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July 31, 2005
The Red Violin
Canon 24-70mm, f/2.8, 1/13 sec, natural light. After a long break from photography, I've decided to work on still lifes again with the goal of building my stock portfolio. Today I gave myself the assignment of photographing my violin.
I don't know how other people feel, but for me studio work is the most challenging type of photography. I get frustrated when I can't produce a photo that matches the image I have in mind. I often can't produce what I visualize when photographing scenes out in the world either, but for some reason I don't find this quite as troubling. When I'm photographing something in my own home, I feel as though I should have complete control over the results, and yet there are so many times when I can't get what I want because I don't have the know-how. There's still so much to learn about lighting. I hope studio work will become more easy and fun when I have more experience.
One valuable lesson gained from today's assignment: pay careful attention to the reflections on shiny objects. For my first (botched) set of photos, I put the violin by a window to catch some soft natural light. But because the violin is shiny, the window created some big, ugly looking highlights on the violin's surface. It's amazing how easy it is to miss these details because the mind tends to ignore reflections.
All images copyrighted, and unauthorized use prohibited. Please contact me for permission. Posted by claire-obscure at July 31, 2005 10:38 PM
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Comments
My sister is a professional violinist. I'd love to see more of your photos and perhaps purchase some for her. In addition to playing concerts, teaching, playing for local touring groups, and studio recording, she also has a studio where she teaches private students.
Posted by: Linda at July 31, 2005 11:18 PM
Uyen
Excellent work.
Yes, studio work is the toughest of all what I do, followed closely by sweeping landscapes.
I see that you are collecting an array of great lenses :). Congrats.
Interestingly, we saw the movie, the Red Violin over the past weekend :).
BTW, how is your stock photography coming along?
anand
Posted by: O b e l i x at August 1, 2005 11:08 AM
Great look and I do like the DOF you've got from using f2.8. I also note the new strings and complete absence of rosin on the fiddle.
Posted by: Sean McC at August 1, 2005 10:11 PM
I should also maybe note that using a circular polarizer will remove most of you reflection issues. You obviously need to bump your ISO a little or slow down your shutter (not an issue using tripod).-But you knew that anyway.
Posted by: Sean McC at August 1, 2005 10:15 PM
Lovely picture, very effective.
I'm not sure that I agree with Sean about the ISO/shutter speed increase as it's not obvious to me what he wants.
I think that maybe the zone of focus isn't nearly as sharp as it could be, maybe that's his point. Could this be from downsizing? If so, maybe a bit of sharpening before and then after downzing to compare. Or perhaps manual focusing. How does it look in the full size file?
I wouldn't suggest to change the dof at all, just the focus point. (specifically: my eyes wants to see the word "france" and the words above them as being clear and crisp).
Congratulations on a fine photograph.
Posted by: Mark at August 4, 2005 4:51 PM
Correction to my comment from above when discussing Sean's suggestion: I should have reffered to it as "ISO increase/shutter speed decrease"
Posted by: Mark at August 4, 2005 4:53 PM
Beautiful study.
Posted by: miles at August 8, 2005 2:56 PM
Really lovely shot with a great depth of field. Nice colour too!
Posted by: Ian at August 20, 2005 5:33 AM
It's a bit late for this but I'll add it it for future readers. What I was saying was that the polariser would remove the reflections, but as with all filters, at the expense of less light getting in. Usually it takes off 2 stops of light. So you'd need to be shooting at 1/3 sec or so or else increase ISO by 2 stops (from say ISO100 to ISO400). I hope that makes sense.
Posted by: Sean McC at October 19, 2005 5:14 AM
super
Posted by: GGG at April 1, 2006 6:36 PM
I want to use this photo for a website design for a violinist - could I take it and put credit and some link on the site please? let me know what link you want
Posted by: and at March 12, 2007 7:51 PM