Two hands of a 3-handed bassist

[geotography]

Musicians are a hard bunch to capture...typically moving around alot and playing in dimly lit environments. My ideal photo would have been to have an impeccably sharp face to contrast with the the fact that Steve here actually has three hands....kidding. So I did the best I could with some softening and tried to make the hands during Steve's bass break the important part of the shot. f/5.6, ISO 500, 55mm focal length, shutter, mmm forgive me, I think between a half and full second. I disregarded thirds here as it seemed to be my only path. Did my tweaking in Picassa and Faststone. Your comments will be appreciated.

[eddie422]

I agree that having a sharp face would have been nice. However a bit of movement of the head gives another view to the subject. What I took away from this photo was a passionate bassist and the movement of the hands gives life to the picture which would have been bland if the subject only had 2 hands.

[Liz Caldwell]

Originally Posted by eddie422

I agree that having a sharp face would have been nice. However a bit of movement of the head gives another view to the subject. What I took away from this photo was a passionate bassist and the movement of the hands gives life to the picture which would have been bland if the subject only had 2 hands.

(This is probably more obvious than you were looking for, but...)

If you are allowed to use flash, try to use the flash (bounced off the ceiling or a card) with the long exposure... it should freeze the face which is mostly still, but the fast moving hands should still blur. Hope it helps you (or anyone for that matter)

I have to agree with eddie, it's a great shot, blur or no blur!

[geotography]

eddie422 and Liz Caldwell,

Thanks for your critiques and feedback.

Liz, I do want to explore the flash technique a bit. First, I want to clarify that the bassist moves his head alot, particularly when soloing. Back to the flash technique; do I understand correctly that the flash is putting out light before the actual shutter release. Forgive my ignorance...I don't use flash but have read a little about this bouncing technique. Thanks again.

Cheers

[sukanta]

Originally Posted by geotography

eddie422 and Liz Caldwell,

Thanks for your critiques and feedback.

Liz, I do want to explore the flash technique a bit. First, I want to clarify that the bassist moves his head alot, particularly when soloing. Back to the flash technique; do I understand correctly that the flash is putting out light before the actual shutter release. Forgive my ignorance...I don't use flash but have read a little about this bouncing technique. Thanks again.

Cheers

nop... bouncing flash is something you bounching of flash light from the celling or by a card on your subject.. it gives a natual looks as it coming from a different angle and more softer way than the direct flash...but also do its job as it brighten the subject and gives you the critical split second advantage... but it ignited at the time of shutter release(not before the shutter release).
Also there are two technique called 1st cartain and 2nd cartain....but this are mostly use for taking pic of motion object with tail panning(2nd cartain) or front panning(1st cartain)..
Hope it will help you to understand..

[Liz Caldwell]

Originally Posted by geotography

eddie422 and Liz Caldwell,

Thanks for your critiques and feedback.

Liz, I do want to explore the flash technique a bit. First, I want to clarify that the bassist moves his head alot, particularly when soloing. Back to the flash technique; do I understand correctly that the flash is putting out light before the actual shutter release. Forgive my ignorance...I don't use flash but have read a little about this bouncing technique. Thanks again.

Cheers

I think I know you mean here... With film cameras, when you used a flash with a long exposure you would have portions of the photo still dark because the flash moved moved faster than the shutter... Is this what you were referring to?

If that's the case...

With a DSLR, I've never had that problem, I've used exposures as long as 30 seconds with the on camera flash, but, depending on the length of your exposure you could also use an external flash, and just hit the TEST button when you want it to fire.... something to play with.

As for the bouncing, this can be done really easily! Check out this thread to learn how to make/attach one to your camera. Mostly the point of the bounce is to soften the lighting, so you don't get the hard shadows around your subject, but I don't think it would hinder the action-stopping nature of the flash. This shot, although I didn't use a bounce, shows how the flash stops the action. This was a one second exposure and the subject was moving quite fast (160 bmps for the music junkies ) the flash used was just the on camera pop-up flash, and it fired at the beginning of the shot.

(some of you have seen this shot already, sry)

[wulf]

Originally Posted by geotography

First, I want to clarify that the bassist moves his head alot, particularly when soloing.

You might have to change your vision for the shot to be true to the subject then. What stays still? Perhaps a static object like a music stand might provide a good contrast (but use a tripod or other support so that it doesn't get blurred by camera shake).

Also, I think this shot would have been better if you managed to show his right hand as well as the left, er, ones. Framing it from slightly further back and perhaps cropping a bit more of the top of the scroll should make that possible.

Wulf

[geotography]

Thanks again everyone for taking your time on this critique. I definitely learned something from all of you. A few fine points:

@Liz Caldwell: I have been gun shy about flash...you have given me that nudge to experiment with it. Oh yes, small point: beats per minute (bpm) rather than bmp. Cool photo, by-the-way.

@Sukanta: thank you for sharing your expert knowledge on bounce flash as well.

@eddie422: thank you for your encouragement; and you saw what I saw: he is a passionate player as are many musicians.

@wulf: appreciate your comments. The original photo does in fact include his right hand and part of a person's head. With regards to the stationary object, I took another photo of this bassist bobbing around with a stationary drum and symbol in the foreground. I will try to put these shots on my Google Web Album so that you may check them out if you like.

Best,

[wulf]

Yes - do give us links to some further shots. Now the discussion has got underway, that can be done without breaking the request to post only one photo at a time for critique.

Wulf

[geotography]

Wulf,
I'm not quite clear on your last comment about posting. I did put the other 2 photos on my google album...If you open on the original thread photo, you will find the two photos. My album is quite small at this stage so you won't have to wade through much.