Shakuhachi

[Sephibox]

I tried making one of my selfmade shakuhachi (bamboo flute) look good. Thing is I really didn't know how to achieve this, and kind of got stuck halfway.

Anybody know a good (low budget) approach to do something like this?

The best thing I could come up with, was placing it on a reflective glas table and strategically placing about 6 candle lights behind, in front and on the side of it and using longer shutter speeds in a dark room. I can't use off-camera flash (got no flash yet ) and all other lighting looked harsh or revealed the room.

I hope 4 is not too much.








Any comments welcome.

[Edit] I just realized, I had too much dust on the table.

[Richard]

Hi Sephibox,

That is one cool instrument, I bet it sounds great!

I think I like the colour shots more than the B/W. The inclusion of the rose/flower is good, but it needs to be better lit. You could have a go at painting the light with a torch and long exposure, with practice it is possible to get good results but is prone to digital noise due to the long exposure. The reflective surface is good, But ideally it would be seamless, If you made a seamless paper or cloth scoop, you can place plastic at the bottom to give your product reflection whilst maintaining the seamless background.

I am saving for an off camera flash, but get some ok results with 35W 'daylight' energy efficient florescent bulbs. And tin foil reflectors. I think I spent about £30 GBP on 3 bulbs and 3 clip on light fittings. I then made some cardboard shades to help spread the light... cheap but it's helping me to understand much more about lighting set-ups while I'm saving for a more professional solution. I'll post some pictures if you are interested.

[Sephibox]

Hi Sephibox,
That is one cool instrument, I bet it sounds great!

Thanks, actually it doesn't It's out of tune and impossible to play. But it looks so much cooler than my professionally made, great sounding one..

If you made a seamless paper or cloth scoop, you can place plastic at the bottom to give your product reflection whilst maintaining the seamless background.

Great Idea. I'll try that. The seams bothered me a lot.

I am saving for an off camera flash, but get some ok results with 35W 'daylight' energy efficient florescent bulbs. And tin foil reflectors. I think I spent about £30 GBP on 3 bulbs and 3 clip on light fittings. I then made some cardboard shades to help spread the light... cheap but it's helping me to understand much more about lighting set-ups while I'm saving for a more professional solution. I'll post some pictures if you are interested.

Good tip on the daylight lightbulbs.
It would be great if you could post some pictures. It's so much easier to see than to imagine, and I'm sure it would give me some ideas, since I'm also still saving up for my off camera flash.

[Marko]

Given the limited lighting equipment this is quite good. Shot 1 is the strongest shot for me here.

[Richard]

Ok here are my DIY lights (not the prettiest products I've designed, but I normally try to keep them out of shot.)

[Mad Aussie]

Light painting with a small led light would be my suggestion

Like Marko, I like that first shot. I'd clone that bit of candle out and be quite happy with that.

[jlabel]

Looking at all of them I really cant tell it is a flute, maibe the perspective isnt right or something. When you backlight like that I suggest you reflect some of the light back to the front so youll have some bore details.

[Sephibox]

Looking at all of them I really cant tell it is a flute, maibe the perspective isnt right or something. When you backlight like that I suggest you reflect some of the light back to the front so youll have some bore details.

Hm, that's an intresting observation. The picture wasn't intented to necesarily make you go "This is a flute" rather than make you enjoy the rough and natural forms it has.
But on the other hand I know it's a flute, because I handle it everyday, so I can't really say wether this is "unflute-like" or not. I thought shot 2, which to me was the less interesting also pretty much reveals all of it. As for your lighting tips, there were about 4 or 5 candle-lights behind it and 2-3 in the front, so where would you have directed more light? Another lightsource closer to the lense? Because what I feared was, having too much front detail would make it flat.

Maybe you can give some tips on what you would want to see, to make it more flute like, since as I said, it's kind of hard to me to know what detail is missing for you.

@Robert
Those are indeed ugly , but who cares so long they do the job. I've definetly drawn inspiration from these, to try and built something similar.

I think for now, I'll try what Mad Aussie suggested and clone the candle flame out. I never even saw that until you pointed it out!
Thanks for your comments!

[Mad Aussie]

I never had any doubt it looked like a flute. In that firstshot I can clearly see the holes in a piece of bamboo with a bevelled mouthpiece front end. I couldn't mistake this for anything other than a flute or one of Michaelaw's sex toys!

[Sephibox]

MA, I am not sure I can react to this without probably breaking a forum rule. Suffice it to say, you would normally use this piece of bamboo on your mouth to produce sound. Any other uses are off-label...

harrumph...anyway. I've edited the b&w version slightly, removing dust and distractions. I think, I'll go with this version for now, until I have more time and ideas. Next time I should probably go for more DoF, I just noticed the back is a bit too blurry.