Steinway Concert Grand Piano

C&C more then welcome! This is my first time shooting anything like this. I'd like to get comments and then go back and incorporate them in another shoot.

STORY:
This is a Steinway Concert Grand Piano shot at the Roger's Center for the Arts at Merrimack College.

We used 4 theatrical lights on this.

1 - ETC Source 4, about 10% power, Directly above the right side (in the pictures) of the piano, focused directly down on the piano, to give a little back lighting on the open lid.
2 - ETC Source 4, about 60% power, About 15 feet to the left (in the pictures) of the piano, focused on the seat and keys.
3 - ETC Source 4, 100% power, gelled blue, about 15 feet to the right of the piano, focused at the right side of the piano.
4 - ETC Source 4, in House Right Box Boom, 30 feet to the right and 15 feet downstage of the piano. Focused to just illuminate the interior of the piano. About 35% power.

For Piano only shots, All other lights in the theatre were off. For shots of the Piano on stage from the house, the house lights were lit to 25% power.
All were 5 to 10 second exposures, ISO 200, f/18-22.

Lenses used - Canon 15mm Fisheye, Sigma 50-150 f/2.8, Canon XTi Kit lens.


1.

I personally don't like the ones with the blue light in them. 1,2 and last I believe. Its probably because of the jpeg compression but it looks like you had a sensor glitch or something. The harsh light change from yellow to blue is just too weird.

3, and 6 on the other hand couldn't be better. I would blow either one of those two up and post them on my wall.

aram535 wrote in post #6146148
I personally don't like the ones with the blue light in them. 1,2 and last I believe. Its probably because of the jpeg compression but it looks like you had a sensor glitch or something. The harsh light change from yellow to blue is just too weird.

3, and 6 on the other hand couldn't be better. I would blow either one of those two up and post them on my wall.

Thanks!

The last isn't ment to be anything other then a picture of the setup. The yellow floor at the bottom is the wooden floor underneath the black dance floor. I purposefully kept it out of the framing of all of the "close-ups" of the piano.

I'm not sure though what you mean by sensor glitch or what is wierd.... It could be a shadow issue. Concert Grand's have lots of nooks and crannies and based on the various angles of the lights, that could be it...

If you looked at the first image for the first time, with the hard edge to the blue and gold light, it looks like your sensor had an issue and make a portion of the image blue. Took be two looks to realize that was the color of the light back there.

aram535 wrote in post #6146650
If you looked at the first image for the first time, with the hard edge to the blue and gold light, it looks like your sensor had an issue and make a portion of the image blue. Took be two looks to realize that was the color of the light back there.

where in the image....? on the piano, on the floor, where on the piano.... there are lots of transitions from blue to gold/white.....

On the floor, opposite the keys/seat.

I like the images, but would clone out the exit sign in #4

aram535 wrote in post #6146830
On the floor, opposite the keys/seat.

shadows....

I love the blue and gold in this...#3 is brilliant.

Have to agree, #3 is terrific. I also like #6.

Your lighting is wonderful - pianos are really tough and you handled it well. The colors just make it all come together for me. I also am becoming very fond of the fish-eye distortion. Used in the right places it's terrific.

Very nice work, the kind I would definitely find room on the wall for.

Thanks all!

Before I print it.... I think I need to do some cropping on the bottom of #3 (the forum favorite) to maybe right below the pedals, cutting out some of the floor that is lit.
Thoughts on that?

Titus213 wrote in post #6151875
Have to agree, #3 is terrific. I also like #6.

Your lighting is wonderful - pianos are really tough and you handled it well. The colors just make it all come together for me. I also am becoming very fond of the fish-eye distortion. Used in the right places it's terrific.

Very nice work, the kind I would definitely find room on the wall for.

Thank you much! My friend actually did the lighting for me. We spent about an hour on hang/focus before we felt we got the combo right.

We are also very lucky that the theatre management allows us to come back (alumni of the school and former student employees) and adjust lighting and shoot photos.

My friends and I were discussing the fish-eye's performance in this situation, I think having a 1.6x crop sensor helps lessen the distortion of the 15mm fish-eye. If I had a full frame sensor, it would be much more intense and not as cool.

Maybe just to the foot pedals?

Flo wrote in post #6152745
Maybe just to the foot pedals?

Exactly.

In 1, 2, and 7 I would have put the piano a bit more to the right of the photos... almost centering the bench instead of the piano itself.