; not 100% sold on the pose.

5. Love this one, and the conversion is perfect for the retro mood you seem to be creating.

6. I really like this one, but I suspect it's another which will work better as part of a series than as a standalone. Really like the comp and DOF in it, though.

7. His eyes look great, but I'm baffled by the object - what is it? I'd love to see this one as a head-only crop, because the light and his expression are rockin'.

8. Obviously a very specific shot for specific usage, and it totally works for me.

What a great series!!

sweet caroline

Thanks for the thorough feedback! Some of the shots were just plain goofy, and on purpose, but I need to find out what translates well and makes sense to people who weren't there.

Caroline

sweet caroline

The object in #7 is showing the inside of that radio, which was his father's. #4 was one of those goofy poses. It almost looks like he's posing cheek to cheek with a person to me.

Caroline

Scott_Quier

Here's my take - FWIW

1. This one rocks. I really like the flare. Not liking the leaf (or whatever it is) along the left edge of the frame. The chair is tilted just enough to give the sense that the camera tilt was not intentional. I would square that up. The backlighting of his hair is cool and you've got enough light on his face etc to really bring him out. Not too sure what the birdcage brings to the concept .... is it related to the content of the CD? Not sure how this would be used for CD art - there's no room for copy.
   
   
2. As a back cover this might work, but there's not enough from in the image for copy.
   
   
3. This works quite well for the cover art. Crop this thing square along the left edge and you have all that dark area on the right for copy, etc.
   
   
4. The photographic technique is good and so is the lighting. The pose and composition are missing the mark for me.
   
   
5. This conversion ROCKS!!! The composition is missing the mark just a bit:
   • To tight on the radio on the bottom - you're going to loose some of that if this becomes cover art.
   • As cover art, you would crop this on both the left and right side - putting his back against the right edge of the frame. As a photo, I think a better composition would be to put his back on the right edge of the frame and then have lots of negative space on the left.
   
   
6. I may be dense (OK, the jury just came back in on that one) - but I'm completely missig the point of this one.
   
   
7. As a headshot - this would work well. Not enough data in this frame for a tight crop, but if you were to reshoot this tighter - killer portrait.
   
   
8. I love this one. The pose, the expression, the lighting, the processing - are all killer! If you have another one that is not quite so tight, you could square crop that for cover art and have a real winner. You need both his left shoulder and a portion of the radio in the crop - hense the need for a shot that's not quite so close.

richtersl

This is a wonderful series!!! I'd love to buy his CD since I also play mandolin.

1. I can see this on the cover of a CD. My only nit is very minor and that is that his foot is very close to the edge of the frame, but that's relatively easy to fix.

2. Doesn't do much for me. It might work if you want to put that on the back of the CD case.

3. Great concept! I don't mind the tilt because the first thing that caught my eye were the coins pouring out.

4. Love the sunlight pouring in from behind. Great job with illuminating his face.

5. Absoloutely wonderful!!!!

6. Doesn't do much for me.

7. Doesn't do much for me.

8. My favorite. The bleach bypass effect works really well here. I can see this one on the cover of a CD too. His eyes really pop in this one. I can actually picture women of all ages looking at this shot and going "who's THAT?"

Agnieszka

I think most of what I wanted to say has already been said. Just wanted to say that I really like this set. Love the sun in your shots.

#1, 4, 6, 8 are just plan awesome!!! Really well done.

I'd guess he was really happy with them

Flutist

I like them all for various reasons, but for me #1 and #8 are the clear winners

VayCayMom

yep some of your best looking posts! Wow, love the sun, the location, love " the look". 2 and 7 don't work for me as well. LOVE the coffee pot!!!
I used to have a radio very much like the one in his photos, but it was German, so that made me smile !
He must be very pleased with the outcome. Very very nice set.

bendruckerphoto

Great series.

sweet caroline

He was looking for a shot to put behind the CD inside the case, but it turns out that I may make the cover as well.

We had the radio caged in the bird cage during the mandolin shots, but I know you can't see it in #1. We set up the area like a sort of gypsy home with the table and chairs, clothes hanging in the trees, birdcage, coffee pot and mug. I have a few shots with everything in them, but I like the closer shots better.

All this feedback is SO valuable. Thank you so much. I'm really enjoying helping him create the visual representation of his image.

Caroline

sweet caroline

Okay, what about this crop?

adbsgicom

I like this a lot better than the first one.

divamum

That is a MUCH better crop and really suits the purpose IMO.

Only question remains: where will the text go? You may still need a more "neutral" part of the photo for that (the black band at the top doesn't look large enough for that )

sweet caroline

divamum wrote:

That is a MUCH better crop and really suits the purpose IMO.

Only question remains: where will the text go? You may still need a more "neutral" part of the photo for that (the black band at the top doesn't look large enough for that )

We'll have to see where he uses it. If it's just a small photo behind the CD, there won't be any text on the photo. It'll be inserted into the layout, with test off to the side. I'm playing around with it- what do you think about this?





Caroline

WingsOfLovePhoto

# 5 is a real winner! and I like what you have done with the cover. He certainly looks the part of an artsy musician!