Musician portrait

dreamattempo772 · November 3, 2010

Hi all

I'm expanding my repertoire to include portraits of musicians, and this is my first stab at it. I'd love to get some feedback from you all before I move on to my next subject/victim
1.

2.

3.

reyvee61 · November 3, 2010

Nice work....
On one I think a little more fill light would have been better

briandelion · November 3, 2010

The angle in #1 works better than the straight on shots. Watch out for those tangents! The trombone "kisses" the edge of the frame in all three and this kills the illusion of depth and makes the subject appear hemmed in.

dreamattempo772 · November 3, 2010

briandelion wrote: »

Watch out for those tangents! The trombone "kisses" the edge of the frame in all three and this kills the illusion of depth and makes the subject appear hemmed in.

I had no idea! Thanks!

richtersl · November 3, 2010

The angle in #1 is spot-on but you clipped off the lower end of the slide. I would either try a crop to take off even more of the slide or try a reshoot to make sure it's all in the frame. I really like the fact that you positioned yourself lower than the musician. Love the shadow, too.

You don't have much choice in angles when photographing a trombone player (or trumpet player). You don't want to obscure the face too much with the bell of the instrument. You want to see the expression and concentration on their face and you want to see the embochure (the muscles of the mouth where it comes in contact with the mouthpiece).

Some of these old photos of Glenn Miller are pretty neat. The photographer did clip some of the slide from the photos but it's a considerable amount:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=glenn+miller&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Also check out some of these shots of Tommy Dorsey:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&gbv=2&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=tommy+dorsey&aq=f&aqi=g5g-m2&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Foques · November 3, 2010

I like the #1, #2 made me think that the black circle with turn red and the dude will say "i'll be baack".

All of them, though, seem to be a touch dark to me.. or is it my screen?

Marissa K. Photography · November 3, 2010

I like #2 & #3!

dreamattempo772 · November 3, 2010

richtersl wrote: »

The angle in #1 is spot-on but you clipped off the lower end of the slide. I would either try a crop to take off even more of the slide or try a reshoot to make sure it's all in the frame. I really like the fact that you positioned yourself lower than the musician. Love the shadow, too.

You don't have much choice in angles when photographing a trombone player (or trumpet player). You don't want to obscure the face too much with the bell of the instrument. You want to see the expression and concentration on their face and you want to see the embochure (the muscles of the mouth where it comes in contact with the mouthpiece).

Some of these old photos of Glenn Miller are pretty neat. The photographer did clip some of the slide from the photos but it's a considerable amount:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=glenn+miller&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Also check out some of these shots of Tommy Dorsey:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&gbv=2&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=tommy+dorsey&aq=f&aqi=g5g-m2&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Fantastic advice...thank you so much. I really enjoyed those old photos too. I looked at quite a lot of other trombone portraits before I tackled this one and I LOVE looking at more.

I'm gonna pick a different shot that doesn't cut off the slide. Good call

dreamattempo772 · November 3, 2010

Foques wrote: »

I like the #1, #2 made me think that the black circle with turn red and the dude will say "i'll be baack".

All of them, though, seem to be a touch dark to me.. or is it my screen?

They could indeed be too dark...my screen isn't calibrated so I'll go have a look. Thanks for your input!

dreamattempo772 · November 3, 2010

Marissa K. Photography wrote: »

I like #2 & #3!

Thanks! He loved #3 the best also

dreamattempo772 · November 3, 2010

reyvee61 wrote: »

Nice work....
On one I think a little more fill light would have been better

Thanks! I was goin for the super-dramatic shadow effect but it's great to have multiple opinions

dreamattempo772 · November 3, 2010

Thanks to everyone's advice I came up with this final image instead. I think it's a much stronger composition

[IMG][/img]

briandelion · November 4, 2010

I agree!

richtersl · November 4, 2010

I can't see the final image. :cry Do you have external links turned on for the gallery to which you uploaded it?

dreamattempo772 · November 4, 2010

richtersl wrote: »

I can't see the final image. :cry Do you have external links turned on for the gallery to which you uploaded it?

Let me use the link from his gallery

richtersl · November 4, 2010

Love it!!!!

clap

dreamattempo772 · November 4, 2010

Thank you so much for your feedback, Linda...and to everyone else for theirs. It has been extremely helpful as I move forward to new projects

Hackbone · November 4, 2010

Love the one in post #15 especially the shadow. He should be happy with that one. I"m a bone player and would love a shot like that.

Musician portrait

Comments