Artists' portraits

[Jonathan K]

Hi there,

The last two weeks I had two requests from colleagues (they appearantly noticed that I got a new cam...).
A700 v.2




Here the other one: These are shot with A700 v.4


ISO 1600:

ISO 2500:


Thanks for looking, commenting, complaining, etc etc

Cheers Jonathan

[Dr. Harout]

Like them too, specially the first 3

[Jonathan K]

Wow, you are quick!
Thanks Don and Dr. Harout!

Jonathan

[David Kilpatrick]

They are just perfect for the uses - the viol player is probably better overall than the organist. Six strings? I play a regular four-string viola. I know a few people who play five-stringers. Six strings either has to be a baroque viol (with no frets?) or something unique to the player!

David

[David Kilpatrick]

Hang on - that's not just six strings - is it some kind of nyckelharpa - sympathetic strings as well as the played courses? I'd love to hear that, it's nice enough to see it (lovely instrument) but fiddle family instruments with sympathetic strings are the most amazing things to listen to.

David

[Jonathan K]

Hi David,

I really appreciate your comments to every single thread posted here...
Well he's a regular viola player (symphonic) and has taken a great interest in baroque music. If I got it right, it is a viola d'amore, having a certain number of "bourdon" strings (the term sympathetic strings is new to me). There is a pretty nice artice about it on wikipedia, with tuning and all.

I am not too happy about the organ shots. We planned to do it in a different church. much darker and on a much larger organ, which was occupied of course, so we had to divert to a different one... this one being pretty well lit, so I could not play with high contrasts. What's more there was the artificial light of the desk lights, a fluorescent tube on the ceiling giving pretty ugly light and the sun shining through the window, so WB was a disaster.

I believe I will redo the shooting.

Thanks,

Jonathan

[David Kilpatrick]

Fascinating. I've always used the term 'bourdon' strings to refer to the free (unfretted) bass strings of the theorbo and baroque lute; the 'burden' was traditionally either a bass part or a refrain in songs (16th c), and the 'bourdon' is also the bass register in a pipe organ. I have never heard the viola d'amore played or seen one in the flesh - it makes a lovely photographic subject - though I have read about it. The headstock with twelve pegs, and the whole instrument, would also make a superb still life subject. When Minolta launched the RD3000, they used a shot of a violin being played as the first digital file sent out, and I reproduced it full page. When the Dimage 7 came out, I took a violin to the Minolta Club Edinburgh meeting, with studio lights, and set up a still life which was photographed and printed to A4 on the spot.

Really old, well used fiddles are a great studio subject, they just make good compositions and the respond to different lighting almost the same way a human face does.

Musicians with their instruments are one of the most photogenic portrait subjects around.

David

[bossel]

The violoin shots are really great, you've managed the light perfectly!

[Wes Gibbon]

I've never seen a viola d'amore before either - the oboe d'amore is the only 'd'amore' instrument which seems to have survived into the present day except for historical reconstructions.

Somewhere I have a grab shot or two of a baryton taken at Eisenstadt - I'll try to dig it out. (Eisdenstadt was the country estate where haydn was employed for many years).

According to Wikipedia:
The baryton is a bowed string instrument in the viol family, in regular use in Europe up until the end of the 18th century. It most likely fell out of favor due to its immense difficulty to play. Its size is comparable to that of a violoncello; it has seven or sometimes six bowed strings of gut, plus from nine to twenty-four sympathetic wire strings (most often twelve). The gut strings are bowed while the wire strings are plucked by the thumb of the performer in order to create a contrasting tonal quality.

Haydn's boss at Eisenstadt (Prince Esterhazy) was keen on this curious instrument and Haydn had to write copious volumes of baryton music for him. If I remember rightly, Haydn thought it would be a good idea to suck up to the count by practising the instrument himself, only to find that the count lost interest when Haydn's ability exceeded his own!

--

At a still life session at our club a few years ago someone took a very nice soft focus picture of a flute and violin on a table with some duet music - a pity that the music was for treble and bass clef instruments!

[Jonathan K]

Hi Wes,

well what about the oboe d'amore?

I would be interested to see the pictures of this baryton, as long as it doesn't turn out to be saxhorn-tenor.... in francophone wind bands, especially military windbands like the "Guarde républicaine" or the "Guides" in Belgium and also the "Musique militaire grand-ducale" in Luxembourg, they have an instrument called barytone which looks like an euphonium with 3 valves... And I am not especially fond of it.

Cheers

Jonathan

[springm]

The violinist's portrait, esp. #1 and #2 really make it! In #3 the dark side of the face seems to be *very* dark - could be that's only my laptop monitor.

Would you mind to share some words about the lighting for these? Was it intelligently used window light, one or more flashes?

Regards - Markus

[mikehawthorne]

I am I awe they are very good

[aster]

As always very nice classic shots Jonathan,
The uppermost three appeal the most to me, keepers for any musician for posterity. Something to show the grandchildren and boast in years to come...

Thanks,
Yildiz

[Jonathan K]

Hi there,

Thanks a lot for your comments!

The violinist's portrait, esp. #1 and #2 really make it! In #3 the dark side of the face seems to be *very* dark - could be that's only my laptop monitor.

Would you mind to share some words about the lighting for these? Was it intelligently used window light, one or more flashes?

Regards - Markus

Well, I used 2 flashes, one with softbox, one with an umbrella-shaped reflector as a main light on the left and I added one more reflector on the right side of the picture. No window light, I shot them in almost complete darkness, since I had fluorescent tubes in the room and I could only use them as auxiliary light in a very limited way due to WB.
Yes, the one side of the face in pic 3 is pretty dark, but I actually did that on request of the musician himself. He saw another picture I took before and asked if I could reproduce something similar. I actually do not remember what the flash ratio was.

Thanks a lot, mike and aster, glad you like them. The violist was very happy indeed. I'm not sure whether he is planning something about his grandchildren yet... you never know.

Cheers

Jonathan