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My first Jeffries!


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These 'added' notes look as though they have been put in by Jeffries, at least the reeds and key work look to be of the same make. Has some attempt been made to support the 'extra' buttons, in the 'bushings' area ?

 

One question Andy; your pictures are of such a high quality, perhaps they are amongst the best I have so far seen on the web, what camera equipment are you using ? I ask because I am in the market to make some improvements to my Digital photographic capabilities.

 

Hi Geoff, the extra buttons haven't been supported, nor do they have any sort of bushing. I think the responsibility falls on me to give them a bit of extra support!

 

Thank you for your compliment about the photos. Although it is is a bit off topic, I'm glad to give away all my secrets!

 

I believe it's very little to do with the camera, but all about the lighting and background. Here's a picture, using my normal setup but taken with my phone.

 

6862608421_e799232285_z.jpg

 

As they say in the instrument repair world, it takes some very specialised equipment and years of experience and training. :D

 

Seriously though, here's my setup, in our tiny dining room:

 

6862301627_bdf7129a57_z.jpg

 

I have a 4' roll of Coloroll background paper which has lasted me for about 10 years, just coming to the end of it now. It looks better than chucking the thing on a chair or an old bed sheet.

 

The light is a single studio flash head with a large softbox on it. This gives a broad light with very soft shadows and, importantly, a lot of light, so you can use something like f22 or f32, thereby getting lots of depth of field.

 

Jessops do some great stuff here. It's also good for portraiture. You can use more than one light but they always end up fighting each other so it's much easier to have a big single light, the bigger the better.

 

I use either a Canon 500D or Olympus E510, but most modern digitals will give excellent result. For developing, I find Adobe Lightroom 3 has by far the best algorithms for sharpening and noise reduction and basic editing.

 

Sorry again for being OT.

Andrew

 

 

Many thanks Andy for being OT (and or OTT) about this. It is a lot like asking someone who plays well what instrument they have, and thinking that the quality of the instrument is having a great effect on the playing. Well, it may have an influence but it is really the person behind the instrument, or camera, that makes the most difference.

I agree that it is the lighting that is showing up well in your pictures.. I will look into these flash head and soft box things.. before spending too much on a new camera.

 

Twas a silly question and I should have known better.

 

Good luck with the restoration,

Geoff.

 

 

Better than a 10 year-old roll of paper, is one of these light tents, available in different sizes. Illuminated by a portable light either side, they are great for photographing jewelry, small sculptures, concertinas, etc.

 

Chris

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Hmmm... thanks for the "light tent" idea Chris.

The best pictures I have managed,of instruments, were taken outdoors on bright but clouded sky days. In fact one was used by the Encyclopedia of Irish Life a few years back; it was a photo of a set of Uilleann pipes that I had made. I spent three days ,and several rolls of film, making that photo with the help of my 10 year old daughter, who is now a professional photographer. Now I need to get some lessons from her I guess, 23 years later!

 

Geoff.

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