A couple of musicians

[TonyW]

Over Easter, I went to a small concert in a school chapel and took the opportunity to take some photographs from the back of the room. They are each playing a viola da gamba and, I hope, were not aware that they were being photographed. I had no control over lighting, background, etc. Is there anything I could have done to improve them given the constraints?

You can see and hear them on youtube (recorded on different occasions) at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj7BkCWlRQE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxFd5z-FBXA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S55JtK_UxcA

1.

056A7524(2) by tonyw36, on Flickr

2.

056A7525 by tonyw36, on Flickr

3.

056A7518(2) by tonyw36, on Flickr

4.

056A7521 by tonyw36, on Flickr

[IzzieK]

Tony...they are all well shot. I thought my favourite is #1 until I saw the rest of them nicely done too. You can try removing the dust bunny in #2 just a bit above his head a bit...I love the expression of the girl in #3 and her intense concentration on #4. On these two last of the woman, can you at least blend in the wood scratches above her head? Apart from these minor things, there is nothing I can see that really need drastic change.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done. Only thing you could have done was perhaps change your position to the stage, not knowing the layout of the venue; I don't know if that would be possible. A higher elevated shot would have limited the distraction of the one attendees shoulder in the second shot. Fourth shot could have been a bit wider to include the entire chair and stand, but not sure what lens you were using or your ability to move around.

[Manfred M]

This is a nice series of shots, Tony. No doubt, taken in less than ideal conditions.

Looking at the "non-standard" sizes of the images, I assume you have already cropped them to remove elements that you did not like in the original images.

Image 1 and 4 - Too much headroom and if were my image, I would crop the tops of the images back quite a bit to eliminate some of the space above the musicians heads.

Image 2 - I think I like this one the best. Too bad about the head at the bottom right. You might be able to crop around that and potentially part of the music stand as well.

Image 3 (and 4) are quite nice, but somehow look a bit too far away. If they were my images, I might try different crops to see if that would focus the viewers eyes more on the musician. Somehow I find the musician's shoes direct my eyes out of the frame.

[TonyW]

Thanks for your comments. Izzie, John and Manfred.

In #2, it was a pity about the audience protruding but there was no way of avoiding it. I though any further crop would remove too much of what I wanted to show and it would have been too much of a job to clone it out and replace it with the rest of the instrument.

I did think a lot about the sideways crop of all of them. I wanted to make the background as simple as possible and avoid the audience but still keep in the essentials.

I used a 70-200 lens on the Canon 5d, close to or at 200mm. Thank heavens for IS! I was something like 15 to 20 metres from the players. I was quite pleased at how sharp they were and you can even see the string vibrating in #1.

[FootLoose]

Great set, Tony. I think you have captured these performers' joy and dedication to their music. I particularly like the 4th for the pose and the look of concentration on the woman's face.

[Mike Buckley]

The Joy of Music is the title of a book written by Leonard Bernstein, who had a unique ability to communicate about anything and everything having to do with music of virtually all styles, not just classical music. The caption of image #2 could easily be "The Joy of Making Music." Exceptionally well done!

That's another way of saying that it doesn't matter that the audience member's shoulder is displayed in the foreground. I could just as easily argue that the shoulder indicates that the music is being performed for an audience. It would be sad to think that the musicians were performing the music only for themselves.

you can even see the string vibrating in #1.

I missed that detail. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Jeffbridge]

Beautiful captures; excellent series!!

[deetheturk]

Great shots Tony!

[dedro]

good job tony!

[TonyW]

Thanks everyone for all the comments.

Mike, I should have a look at the Bernstein book although I don't need convincing. Music has been a serious hobby of mine for many years. I went to Sydney primarily for a music workshop led by these two people and a couple of others. The are both delightful people as well as top class professional musicians.

[Mike Buckley]

Tony,

You must be really into Rennaisance and Baroque music if you went to a workshop of people playing viola da gambas.

If you're interested in Bernstein, his series of six Norton Lectures at Harvard University in 1971 titled "The Unanswered Question" (taken from the title of the composition by Charles Ives) are an absolute must. He puts everything from Stravinsky's music to ragtime to folk music to popular music of the time into perspective. In fact, this reminds me that I need to drag out those lectures and listen to them again.

[TonyW]

Tony,

You must be really into Renaissance and Baroque music . . .

Correct. But not exclusively. My interests are rather idiosyncratic but not limited by time and there is much modern music that moves me.