Cohen c#

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-22-2006, 8:29pm

Here are some images of a C# mandolin recently finished. The first image is of the whole mandolin from the front.

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-22-2006, 8:32pm

Kinda dark. Lets see how a closer view of the top plate looks

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-22-2006, 8:33pm

Better, though still not very good photography. Here is the back plate.

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-22-2006, 8:35pm

Still darker than the real thing. Next, some point side detail.

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-22-2006, 8:37pm

A little closer to reality. Now some scroll side detail.

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-22-2006, 8:42pm

The headstock. Couldn't eliminate the glare from the flash. Gotta take some lessons or a class on this stuff.

You can see that there is no truss rod cover; that is b/c there is no truss rod. I use my own configuration of cf set deep in the neck. The difference in mass is very noticeable, and these necks are staying straight so far.

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-22-2006, 8:45pm

One more, a side view of the headstock showing more binding detail. You can do this sort of thing just as easily (well, almost) with wood binding as you can with plastic binding. You just have to think about the easiest way to accomplish it.

**red7flag** · Nov-22-2006, 10:14pm

Dave, I love the look of that binding. Great job.
Tony

**jasona** · Nov-22-2006, 10:36pm

Very nice!

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-22-2006, 11:30pm

The point is bone.

**jessboo** · Nov-22-2006, 11:50pm

Dave, what can i say? you are a true artist. what's the top wood?

**mandroid** · Nov-23-2006, 1:49am

Mandolin Looks #quite good.

suggestions to help out on the picture

[background is exposed well, but since its white #, perhaps, caused #the mandolin to be #under exposed.

Film jargon would be: f stop, or so, more exposure , like #for portrait of someone with the window behind them .background would be over exposed , but subject would be brighter .

Supplimental lighting to the flash always worth a try..

Or , darker background may let the auto-exposure give you the brighter subject .

**Steve Davis** · Nov-23-2006, 8:05am

Another beauty! Do the two mandolins sound the same? I really like the wood binding.

**Dave Cohen** · Nov-23-2006, 8:28am

The tops on both this one [/I]and[I] the Lily f are redwood. They sound pretty similar. I was able to get the Lily f pretty light for an f.

Mandroid, thanks for the photography hints. I copied 'em down. I have been massaging the images in Gimp2, and they don't look quite that dark until they get posted here. Anyone else noticed that when posting pictures here?

**ustafiddle** · Nov-24-2006, 12:04pm

You might try fabricating a small box/pyramid with wire and covering it with a piece of white fabric (pillow cases work great). Make the front larger than the back and aim your flash into that. Your going to have be able to control the output of your flash as the light traveling through the fabric causes a decrease in the amount of light to the subject. In this case the mandolin. Boost it up at least by a factor of one. I’m assuming that you have an external flash that isn’t built into the camera. See suggestion two if I have assumed incorrectly.
When you are shooting something that is reflective like a shiny top, you can't light it directly if you want it to look good. You want to light what reflects into the object if that makes any sense. The suggestion of adding supplemental lights is a good one too. The clip lights for paining you can get from the hardware store work great and you can control the about of light by varying the wattage of the bulbs. Make sure you get at least two. One to light the background and one to light the mandolin. I would use three. One for the back, one for the soundboard and one for the headstock and peghead. Bounce the light for the foreground off a piece of poster board. It’s easy to take out the color tint from incandescent light to make it look like daylight. The benefit of using hot lights is that you can see what you are doing as you are doing it. Use cardboard attached to the sides to work as blinders to keep light off certain areas.
When I was learning to shoot I had an instructor that made us take two pictures of a clear glass. One had to have white edges on a dark background and the other had to have black edges on a white background; with a 4x5 view camera. Talk about frustrating. Let me know if something didn’t make sense or you have any questions.