A castle and a choir

I was asked by a local choir recently to create some new group photos for them. The choir sings really beautifully, and so we were treated to some gorgeous a capella impromptu performances at the end of the session (honestly, this is one of those massive perks of the job and one reason why I love to work with musicians!).

The brief was fairly simple (at first glance lol!): photograph the group of 20-30 people plus the choir director inside and around the grounds of a 12th-century castle in the village of Benisanó. The vibe should be classy and appropriate for classical music, whilst at the same time drawing upon the youthful energy of the choir members. Easy peasy…

Luckily I’d shot in this particular castle before (naturally, who doesn’t have a 12th century castle on hand?) so I knew exactly what the spaces and light was going to be like in advance for planning the shoot and didn’t need to go there for location scouting first. I decided to go for a bit of an Annie Liebovitz for Vanity Fair style shoot and so went about setting up the composition of each photograph. I mostly put small groups of 2 to 5 people together first, then dotted extra people around the scene to make it look less formal. I then lit each group separately with my ‘assistant’ triggering the camera. We did this in two places indoors, and of course, I made sure to take a few safe shots as well with the lights far enough back to cover everyone. I then composited it in Photoshop back home to create the final image. For a more in-depth explanation, you can read more here.

The composite shot

The safe shot

We also did some more conventional outdoor photos too just to complete the options for the choir. All in all, it was a fun afternoon! If you’re around Valencia at all and happen to see the group performing, I’d highly recommend them!