Colr film test

If you create your violins with the same manner that you create your photographs then I would love to hear the timber and tonality that they create when played.

What lens did you use with the Nikon?

Joel

The above shot was the Nikon 105mm f/2.5 at f/5.6 I think.

A very good shot of craftsmanship to be proud of, It also shows what a superb film Reala is, even in mixed light there's no colour caste because of it's fourth emulsion layer.

Ah, this reminds me of the extreme frustration I went through when trying to control the specular highlights on the violins and cellos made by a friend of mine!

But yeah the film does pretty well in mixed light. This is really with no autoleveling on your scan?

Thanks, No levels adj no anything just converted from the TIFF scan to JPEG and resized. When I tried Ektar 100 under these circumstances the shots had a red/orange cast to them but this Reala seems to work great.
Keith as you know, trying to adjust lights where there are no glare spots seems to be impossible...if you have any suggestions I would really appreciate that.

Well, unfortunately, big light tents don't work for these instruments- they have such a 3D surface, they just turn white. And as you know, the surface shine can conceal the really beautiful iridescence of the wood.

I experimented with polarizers and that worked quite well, but not completely. The best solution I had was to set up a closet-like spot for shooting, and then build up a lot of very diffuse and even bounce by aiming my lights at the floor and ceiling. I also used a bunch of 1x1 ft cards held in clamps to fight the spots individually; I just moved those around close to the instrument to kill specific blotches. Then, after all my *hours* of fussing... the instrument looked dull!!!! Aaargh! So for a more attractive appearance, you really don't want to kill *all* the specular highlights. You just want to control them well enough that they trace out specific curves, rather than creating whited-out blotches here and there.

It's hard work, my hat's off to you or anyone who can do it well. I am envious that you have such beautiful pieces in your midst to work with. In my case, I was working in the tight quarters of a friend's shop and had to pack the whole thing up after one day. Hardly worth the bother. If I had it to do over, I'd build a more permanent setup in a deep closet or big box or something.

P.S. Here's one of my old "dead" light shots... really looks quite awful. But if you got to this point and then added a specular highlight to trace out a curve here and there, then I think you'd be cooking.

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c76/keithwms/?action=view&current=viola_web.jpg

That is the way may of the auction houses present the instrument they have for auction. I almost always shoot my violins against a black background and use different angles rather than the perfectly straight front back and side shots you so often see.
The shot above was shot specifically under my workbench fluorescents just to see if the Reala would render a color cast.

This looks great..the color appears spot on but only you know for sure