music Up Scale

This is an experiment in trying to show the piano in a way that is

unusual and interesting, and it is one of the shots with lighting that

blows out the white keys, presuming the black ones are enough to

define the piano. I'd like to know if you think this is interesting,

well or poorly conceived, compositionally "law abiding" enough, or if

not, why? What would you suggest that might improve how this looks to

you? Thanks for looking and for any comments and suggestions.

I've shot a lot of my own keyboard but never tried this angle. LOVE the angle.

David: I like the PoV very much. I also like the lighting. I think it's a damned interesting shot. I'm just not sure the background colors in the upper portion add anything. It might be more dramatic if a bit more stark. I have to come back again and look some more. Warm regards, Joe

I like your piano shots very much, and I'm really glad you like this approach.

Glad you like this, and I very much agree about the colors beyond the piano. I wasn't sure what to do there, and I'm still not. Maybe just muting or darkening all the non-piano stuff would work, but I want to preserve the curve of the end piece as well as it's thickness, though it might be interesting to take the background to white and just rely on the inner curve... I'm just not sure, so I'll have to play with it some more. Thanks for the encouragement *and* for the thought provoking critique. Warm regards, David.

David: Here's a very rough edit, done by hand and without precision. I think you're right about playing around with going white and preserving both the curve and the thickness of the end piece. But I chose the quick and easy route. It's just a wild stab at making it a bit more Jazz-Era-Deco-like. Warm regards...

 

 

I also think it's a great take on piano photography. The angle and perspective work really well and give it the energy that music has. I don't know if you've ever seen Ken Russell's movie, The Music Lovers, about Tchaikovsky. Early in the film, there's a very long sequence where Tchaikovsky is playing, for the first time, his famous first piano concerto. There are some amazing montage sequences of the keyboard blending and fading at all different angles and in rhythm with the music. This shot immediately reminded me of that.

 

On a note of approach. Did you intentionally allow such a large area of the keyboard to be so white and void of detail? In my opinion, with more delicacy of exposure, you'd have a photograph that would pretty much accomplish the same thing but have some detail for the eye to appreciate. However, I know this kind of effect is liked by many and don't want to dissuade you from pursuing your own vision. I notice in your other Baldwin shot, the keyboard is more defined and I respond to that better but like this angle a lot more.

Here I go again, playing "me, too!" "me, too!" but Fred articulated what was niggling at me as well.

 

 

At the time, the whiteness struck me as harsh, but I feared you would lose the wonderful "energy" if you changed it.

 

 

Now, one thing about this shot bothers me a lot....

 

 

 

 

why didn't I think of it? David, at some point you and I MUST go shooting together. Simply must. If you ever make it within a hundred miles of my area, lunch is on me and shooting will happen!

I like it. You've taken it more fully graphic and it works well. Thanks for taking the time to work on it. Warm regards...

I'm going to have to look up Ken Russell's movie. It 'sounds' like it's great. The detail of the white keys would be nice, and I think I'll give a go at seeing if I can preserve that detail while getting the rest of the effect/s I want, but it'll be interesting to work with it. I think the central feature of this shot is the angle of view, so I'm especially glad you like that aspect of it. Thanks for the movie tip, and for getting me to think more in terms of content, as in the white key detail, instead of leaning a bit too much toward form.

Thank you! Ain't nothin' wrong with "me, too!" It'd be a gas to go shooting together... thanks for the invite!

Bringing life to such lifeless objects I find to be almost impossible. For me I suppose I find the perspective and blown highlights to mean that the piano is a challenging and a frustrating task. Well just my take. For life to exist usually means something of life must be present, at least in some form or another.

 

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1503442

I appreciate your honest and direct comments. What you're seeing and responding to seems in a direction I don't think I intended for this image. If I implied in some way that I was trying to bring the piano to life, then I miscommunicated. I really wasn't thinking anywhere near that deeply, rather just wanting to come up with a novel and interesting approach to an image of the piano. I would argue that something of life is, indeed, quite present in the engineering and craftsmanship of the piano. And while musical instruments are, to me, alive in many ways, to truly come to life they must be played.

I think I was just puking up my philosophy of photography. Sometimes I don?t know what the heck I am saying. There is nothing wrong with novel or interesting and I apologize if I came off saying otherwise. I think when I first started talking to you I mentioned something about you being a psychiatrist and a photographer and how the two would mix well. So when I see a work of yours I really try to see what you see in that sense. I don?t know. Well I?ll talk to ya. Shay-