Flute Reflections and Notes Bokeh

If you follow this blog, you know I love personal projects. These allow me to experiment and hone my craft.

One of the things I’ve been wanting to try for a while is a trick with bokeh. Any out of focus source of light takes the shape of the diaphragm of the lens, which is round if shooting wide open. As a variation on this, you can put a shape cut out of black cardboard in front of your lens, such as the notes in the flute photo, and the out of focus sources of light will take that shape. In the photograph below, I used some simple Christmas lights.

Muramatsu silver flute with reflections and notes in the background — Shiny objects always represent a lighting challenge.

The above picture is a composite of two shots, one for the bokeh (shot with wide open aperture) and one for the flute (shot for maximum depth of field). My Muramatsu GX model silver flute is in need of a comprehensive service. A lot of notes have been played on it since I received it as a graduation present for my PhD.

I couldn’t resist buying a piece of black plexiglas to provide a reflection of the flute and add some interest to this product shot. I plan to further experiment with these kinds of reflections.