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Instrument as still life

C

Charles L Webster

pro member
I have taken to shooting this mandolin to work on my studio lighting technique. I don't find a still-life category, and since this isn't macro, here it is.

Lit with one strobe w/ a 10deg honeycomb grid. Shot w/ Canon 300D w/ EF-S 17-85 @ 85mm f/11 1/250 ISO 200


5166531-lg.jpg
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Charles!

What a wonderful instrument! A great choice of subject.

Congrats on the picture. The wood is rich and beautiful and the shape has movement. One might have added a background. You still could, but I find that negative space to be interesting and allow the mind to ask questions about what one's seeing and what it might mean.

I really like the lines of the mandolin, as it is reminiscent of other things like boats that might have sailed the Mediterranean or around Turkey, trading spices, wines and grain.

In fact, I could imagine a dark water background. But that is not needed, as the picture is, itself, impressive. No doubt, someone else might ask for some verticals to complete the composition. I would argue that starkness is part of its impact.

If any of that is what you intended then I have understood you. Otherwise, chalk it down to my own romanticism and distractibility by beautiful things.

Although I love this image as is and would be proud to see it on my wall, I presume you are going to do a lot more with shading using different lighting. You could in fact, work on just this for the next month. This is a superb and really challenging thing to photograph and I think you have only just touched the very surface of all the richness you will get with further work.

A series, just of this comes to mind.

Asher
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
Thanks Asher

Yes, I noticed the "boat-like" quality of the mandolin as I was shooting it, and tried to emphasize that aspect with the positioning, and yes the use of negative space is intentional, but the background here is darker than on my screen at home. In the original there is a slight graying of the b/g as it progresses to the left of the frame, bringing to mind a lightening of the sky/space that the instrument/boat is leaving.

Thanks for your compliments
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Charles,

I'm so pleased that your initial vision, imagination and intent did follow, as I've asserted, a creative "arc of intent" to delivery of the image and that I as an observer had the privilege to complete that arc.

My reception of your original intent, processed as you did by the work of implementation, recreated in my mind an experience akin to that which you felt throughout your creative process.

That is satisfying to me as an interpreter and for sure it must be a pleasure to you as the artist. But notice how the message, once it leaves you, is subject to my frames of reference so some of the meaning I can attribute to it are inherited from but not identical to your own parenting vision.

This is what is so special about good art. It has definition and ambiguity. Therefore, each person that views the work (and on each occasion) must work afresh in interpretation.

This brings to the work a new frame of reference into which this art must be assimilated and given relevance, significance and meaning. Each day we are different, so the work can remain fresh.

Asher
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
Asher Kelman said:
Charles,

I'm so pleased that your initial vision, imagination and intent did follow, as I've asserted, a creative "arc of intent" to delivery of the image and that I as an observer had the privilege to complete that arc.

My reception of your original intent, processed as you did by the work of implementation, recreated in my mind an experience akin to that which you felt throughout your creative process.

-snip-

Asher
Click to expand...

That is what I consider a "successful picture;" a photograph that clearly conveys, without words or additional information, my vision from me to you.

My goal is to make more successful pictures.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Nill Toulme said:
That's really nice. I wonder though if it wouldn't have profited from enough more DOF to have the entire instrument in focus?

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
Click to expand...

I too would like to see more. I think that this is a superb subject worth a lot more exploration. DOF is one variable. I'd make changes in one thing only to this image, so that it can be presented in a set of variants. My suggestion is to only change DOF and some lighting but not the b.g. initially, so that the images appear related in a series.

Asher
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
Nill Toulme said:
That's really nice. I wonder though if it wouldn't have profited from enough more DOF to have the entire instrument in focus?

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
Click to expand...

The shallow DOF was intended as a way to bring the viewer's focus to the center of the instrument. This is but one of hundreds of photos I'm shooting of this instrument. You can see other explorations on this theme in my Mandolins folder on Photo.net http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=647416

In each session, I explore one style of lighting, or one position, or one part of the instrument. This shot is from a series that concentrated on the end of the fretboard and the sound hole, and their relationship. This was the photo I considered most successful in the series.

Thanks for your feedback, I'll be posting more mandolin photos as time goes by.
 
N

Nill Toulme

New member
Charles L Webster said:
The shallow DOF was intended as a way to bring the viewer's focus to the center of the instrument. ...
Click to expand...

Then in that case I'd say, to my eye, it's not shallow enough. It doesn't appear intentional but more like a near miss.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
Depth of field

Nill,
This photo uses DoF to control the view more strongly. But that lens produces terrible bokeh!

5119453-md.jpg


As I said this is an ongoing exploration of one subject.
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
Nill Toulme said:
Wow, does it ever! What lens is that?

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
Click to expand...

That's the Sigma 70mm-300mm F4-5.6 APO Macro Super (a very inexpensive lens). On a Canon 300D (Digital Rebel).

The objective of this exercise (shooting the mandolin) is not necessarily to produce excellent photos, but to learn about studio lighting and studio photography. I'm a landscape photographer trying to learn a new language - that of controlled lighting and how things like DoF and bokeh affect the perception of the object. That said, I do appreciate comments on quality such as Nill's about the DoF.

Thanks,
 
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