Photographing Violins

In starting Amati, it has been obvious that one of the biggest stumbling blocks has been the ability of dealers and makers to photograph their violins. 

This is not at all a surprise. Musical instruments can be shiny, reflecting light off their arching, and the details that most appeal to an expert (fluting on the F holes?) can be deeply unappealing to the photographer. So with a bit of advice I have come up with the following ‘idiot’s guide to photographing violins.’

The following advice relies on natural light, so you don’t need to invest in expensive and cumbersome lights.

You will need a camera, tripod, reflector board and a background material. You do not need to break the bank when buying a camera. Digital cameras have moved on so much over the last few years that even the compact cameras can give sensational images. The camera does need to have a ‘manual’ setting - by which you can control the shutter speed, aperture and film speed (ISO).

A reflector board can be a piece of white cardboard about a foot and a half square. You can buy this at most art-shops.

My preference is a grey background. It makes instruments easy to ‘cut out’ on photoshop, and also looks good against the violins.

Step: 1

Stop thinking like a violin expert. At this stage you are no longer interested in colour, shape, varnish. Your primary focus for this process is highlights and reflections.

Step: 2

Choose a room that has a fairly even light. Rooms with windows on one side are harder to shoot in than ones with windows on both.

Step: 3

Walk around the room holding the instrument horizontally. Ideally do this at as low a level as possible.

Note: Remember you are a photographer, not an expert. Do not look at the violin, look at the reflections it is giving off.

As you move yourself and the instrument around the room, you will find one place where there are no reflections. This is where you set up.

Step: 4

Lay your background on the floor. This background is traditionally grey, but any colour you choose can work, as long as it is a consistent colour (no patterns!).

Step: 5

Use two props to raise the violin from the background. Two small glasses may can be good, but see what works best.

Step: 6

Set up the tripod up with the camera facing down at the violin.

Step: 7

Now look at the violin again. You have chosen the best location so the view should be reflection free, now look at the light on the violin. Is it darker in one place than another? If so use your bounce board (reflector board) on the side facing the light source to reflect light on to to the darker side. 

At this point, you should have:

The violin in the correct place with even light and no highlights.
The tripod in place looking down on the violin.
If necessary, the bounce board in place

Now you are ready to take the picture.

Step 8: 

Set camera to manual, adjust the ISO to 100 and have your aperture at the smallest size possible. This means that the F-number (also known as the F-stop) should be the highest number possible. Some cameras can go up to F22 and beyond, but modern compacts sometimes only reach F8. Whatever the highest number is, that is the one you want.

The ISO and F-stop are constants. These do not change when shooting the violin.

Step 9:

Choose your exposure. This may be as long as one or even two seconds depending on your aperture size and the light in the room. You will have to experiment with this to find the one that gives the best shot.

Step 10:

Set the self-timer on the camera (touching the shutter button on the camera would otherwise shake the camera even fractionally). Sit back with a beer and admire your handiwork.  

The camera in the shot at the top is a Lumix GF-1 with a pancake lens. I can't recommend it highly enough, brilliant in low light and a joy to use. 

You can download an article on how to photograph violins here.