The Concert Violinist

I like the composition. Perhaps it is just my monitor, but the violin seems exceptionally dark. I keep trying to see the grain in the wood, which is distracting me from the violinist.

My wife plays violin, which might be why I seem to find the right hand to be the focus of the image, but it is out of focus. I really like the way the hand and the bow hair mimic the angles of the bridge. I think if I were photographing my wife playing I would try to include the scroll of the instrument, and probably the whole bow, but if you had done that here it would be a completely different composition.

Aside from the photo, it is interesting that she has two fine tuners on her instrument; typically there is only one.

Chris Calohan said:

The Concert Violinist: Chris Calohan​

Click to expand...

Chris,

I love pictures of musicians. Each player is of course a very different personality and shows in their own way. You've done that with this lady. There's feeling in her face and hands, but is she actually playing? She seems to be missing that in In general, I only frame this close when I've meticulously matched a design that came to mind as she was playing. for classical musicians I always have them play for about 20 minutes or more to allow me to learn their gestures and the magical formations of their playing. It's still very hard to achieve "magic"! Or else, in a posed picture, it's constructed that way. For such a picture, either I've lit it so that the anatomy of the violin is distinguished or else I do that in photoshop. To me, this picture can be improved to have greater impact.

If the violinist wants to use it for publicity then I feel that it would be worthwhile to explore bringing out the beauty of the instrument too.

Asher

Hi, Chris,

Chris Calohan said:

The Concert Violinist: Chris Calohan​

Click to expand...

Very nice.

Are we sure this violinist isn't here playing a viola?

Best regards,

Doug

I wouldn't know one from the other, so cannot say with certainty. I do beleive the viola is a bit bigger but this instrument didn't seem overly "large."

Now that Doug mentions it I'm pretty sure this is a small viola. Either that, or it's a very small woman.

Asher, your observations are interesting! The body language I see in the woman in the photo resembles what I see when my wife is playing scales -- total focus on a single aspect of sound production, as opposed to making music.

Most highland pipers make poor photographic subjects because we train to be motionless except for our fingers. "You should look like a statue" my teacher says.

She was reading music as she played which would account for the concentration.