{"id":1605,"date":"2020-04-22T14:08:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T14:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philippemonthoux.com\/blog\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2020-04-22T14:09:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T14:09:04","slug":"light-painting-a-concert-pianist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philippemonthoux.com\/blog\/light-painting-a-concert-pianist\/","title":{"rendered":"Light Painting a Concert Pianist"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a musician friend of mine post on his Facebook page that I was looking for subjects for a personal light painting project. I was delighted when Tanya Ekanayaka expressed an interest.<\/p>\n

Tanya was born in Sri-Lanka and gave her first recital at the tender age of twelve. She\u2019s also an acclaimed composer, contracted with Naxos Records, the world\u2019s largest independent classical music record label. If that wasn’t impressive enough, Tanya holds a PhD in Linguistics and Musicology from the University of Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

Since Tanya teaches at her alma mater, the University of Edinburgh, we had access to Reid Concert Hall and their grand piano for the light painting session.<\/p>\n

\"concert
I moved into the stands of the concert hall to shoot this picture, as I needed to use a longer lens to eliminate some distracting elements in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started with the \u201cobvious\u201d set up, from an angle that showed the pianist\u2019s hands. When doing some light painting tests, I realised how reflective the top of the piano was. I decided the reflection of the piano strings should be an important part of the photographs.<\/p>\n

\"concert
I do a number of light painting runs for each set up. Given the nature of the technique, it is impossible to replicate the lighting pattern from one run to an other, as you can see from this image and the one above.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I next worked a different angle, partly inspired by Arnold Newman\u2019s famous photograph of Igor Stravinsky and the desire to show the piano strings and their reflections.<\/p>\n

\"concert
This is my favourite photo. I think eliminating a whole lot of the background while focusing on the piano and the pianist produces a much stronger composition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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