Aveta Trio At The Kohl Mansion

1/30 second, F 9.0, ISO 200

This photo of the award winning Aveta Trio was actually much more difficult to make than it would appear. Several adjustments to the subject placement and the lighting were all made on the fly. The Order Of The Day was "shoot, shoot, shoot", especially since I was photographing three lively young musicians whose postures were constantly changing.

Fortunately for me, I was given a full hour to make the photograph, and started after a twenty-minute initial lighting setup and arranging my subjects into a balanced composition. There were two competing factors that influenced the final placement of the chairs. First, if I spread the musicians out, the swings of the violinist's bow were less likely to overlap the pianist, but the resulting composition might not fit my preferred 1.5 aspect ratio. If they were too close together, there would be frequent visual overlaps, like when the violin partially covered the pianist's face.

The selected image was a compromise between composition, expression, and subject overlap. In this random collection of images, you can see cases where the violin intrudes into the pianist's profile, while in others, the cellist has his head in an awkward position. My final choice, shown at the top of the post, seemed to be the likely choice.

The Key Light: In this lighting diagram you can see that there were two light sources. The Key Light was a Flashpoint Glow Softbox, which is basically a knock-off of the Lastolite Ezybox. The softboxes themselves are almost identical, so far as I can see, but if you check the links, the Flashpoint sells for a fractions of the cost of a Lastolite. I own both, and find that cost aside, the Flashpoint is a little easier to deploy. Instead of a cold shoe, the Flashpoint mounting bracket utilizes a clamp, and is the logical choice if you use a Flashpoint Evolv 200, which it accommodates, if just barely. I normally use the Evolv 200 with the bare bulb attachment to achieve a smooth, even light softbox. The Flashpoint bracket is much more convenient than the "lollypop" bracket that comes with the Lastolite, which is at its best when using a single shoe-mounted speedlight. If you even thinking about getting the Evolv 200, skip the Lastolite and to straight to the Flashpoint, since it also works with conventional speedlights. If you already own the Lastolite, you can buy just the Flashpoint bracket.

When adjusting the Glow softbox, I pointed it more towards the left to "feather" the light away from my cellist. This prevented his getting overexpose, which is likely, considering how much closer he was to key light.

The Kicker Light: The kicker light was a regular speedlight with a stack of grids mounted to the head. This created a tight cylinder of light which I hoped would highlight my cellist's hair while not spilling onto my violinist. It worked a little too well, because my cellist often swayed "out of the limelight." But when he was properly aligned, it all worked well, and the resulting highlights helped to separate his black hair from the open piano lid. If you look carefully, you can see the hotspot created by the kicker on the scroll of the cello's neck. I'm sure you wouldn't have noticed if I didn't point it out.

Subject Movement: You'll notice some blur in this photo. The exposure time was 1/30th of a second, so some blur would be expected. The relatively long exposure time was necessary to get some detail in the floor. 

Exposure: I adjusted the exposure for better reproduction when printed on newsprint, so trust me when I say it looks better in the paper than it does on the screen. The images used in the composite are straight out of camera, and much more pleasing when viewed digitally.

I enjoyed this shoot, as the grounds of the Kohl Mansion just seem to bring out the creativity in the artists who frequent it.