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Thread: The Guitar Teacher.

  1. #1
    jiro's Avatar
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    Willie or Jiro is fine by me.

    The Guitar Teacher.

    This shot came from the same set of images I took at my kid's music school. This is Bryan's guitar music teacher. A very young man but highly qualified to teach classical guitar method. Although I know how to play the guitar I am a very poor teacher when it comes to passing the knowledge that I know to my son, Bryan. I guess being attached to him as his father has something to do with it. But from time to time, when he encounters a difficult piece I play it for him so he would know how the rhythm goes and what fingering would work better on the notes.

    I shot this on one of those very small music booths that they have in school. Having two guitarists inside the booth made it impossible for me to go in and take a good picture of both so in the end I have to resort to taking a picture of them one at a time. This is the better of the three shots I took. I Kept the image in color because of the character of his beard and the nice quality of the wood on his specially made guitar. I also like the B&W conversion of this one but I lost the impact of the colors on the guitar and his beard. I was able to take this shot by opening up the booths' door and position myself from the outside. I'm glad the teacher allowed me to do that though the outside noise is very distracting to his teaching session. The booth was lit by a fluorescent fixture.

    Thank you very much for viewing.

    The Guitar Teacher.
    Nikon D70, 50mm lens, ISO 800, f/2.2 @ 1/125 second.

  2. #2
    rob marshall

    Re: The Guitar Teacher.

    Jiro

    Much as I love you () I still think it needs a crop to eliminate the random stuff on the right. The original is just way too divided. Guess I've lost this one...

    The Guitar Teacher.

  3. #3

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    Re: The Guitar Teacher.

    I also think I would crop, but possibly not quite as close as Rob. Perhaps leaving half the book on the piano, and some piano keys visible, may 'suit the overall scene a little better'.

  4. #4
    rob marshall

    Re: The Guitar Teacher.

    Quote Originally Posted by Geoff F View Post
    I also think I would crop, but possibly not quite as close as Rob. Perhaps leaving half the book on the piano, and some piano keys visible, may 'suit the overall scene a little better'.
    Start a poll on it?

    The Guitar Teacher.
    6442874879_a332d8c0f8_b by rob marshall images, on Flickr

  5. #5
    Andrew76's Avatar
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    Andrew

    Re: The Guitar Teacher.

    #2. The piano keys set the scene a little more. Otherwise, the piano is kind of indistinguishable.

  6. #6
    rob marshall

    Re: The Guitar Teacher.

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew76 View Post
    #2. The piano keys set the scene a little more. Otherwise, the piano is kind of indistinguishable.
    The piano keys do help set the contrast, especially as the guy is a music teacher. So in that sense it establishes him in his natural environment. But the square crop rule-of-thirds does pinpoint some key view-points of the shot, where the other crop (and the original) do not. I suppose it's a balance at the end of the day.

    I think (if it were possible) that I would have moved to the left, got the same pose, but with the guy on the right and some of the piano behind him and to the left.

    The Guitar Teacher.

  7. #7
    jiro's Avatar
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    Re: The Guitar Teacher.

    Good points, Gentlemen.

    All opinions and suggestions are valid in their own rights. However, as I have mentioned before, the music booth is really small. I knew that it would be nice if the guitar teacher is positioned on the right side of the frame. Unfortunately, if he can do that, only his guitar would be seen from where I am shooting at and the front wall would be inside the frame. I intentionally add the piano to the composition to provide additional info about the location. A clean square crop would easily put him filling the frame and that is also a valid composition. IMO, if I do that, it's just another guitar player shot and nothing else. Geoff's crop suggestion is also a good one. I'm still going to pursue this type of image when I can as the guitar teacher is OK with me taking some candid shots of him. Maybe, next time, I can indulge him to a more suitable location than the interior of the music booth. Thanks.

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