Band members

[Martyn]

I played fiddle with a band to provide background music at the opening evening of a local art exhibition last night. I took my camera along to try it out in low light conditions. The exhibits were lit by industrial work lights, very strong and direct (and hot). The band was concealed behind a screen with no lighting except what was reflected off the church walls.

 

This pic is tightly cropped to get rid of unsightly distractions

 

 

Pity about those flowers and the horizontal like that cuts Becky's head in half.

 

 

Zoomed in to try and get rid of those pesky flowers on the table in front of the screen

 

 

 

 

[Korky]

Number 3 for me.

 

It's very nicely composed, but the white line running from left to right is just a tad distracting. It's nothing that a twiddle in a photo editor can't put right, though.

 

Nice work!

 

Korky

[Martyn]

Thanks Korky! I actually removed the white line in Gimp by cloning the black screen but it looked very unnatural. I may have a go at making the whole background black.

[annie]

nice martyn.

[Korky]

Hello Martyn

 

Sincerely hope you don't mind, but I couldn't resist doing a quick edit on this one.

 

Korky

 

 

[Phil]

1 and 3 for me.

Liking Korky's edit too.

[Martyn]

Hello Martyn

 

Sincerely hope you don't mind, but I couldn't resist doing a quick edit on this one.

 

Korky

 

 

fiddler.jpg

 

I don't mind at all Korky, that was the picture I wanted to take!

 

Can you please tell me the process you used to achieve that.

[Korky]

Martyn

 

This was a strictly non-technical edit using Photoshop CS4. I simply used the 'burn' tool set to darken just the shadows at an intensity of around 70%.

 

I've seen you mention GIMP, and although I know not much about that program, I'm pretty sure it shares quite a few tools with CS4 and I'd be very surprised if doesn't have the 'dodge' and 'burn' tools.

 

Dodging and burning, btw, are terms for the old darkroom techniques used to lighten and darken a print as it's exposed under the enlarger.

 

Korky

 

I forgot to mention that I also tried a black and white conversion, but it didn't work. Those lovely, warm, mellow wood tones on the fiddle were completely lost.

[Martyn]

Thanks to Korky's tip I now have another image to share. This was shot was totally ruined by the background but has now been saved. I used a soft edged brush to skirt around Becky and finished off the rest with a big hard brush.

 

 

 

 

[Korky]

Top stuff, Martyn! I think that's the best image of the four.

 

Good to see all of the instrument and that touch of blur on the bow hand just gives it a great sense of movement.

 

Korky