How to photo a tuba?

[Dan Schultz]

You will get better results by tweaking the artificial lighting (not sunlight) and NOT using a flash.

[lgb&dtuba]

Depending on your photo equipment the previous post to use artificial light is probably the best thing. The problem with most digital cameras is the built in flash. It's too close to the camera lens axis and reflects almost straight back into the lens. That's what causes 'red eye' in people shots and causes bright flares off the instrument.

The answer to that particular problem is a separate flash unit placed further off axis from the lens. That can be problematic when your camera has a built in flash and no hot shoe or pc connection for an external flash. If you have a more pro-sumer digital camera with a hot shoe or other provisions for an external flash then just use that.

The way I got around that is with a light sensing slave flash trigger connected to the external flash. The camera flash then triggers the slave flash which has been placed in a better location. The tricky part in this approach is isolating the camera flash so that it doesn't illuminate the subject and having a long enough cable between the slave trigger and flash.

I do that with a shroud cut from cardboard mounted such that the camera flash and slave trigger are isolated. Hard to describe in words. Imagine a shortened toilet paper tube with one end against the flash and the other end holding the trigger pointing down the tube towards the flash with no light leaks.

The other point is that you must be able to set your digital camera completely manually so that you can set the proper f stop for the distance between the flash and subject as well as setting a 60th/sec shutter speed - just like you would have done with manual flashes on 35 mm cameras in the old days.

So, this can be effectively done, but it's a lot less expensive and easier to just set up the artificial lighting unless you see yourself doing this a lot.

In my case I already had everything I needed left over from years of messing around with 35 mm and just had to figure out how to get it all working together.

Good luck.

Jim Wagner

[Mark]

As you've discovered with the tissue over the flash and as the other responses suggest, you need difuse lighting when photographing shiny metal.

The ideal way to photograph a tuba would be in a light tent (e.g. http://www.ezcube.com/). You don't need to buy one though. Use a white bed sheet to make a tent, put lights all round the sheet and take the picture through an opening in the tent.

More: http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/19002.html

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent

[Tom]

Paul Sidey has always had some pretty nice pictures on his website of both mouthpieces and tubas. I would contact him for some tips. He was very helpful to me in the past when I asked about how to best photograph details on tubas.

[Rick Denney]

Can anyone give me tips on taking digital pictures of tubas? I have a bit of a time trying to get good pictures of silver horns. So far the best I've been able to do involves tweaking with the lighting and using a kleenex to filter the flash. Kind of whacky but it's the best I can do. I've tried different digital cameras of varying qualities, but still can't get 'em perfect.

I'm also a photographer, and I'll answer briefly. Highly reflective objects reflect point sources of light with so much energy that they confuse the exposure metering in the camera and distract the viewer's eye. Thus, the best form of lighting is as flat as possible, either outdoors on an overcast day, or indoors with all the lights aimed at the ceiling.

I used a camera-mounted flash turned to bounce off the ceiling when I'm in a hurry (which is usually the case with tubas), and studio flashes with 4' shoot-through umbrellas when I'm not.

Large, flat light sources work best. That's the exact opposite of a camera-mounted flash. So turn the flash off, mount the camera on a tripod (or brace it firmly on a piece of furniture), and use regular room light. Leave the white balance on "Auto" (interior light is rarely white) and it will look okay. If your camera won't let you turn the flash off, then cover it with something thicker than a tissue, like, say, a piece of duct tape.

If you want perfection (like the photos of tubas in ads), then you need to provide two large rectangular scrims about three feet wide and six feet tall, at 45-degree angles to the angle of incidence on either side of the camera (so that the camera is hiding in the dark gap between the two panels), and light the scrims using studio lights aimed back at them. Large soft boxes are more expensive but would work as well. The point is, perfection requires some real light-management stuff. "Pretty good" is a lot easier, heh, heh.

Rick "who almost never uses the on-camera flash" Denney

[Norm in Bellevue]

All good suggestions, but I would add the following: Watch out for perspective distortion. Unless you're using a telephoto lens, make certain the film plane is parallel to the tuba. Otherwise you'll end up with a distorted pic of the horn, i.e. the part of the tuba nearest the camera will look larger than it actually is in relation to the rest of the horn.

[GC]

Along the lines of Norm's comment, don't get too close to the tuba to take pictures. It'll distort the shape of the instrument. In particular, if you take pictures close to the bottom of the horn, it makes the bell look really small and badly distorts perception of the upper end of the horn.

Don't take pictures of bright silver instruments against a dark background. The edges of the horn tend to blend into the background and become indistinct.