Turkish Oud

[ionian]

Here's a photo I created as part of a publicity campaign - it's a traditional Turkish instrument, like a lute, and I bought it about ten years ago in Bodrum, Turkey.

I suspended the instrument in front of a black backdrop and then used an 80cm gridded octobox as my key light off-camera right. On the left is fill via a gridded beauty dish, making the curved back pop. I then added a small gridded flash underneath the body to give a specular highlight on the base of the bowl - this gave depth to the instrument.

I'm generally happy with it, but I'm not 100% keen on the long specular highlight on the head where the tuning pegs are. It was impossible to eliminate this because of the angle of this area compared to the body, and it's a minor thing, so I lived with it! Comments welcome as always, especially on lighting.

[Dave Humphries]

I'm generally happy with it, but I'm not 100% keen on the long specular highlight on the head where the tuning pegs are. It was impossible to eliminate this because of the angle of this area compared to the body, and it's a minor thing, so I lived with it! Comments welcome as always, especially on lighting.

Would a CPL be worth a try Simon?
It won't eradicate it, but should, I think, reduce it.

On a more general level, I think I'd be happier seeing how it is balanced, but appreciate your specific campaign requirements over rule that.

I wonder if it is possible to introduce a Gobo of sorts, to cast a (soft) shadow precisely there, which might also help reduce it.

Mike may have some ideas, sure he'll be along soon and he's shot a lot of shiny things!

Cheers, Dave

PS
In extremis, I guess you could always address it in PP, probably by cloning.

Thinking more about how Mike might tackle it; perhaps shoot two shots, one without the key light and blend in PP?

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed.

[ionian]

The specular highlight on the head is an interesting problem because it's impossible to take it out of the family of angles - at least with the gear I have - and keep the lighting as I wanted it on the rest of the instrument. However, I wonder if it's not really an issue in hindsight. We expect objects to reflect light, and if they lack specular features you won't get a sense of the glossy texture, it would just look flat. Had there been a big light spot on the body it would look wrong, because the finish is matt, but the head is varnished and it shows the shape without losing key detail.

Maybe this is just bring wise after the event, and making excuses for poor workmanship!

I have become very lazy with my post-processing in recent months, preferring a quick touch-up to major layered edits -but I guess setting up different lighting for each part and blending could work if it was really bugging me.

[TonyW]

This is a very elegant instrument and I like the picture. If I could be really picky, I would say the the specular reflection from the nut is something I would try to avoid. I don't mind so much the reflection on the side of the peg box. Also, it would be nice to see the top two pairs of strings more clearly. It might be a depth of field issue.

Simon, do you play the oud or a lute?

[ionian]

This is a very elegant instrument and I like the picture. If I could be really picky, I would say the the specular reflection from the nut is something I would try to avoid. I don't mind so much the reflection on the side of the peg box. Also, it would be nice to see the top two pairs of strings more clearly. It might be a depth of field issue.

Simon, do you play the oud or a lute?

Yes, the nut is overbright because it is closest to the light source -I've actually burnt it in post already, I didn't want to overdo it, but it could do with less exposure there I agree. The top two pairs of strings are nylon, instead of wound metal - they disappear against the grain of the wood. Perhaps I could have added a light (or a reflector) to throw some light back onto them from behind, but my goodness that would have taken some fiddly placement! They stand out fine against the pickguard. Are there any other ways you can think of to address this? I'm photographing a rather special ukulele tomorrow so can apply ideas to that.

I don't play it properly - I play the guitar and can turn my hand to most fretted instruments with varying degrees of success, but the Oud is both unfretted and uses a tuning that I have yet to get my head round. Maybe one day...