Girl playing violin.

[jiro]

Kate practicing her violin lessons.


Nikon D70, 50mm lens, ISO 800, f/2.2 @ 1/320 second.

Got some time to bring the camera with me while waiting for Kate to finish her music lesson at school. I asked the teacher if he could allow me to take some shots of my kid and he gladly said yes.

I decided to shoot this one at ISO 800 based on what I've read about some wedding photographers shooting at ISO 800 using only common available light. I knew that my Nikon D70 doesn't perform that good at ISO 800 being "noisy" but I don't mind. What I am after is the feel of the situation and the only way I can do that is to shoot at a higher ISO so I can have some control on the shutter speed. I decided to go with B&W even before I shot this one since the inherent noise grain would look better on the conversion.

Thanks for viewing.

[chrisc]

I had to keep coming back to this image because, while there is a definite mood, it became readily apparent from her expression, it wasn't a playful or informal moment for her, yet you portrayed her in a rather casual manner.

There are two things which I think would have greatly improved this shot, neither of which regard the choice of color or B&W. I rather like the B&W.

Prefacing my graphic analysis, at one time in my life, I attempted to study the fiddle and while these instruments of music are the same, the way they are played and the tuning is uniquely different. That said, I was taught by a man who was a concert violinist before turning to the fiddle in later years. One of the foremost things I remember about his training was bow angle, chin hook, and eye focus. In your shot, using the background at an angle changed the aspect of formality.

The violin is a very serious instrument. Great concentration and focus of hand placement, focus of where the eye looks, and where the bow is in relationship to the strings is critical if one is to really grasp the essence of the instrument.

Looking at your daughter's eyes, there is no question in anyone's mind she is very intent on everything being in its precise place at the moment the bow plays the strings. Therefore, just using her eye focus, the angle of the instrument in relation to her chin, and the angle of the bow, I concluded the background needed to be quite vertical (90 degrees) to convey her intent. I also felt like the crop wasn't tight enough to continue the strength of the concentration.

[jiro]

Thanks, Chris. I have two more from this set and one of them is with the walls naturally straight. From my eyes it looked too ordinary so I opted to go with the slanted one for some visual movement. Thank you for the informative comment.

[robmarshall]

Jiro

Was she moving her body/hands very much? I thought you might have got a bit more DOF by not shooting at 1/320s and using a smaller aperture. Would not say 1/160s have still frozen the movement? I'm getting the sense that it's slightly out of focus. It can't be motion at 1/320s.

I do like the composition, but there is a slight tendency to look at the intersection of the bow and strings, rather than her face. It might be worth setting up the shot at home, with some extra lighting. I was looking at this shot yesterday on Strobist. It's very similar, but the light makes a big difference. Of course, you couldn't help that in your situation. strobist.blogspot.com/2011/11/giving-back-with-your-camera.html#more

[jiro]

Thanks, Rob. I intentionally chose an aperture of f/2.2 and the camera was set on center-weight metering aimed at the center part of the violin. She was really moving the bow at such a speed based on the piece she was asked to practice.

The sampled image on your link is very good. I might probably try that one time when Kate is available to work with me on that kind of shot. before I can do that, I need to modify my flash cord so I can make a good extension as my flash cord can only be extended at a max distance of 7 feet from the camera. I was more into practicing shooting in available light on this one and trying to capture her expression and movement using a higher ISO setting. Still a lot to learn and I'm willing to learn. Thanks.

[Barry]

I like this, good monochrome conversion, although some detail has been lost in the bow. But I do like the way you have recorded Kate concentrating on what she is doing.

What Flashgun are you using, as the Nikon D70 can be used as a commander to fire Nikon SB600 or SB800 wirelessly.

[jiro]

No external flash, Barry. Just the available fluorescent lighting inside the music booth hence my use of the high ISO on my old D70. Thanks.