Rose and her Violin - a series of seven images

Rose and her Violin – a series of seven images

June 27, 2020

Steven Perdikis

The violin is the sort of instrument that I never really appreciated when I was growing up. Then, as I aged, I got more and more into music that involved the violin – most notably through gothic and symphonic metal. When Rose got in touch and asked if I’d be keen to shoot with her again, and she mentioned that she would like to do something with her violin, you better bet I agreed super quickly!

These images were shot in my home, in my tiny, tiny make shift photographic studio in my lounge room. Images were lit with two lights – the main light being a GODOX AD200 Strobe, inside of a 80CM softbox. The secondary light, a GODOX TT685, was pointed at a white wall camera right, with an orange gel to give a warmer fill from the opposite direction.

As a result, lighting is moody, and dramatic – which is exactly what a violin can bring to an arrangement of music.

I spent quite some time retouching these images, following the workflow I’ve developed over time which consists of:

Healing the skin’s blemishes and any other visual distractions
Frequency Seperation
Dodge and Burn
Enhancing any other details
Sharpening
Colour Grading
Bringing the focus in through additional dodging and burning and a final selective sharpen

I’m very pleased with the outcome of these images, and am open to any and all feedback. I want to continue to work on enhancing my ability to pose hands.

Posing hands is very difficult, and looking at classical paintings makes me so incredibly jealous of the gorgeous and elaborate, comfortable, and well defined hands – which act as more than just a pictorial element. If I had half the talent of those old masters, I’d be approaching what could be considered a good photographer! 🙂

The wonderful thing about working with Rose is that we have a lot in common and get along very well – conversation was constantly flowing throughout the shoot, a completely collaborative experience – especially when I asked my dutiful assistant to throw some paper at Rose for some action shots.

Later in the shoot, we started to get a bit more conceptual.

We’re happy with the outcome, and will likely produce some more work together in the future!

Thanks for looking!

If you’re in the Adelaide, South Australia area and what some photographic portraits done, let me know!

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