Viola Photos

Hello!

While this blog is focused on sharing my passion for photography, I also love teaching music.  I won't post pictures of my students (waaaay too many legal issues there), but I do enjoy taking artistic photos of musical instruments--today's being the viola.

The set up for these photos is pretty basic.  Because I don't have studio lighting and a professional backdrop, I had to improvise.  These shots are used with 1-2 lamps and a bedsheet draped over a short bookshelf and the floor.

Taking pictures of the entire viola did not work with my amateur set up.  In those shots, it was obvious that the instrument was sitting on my bedroom floor.  So I decided to focus on individual features of the viola.

In this shot you can really see the bedsheet in the background (bought it Ross-$20!)

If you want to try something like this on your own, here are a couple of tips:

1. Iron the sheet you are using for a background or use some kind of fabric that doesn't show wrinkles easily in photos (like a fuzzy or faux-fur kind of fabric).  Wrinkles are way easier to iron out in real life than taking out in Photoshop. Believe me I've tried!
2. Avoid using direct light. The lamps I used had shades over them as well as wax paper clipped to the bottom of the shade so I could diffuse the light as much as possible. Gradual changes from light to shadow look nicer than abrupt changes (think of any picture shot in direct sunlight- really dark shadows and bright sun make it difficult for your eyes to adjust as they look around the photo)
3. If you can use a longer focal length (cameras with interchangeable lenses), try it.  Longer focal lengths sometimes work better than shorter focal lengths when it comes to close-up photography.  All of the photos above were taken with a 70mm focal length and a 2.8 aperture.  This doesn't mean something like this can't be done with a camera phone or a point and shoot--don't let lack of equipment stop you from trying!

If you try something like this (it doesn't have to be of a musical instrument!), please share your photos!  I would love to see how they came out :)

Cheers :)