Stairwell Shot Revisited--Follow Up Post

slpollett

Hi all,
Back in November, I asked for help with a shot that our local high school band wanted of the jazz band in a very enclosed stairwell. (original thread here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=228997). I thought you might want to see how it turned out.

They decided not to use their instruments in the shot (thank heavens!), so it ended up being a simple black & white shot of the band students on that spiral staircase. Lighting was definitely an issue. I tried to explain the problems to the band directors and the kids, but they weren't after "perfection" as much as they were after a concept. They had faith that I could get them what they wanted. (Yikes.)

Anyhoo...here is the final product: the poster for the event.


...and the picture they used for it:


It is not technically a good shot by no means, but the kids and the band director were ecstatic. As long as they are happy, I am happy.

Sherry

angevin1

slpollett wrote: »

They had faith that I could get them what they wanted. (Yikes.)

........the kids and the band director were ecstatic. As long as they are happy, I am happy.

Sherry

Great job!

pathfinder

Well done, and thank you for returning with your follow up discussion and image.

Qarik

I remember this thread. All that work and it get used a faded back ground? haha. not a bad shot though!

slpollett

Yeah, Qarik, that's why they weren't so concerned about having the most perfect, well-lit shot. I think the parent coordinating the event wanted something fancier (black & white with the gold instruments in color), but the band director only wanted this.

I still wish I could have had a way to properly light up that stairwell--or at lease have some fill flash on the upper levels of students, but all in all, it turned out ok. It was what they wanted and they were happy. I had a hard time getting past all the flaws in the shot, but that is because I wanted to do better. I'm not sure a flawless shot would have made the poster any better though....

On another note...I would 'almost' like to see a video of us trying to get that shot. There just was no room to maneuver. I had to be a contortionist to get the camera tilted up enough to get everyone in the picture....I had a flash on a pole that I had someone else holding as high as they could (with it pointed behind me & angled up the wall)...there was no room for that person, so we were tangled around each other ....it was nuts... but I guess it was pretty fun, too. We sure laughed a lot, and the kids laughed at us. Oh well.......the things we do sometimes.

I still appreciate everyone's suggestions from the original thread. It did give me a lot to think about and I always learn something new from them.

Sherry

Qarik

slpollett wrote: »

Yeah, Qarik, that's why they weren't so concerned about having the most perfect, well-lit shot. I think the parent coordinating the event wanted something fancier (black & white with the gold instruments in color), but the band director only wanted this.

I still wish I could have had a way to properly light up that stairwell--or at lease have some fill flash on the upper levels of students, but all in all, it turned out ok. It was what they wanted and they were happy. I had a hard time getting past all the flaws in the shot, but that is because I wanted to do better. I'm not sure a flawless shot would have made the poster any better though....

On another note...I would 'almost' like to see a video of us trying to get that shot. There just was no room to maneuver. I had to be a contortionist to get the camera tilted up enough to get everyone in the picture....I had a flash on a pole that I had someone else holding as high as they could (with it pointed behind me & angled up the wall)...there was no room for that person, so we were tangled around each other ....it was nuts... but I guess it was pretty fun, too. We sure laughed a lot, and the kids laughed at us. Oh well.......the things we do sometimes.

I still appreciate everyone's suggestions from the original thread. It did give me a lot to think about and I always learn something new from them.

Sherry

are you perhaps using LR to process. There is nice little tool on there that would help out with light fall out. It is the graduated filter tool. Click from top to bottom and add 1 stop exposure or so and it will fil the light in "gradually" from top to bottom. This will even the light out. I know you don't need to at this point but so much effoert was put into the image anyway haha.

Sam

I think this is a great example of a professional doing and outstanding job with a minimal budget.

The client had a concept for a poster that incorporated a very specific difficult to capture image.

Yes the image it's self is flawed, but when inserted into the the the poster, the flaws disappear, and
the client has exactly what they envisioned.

Good job!

Sam

slpollett

Thank you, Sam.

Qarik, I do have LR and I did use the graduated filter to help out with the lighting difference in the top portion of the photo. It does make quite the difference.

Our local newspaper is doing an article on our Knight of Jazz event (see the poster). They asked me today to supply a picture for them...and said they wanted the picture of the band on the stairs. I 'thought' they were asking about this picture (Oh, NOOOOO!!!!) and was thinking that I really didn't want that color shot published. Then they said they wanted a different one and I was SO relieved.

Sherry

divamum

great job!