The images I'm talking about today were taken in the main recording room at Monnow Valley studios, famous for being the recording and rehearsal venue of such artists as Queen, Black Sabbath, Oasis, Stereophonics and many many more.
I broke out the camera while James was practicing a passage for a track on the Vega album "Who We Are". The ambient light in the room (at this time of night) was very poor and I knew I needed to add light in order to get a good result. I was after a subtle and tranquil photograph to match the passage that James was playing. Here is a shot of the rather dull and plain ambient light as seen in the room:
Photograph without any additional lighting.
To rectify this I added a speedlight flash to the windowsill by the side of the piano. I placed this here during a break in practice. In truth, it was an experiment - I knew it would add light but wasn't sure how it would look on James' face. Here is the test of the flash while James was away:
I liked the play of light on the window and was pleased that it didn't add too much to the dark walls as I wanted to keep the moody contrast. James soon returned and here is what turned out to be the final shot. The light caught James' face very well and didn't illuminate too much of the rest of the room at all. I changed it to monochrome as the tungsten light from the lamp clashed with the rather daylight balanced flash light.
Proud of this one, like it a lot.