Research into Orchestra Photography

One of my friends in school is part of the orchestra. As I’m doing “music and musicians” I thought this would be a really good opportunity to involve a lot of different instruments into my project. The younger generation don’t tend to listen to the orchestra or know anything about the instruments so I wanted to take the opportunity to photograph the younger generation within the orchestra. I’ve been looking into Wellis Photography because they photograph really good orchestra shots. They also photograph a lot of other people in different ways and at different occasions, however I am looking specifically at their orchestra shots. They use a lot of depth of field within their photography and I really want to try this...they also capture a lot of close ups of the musicians with their instruments. Here are a couple of Wellis Photography’s photos that I have been inspired by:

I really love this photograph mainly because of the depth of field and also the angle the photograph has been taken at. I really want to try and get some photographs taken at this angle and really try and involve some of that beautiful shallow depth of field. The one thing I don’t like about this photograph, however, is the lighting. In my opinion I don’t really like the music stands being completely over-exposed as it takes your eye off of the instruments and the musicians. I want to make sure my audience are looking right at the two subjects within my photograph as soon as they look at the picture. The mood in this photograph is quite tense as there is a lot of concentration going on, however the atmosphere seems quite relaxed as all the colours are quite warm and soothing. I really like this and want to achieve this in my shoot, however it will all depend on the natural lighting that I have access to on the day.

Another subject I want to capture within my next shoot is the orchestra conductor. I really want to capture the emotion and enthusiasm in his actions and expressions. I might also try and catch some movement in his actions. This photograph is brilliant and shows exactly what I want to achieve. The lighting is great...once again however, I’m not really too keen on the music stand being completely over-exposed. The better thing in this photo, however, is that it does not take away your attention from the main subject straight away as it only takes up a small amount of the photograph. The atmosphere in this photograph is really exciting as you can see there is movement going on...I really love the warm effect on his skin, however, and want to try and achieve something similar to this in my shoot.