Instruments of pleasure

[TonyW]

I am trying to document my musical instruments and find it hard to decide on how they should be presented. This first version of a few of them is very static but I hope shows them off reasonably well. I am trying to combine two of my favourite hobbies here.

I wondered whether I should try to eliminate the shadows and reflections from the background but decided to leave them.

Sound files of a couple of items from a concert that our group gave recently can be found at:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y76mk1u6a...QkLouh33a?dl=0

C&C more than welcome. This sort of photography is certainly not my forte.

056A8656(2) by tonyw36, on Flickr

[Mike Buckley]

Wow! I didn't realize that we have an early music enthusiast here at CiC! Great to know! Believe it or not, my first hearing of the Vivaldi Piccolo Concerto in C was played live on a sopranino recorder. That's despite that I grew up in the world of American bands and orchestras that had lots of piccolo players.

You did a really nice job of handling the reflective surface of the wood and metal. I'm guessing from this very small image that you used one light source positioned a little to the right of the instruments. Consider positioning it farther to the right so the direct reflection of the wood is completely removed from the finger holes.

Most people would like this kind of documentary image more if there was no shadow on the wall. You can solve that issue by moving the instruments farther away from the wall and perhaps using a flash to bounce the light off a white ceiling or wall to create a large light source. Alternatively, use different light sources to light the background and instruments.

[pnodrog]

Tony your photo is a blast from the past. My mother attended several master classes with Carl Dolmetsch in about 1956. When she died I inherited a set of rosewood with ivory trim recorders, sopranino to tenor. I would have loved to have kept them but I was just married and trying to get a deposit for a house so when another player from the group made me a very good offer I accepted. I often wish I had held on to them.

The shadow is soft enough that it not distracting however I think it would be better if they were totally isolated on a seamless base to background. The light wooden shelf detracts from the recorders (block flutes). The background could be paper, cloth or drapes and possibly pale blue or a green.

[Mike Buckley]

I disagree that the shelf is a distraction. One advantage of it is that it provides a sense of scale, which could be important for people who are not familiar with the size of these instruments.

[pnodrog]

I do not want to be disagreeable but I disagree with your disagreement... The scale is reasonably obvious from the size of the mouth pieces and the fingering holes. We may need others to adjudicate.

P.S. Tony I looking forward to listening to your group when I get home.

[Inkanyezi]

For a long time in my youth, I was a dedicated recorder player, and I still have most of those instruments, although I don't play them very much any more. My main instrument through several decades has been the quena.

The thing that disturbs me a bit in the photo is the mix of illumination of different colour. It looks as though the main illumination comes from a window and is rather frontal, only somewhat from the side. However, in the upper part of the image, there seems to be another light source. White balance does not seem to fit any of their colour characteristics, the lower part of the image bluish, and the top of a warmer light colour.

Shadows are not disturbing in my opinion, but I would prefer a less frontal illumination of the objects, a lighting that pronounces the form of the instruments, and which would also throw the shadows more to the side and make them softer.

I never stood my flutes on end, which to me thus seems unusual, and I wouldn't dare to do so, without supporting them in any way - a peg would be invisible. But my first impression was that I wouldn't dare standing them like that, and I cannot recall ever placing any flute in that position. For a documentary picture though, I think it could serve well.

I would try to get lighting different, taking care not to include more than one kind of light source, and tune white balance with a good reference, whichever type of illumination I chose.

[Shadowman]

Nice image.

[TonyW]

Thanks for all the comments.

Urban is right about the light source in that it is from a window and it is all natural light, but no direct sunlight. I have not deliberately changed the white balance at all. I don't exactly know where the gradation in colour came from but I did not mind that. I don't have any proper studio lights but perhaps I should get a couple and see what I can do. In any case, the main lighting should not be so front on, as suggested. I would like to define the edges of the instruments a little more. The contrast in their darkness is a bit of a challenge.

I made a version without the shadows (with PS) and could have made all the background the same but I rather liked the slight gradation. I should also try moving them further from the background as Mike suggested.

The piece of wood underneath is a stand I made specially for this purpose, with short dowels stopping them from falling over. Longer dowels, as on my regular stand, can be seen through the holes.

056A8656(3)

[Mike Buckley]

I want to reiterate that this is a great start, Tony.

I agree with you that the slight gradient in the background is nice. (I don't perceive any change in white balance, as any such change would be seen also in the recorders and I don't see it.) It's natural that the wall gets darker nearer the ceiling because less sunlight normally would be falling on that part of the wall.

You mentioned the idea of perhaps getting really serious about this stuff. If I take that correctly, I recommend the fourth edition of Light: Science & Magic. You'll learn about light and lighting in general and specifically about lighting wood and metal.

My guess is that you'll fairly rapidly run out of photos to make if you stick to documentary photography. However, you'll have endless options if you get into making artistic photos of your instruments.

To fine-tune this photo, notice that there are double reflections most obvious in the top of the two larger recorders. That could be caused by two pieces of material (perhaps diffuse draperies hung on both sides of a window?) or two somethings in the room being reflected. It's best to have either one direct reflection or two direct reflections that are farther apart and perhaps with one being wider than the other. Another option is to have no direct reflection, which allows the beauty of the wood to remain exposed (not hidden by the direct reflection).

Notice also the flat piece of wood that is part of the mouthpiece. They stand out very well in the large recorders but less so in the small recorders. That's not because of the different color of those pairs of recorders; it's because of the family of angles (explained in Light: Science & Magic) that might require the use of at least two light sources when using this particular composition.

[bnnrcn]

I like the presentation of the instruments , nice composition