OK… some background… a few months back, my friend Dave purchased a song at a charity service auction from the very talented singer/songwriter Jenni B. Roake. Jenni agreed to write a song and perform it for Dave. The song was to be written in the style of an ’80’s power ballad, and sung from the point of view of Dave – as if Dave were the singer. In essence, Jenni channeling Dave in ’80’s piano power ballad style. A recipe for total awesomeness. We’ve got a piano in my apartment, so Jenni came over to perform the song for Dave and 15 or so special guests. Once I saw Jenni all decked out with the make-up and hair, and pulling the candles out of her bag, I knew I had to get some sweet shots.
(warning, photo geek talk ahead…)
I set up a remote flash that I gelled with 1.5 CTO, and then dialed in the aperture to get a good flash exposure. I was getting too much spill from the flash, so I put a couple gobos on it to block the light a little. I wanted to make it look dark, contrasty, and a little surreal, but also like the light was coming naturally from the candles. Once I had the aperture set for the flash exposure, I was able to play with the shutter speed to get the ambient candle exposure just where I wanted it. I’m pretty happy with the results. The song was about 4 minutes long, so I didn’t have too much time to get tons of shots. If I were to do it again, I think I’d try a bounce behind her to see if I could throw a little light back on the piano.
Most importantly, the song rocked, pure awesome, and everyone gave Jenni a huge ovation. Thanks for rocking at my house, Jenni! The song’s a hit, just need to record it and get a sweet video made.
