Natasha
Saturday, July 16. 2005
Lexington, MA (Jul 15, 2005)
I love making portraits of musicians. Concerts are the ideal occasion to do portraits. You have interesting people in a public setting, used to have people watching them, deeply concentrated in something that requires all their attention, and brings out the inner soul. There are many complications, of course, first of all the light conditions (concert halls are generally dark) and the fact that musicians moves all the time. The challenge is to feel the music yourself, and follow the artist while she/he is playing, predicting what her expression and her pose will be one second before it will happen, according to the piece that is being played, and open your shutter at the right time.
My setting is a hand-held camera (tripod won’t do as the musician moves and you have to pan), with a 200mm lenses (I prefer to capture details of the musician face, with some of the instrument as in the photo above), open as much as possible (I am using f/4.5 here, but I wish I had a faster lens) to have a narrow DOF, high ISO setting (1000 here) to have times as short as possible (between 1/20 and 1/40 in this case). Of course the result is quite soft and grainy, which is some cases means a wasted exposure, and in other some artistic portrait. I am interested to know what you do in similar conditions.
The musician here is Natasha, granddaughter of friends of us. She is playing in a classical music ensamble with her sister and her two younger cousins. They are very good (it is a whole family of musicians, their mothers teach music and mathematics in Paris), and we have been following them since they were quite little. I will post photos of the other three in the next few posts.
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This is a wonderful shot. I shoot a lot of theatre, and I know how hard it is to get a good image in low (or worse, changing) light.
I love the way you’ve composed this.
I love the way you’ve composed this.
Hello! I am a young lawyer from Guatemala, 24 years, and I will arrive soon in Turin to study my master in Intellectual Property. I was searching information and then I saw your pictures and texts. It will be nice for me to stay in touch.
Talented and beautiful. A very atmospheric picture which captures the creative aspects really well, the strong diagonal of the instument really adding power to the composition. Very well seen and rendered.
Myu buena elección del B&W. Me gusta su expresión y el efecto en la foto es muy atinado.
This is a lovely portrait. I have to admit that I am developing an aversion to many of the “in your face” portraits you see a lot of these days (where you can count every line and crack in the face). Your soft focus, I think, tell the story of the musician much more eloquently. Music afterall, itself, is about emotion, and this photo is, as well.
However, to answer your question, what I do in this situation (to get a few more hundredths of a second out of the exposure) is to employ a telescopic monopod, which is much easier to cart around (I have one that hooks onto my belt, and scales down to about six inches).
Still, this photo is excellent as is, and your cropping is especially well done.
However, to answer your question, what I do in this situation (to get a few more hundredths of a second out of the exposure) is to employ a telescopic monopod, which is much easier to cart around (I have one that hooks onto my belt, and scales down to about six inches).
Still, this photo is excellent as is, and your cropping is especially well done.
Simply gorgeous.
The grain...being that it’s out of focus.
Just my style. Love it.
The grain...being that it’s out of focus.
Just my style. Love it.
Great shot. nice greys and the grain & soft focus looks good.
Lovely portrait ! Great effect with the soft focus and grain. Beautiful picture and...beautiful lady !!!
This one should be an emotive portrait; very nice shot in grain and soft yet enchanting..Good Job!
Nice, candid shot. The high iso noise (did you add more in PS?) really adds to the overall mood.
That’s quite a challenge to get the timing right, especially with low lighting. Maybe an f/2.8 VR lenses?
That’s quite a challenge to get the timing right, especially with low lighting. Maybe an f/2.8 VR lenses?
Yeah, I’m afraid that a tripod (or monopod, as suggested above) is necessary unless you want the look you got--which is very appropriate. But the girl has such a lovely face you might want to render it less grainy & atmospherically. Most concert photographs are shot handheld so you might want a telephoto lens between 1.8 & 2.8. And shooting as slow as you had to with what seems to be a telephoto lens its almost impossible to avoid blurring.
I find this is a great shot. I like the grain in it and the softness of it all. It has atmosphere and is much like a painting. Very very nice 
I like the soft focus and this works great as a monochrome image. If you want more exposure options in this type of setting faster lenses are the key.
I really like this shot. I like the grain and the soft focus. It’s wonderful.
An image that she will treasure always. Beautiful work, Massimo
The grain is what makes this photo what it is; calm and beautiful. OK, her smile too
Overall this is a nice image. Did you soften this in PS? I notice there is some blur on the instrument and the left side of her face - predictable given the technical limits you faced. Softening helps hide this. What strikes me most about this image is her expression and the lock of hair that cascades down her face. She has a Julia Roberts look - no?
I like this portrait - it’s very gentle. I love shooting concerts as well... I go one of two ways with concert shots, depending on the performers. If the artist plays with a lot of flair, I prefer a slower shutter and vibrant colors to indicate the motion, like this: http://abhi.abhiandyuri.com/photos/index.php?showimage=125
Otherwise, I prefer to show the instrument more than the artist, like this: http://abhi.abhiandyuri.com/photos/index.php?showimage=124
Otherwise, I prefer to show the instrument more than the artist, like this: http://abhi.abhiandyuri.com/photos/index.php?showimage=124
very artistic treatment; the grain and lighting make this feel so romantic. And the framing is great too.
this is beautiful, you have captured the essence of what i also love about the visuality of music - the expression of beauty that flits across faces engrossed in their art ... so lovely!
A stunning portrait...I love the framing (crop?), the light on her cheek, forehead and ears, the mood, her smile, and I hope she`s happy with the result too!
I know how difficult it is to photograph under these conditions, and you did just great!
Perhaps you could ask her if you could photograph her some other time too? When she`s playing, but without an audience ? You might shoot with a faster, shorter lense too...
I know how difficult it is to photograph under these conditions, and you did just great!
Perhaps you could ask her if you could photograph her some other time too? When she`s playing, but without an audience ? You might shoot with a faster, shorter lense too...
Thanks for all the answers, the feedback from your comments is very useful to me.
As many of you have guessed, this is a crop of a larger frame, leaving some space above her and going down to the body of the cello. The original image is about as grainy as this crop, but I had to do some processing in PS to modify the noise of the D100 with an ISO setting of 1000 (which has some patterns resembling compression artifacts even in the RAW format image) into this nicer “gaussian” noise.
This photo is in fact the most soft of the whole session (I shot it while she was turning back from talking with her mother at the piano, just before she actually started to play). The other photos are more sharp, so in the end the hand held camera with my 200mm 4.5 tele did work well enough. The monopod seems quite a good idea though, and I certainly missed a faster lens...
As many of you have guessed, this is a crop of a larger frame, leaving some space above her and going down to the body of the cello. The original image is about as grainy as this crop, but I had to do some processing in PS to modify the noise of the D100 with an ISO setting of 1000 (which has some patterns resembling compression artifacts even in the RAW format image) into this nicer “gaussian” noise.
This photo is in fact the most soft of the whole session (I shot it while she was turning back from talking with her mother at the piano, just before she actually started to play). The other photos are more sharp, so in the end the hand held camera with my 200mm 4.5 tele did work well enough. The monopod seems quite a good idea though, and I certainly missed a faster lens...
gorgeous subject... i love how you framed this portrait, and the noise is perfect, especially for a b&w photo
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