| Photo: Charles Brooks |
The above photo may look like a city or some type of industrial plant, but it is not: it is actually inside a pipe organ, which is photographed by Charles Brooks. This is one of the many photographs that they have taken from inside music instruments, a process that may appear that it is much more complex, especially since he is often working with rare, historically important objects.
Charles Brook spent most of his career as a leading cellist, who was traveling from China to perform with a famous orchestra from Chile and Brazil. But beyond his music, he also has experience with photography, going back when he was young. It was a natural combination, when he back back from playing and picked up his camera. The project that kicked things for him was when he started capturing inside the equipment. Brux was enough to talk with me on video chat, sharing her background, what drives her, and unique insight into the music series.
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“In 1860, inside a heavy -restored double bass by Charles Theres, which is one of the best bass manufacturers in the history of instrument. Wellington, to be photographed in New Zealand, is with the help of the current owner Matthew Cave.” Photo: Charles Brooks |
Brooks were living in New Zealand and taking a picture of musicians when Kovid -19 occurred, which quickly stopped things. During that time, however, he saw that since musicians could not play, they were sending their equipment for repair. As a result, the workshops were filled with magnificent equipment, which enhanced an idea. Brooks stated that he had seen some pictures inside the equipment earlier, some of which Berlin was taken to Philharmonic, but he always looked as if the parts were removed to make parts. He wanted to find a way to take a picture inside the equipment with everything intact.
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A 2021 Celmer inside the Paris Sachsophone. Photo: Charles Brooks |
Fortunately for Brooks, Lava released his first investigation lens which was not long ago. His first attempt was on a cello, a tool that he is very familiar. “It was not very difficult, because you can move the spike downwards and it is easy to get the probe lens,” he explained. He said that he felt that this was a good shot, so he decided to see if he could sell something and post it on the redit. It blew there, so Brooks started schemeing how to continue with other equipment including small people.
He quickly felt that the lava testing lens was very large for most devices. To fix this, the first thing he did was used by a heat gun so that it could be slightly smaller, to melt the waterproof cover to make it a little shorter (although he does not recommend others to do so). This allowed her to take a picture of Pianos, but what she really wanted was to capture a stradivaryus violin. The violin has only 5 mm hole, which is very small for anything except medical cameras (scopes), which are not made for high-resolution photography. And so the rabbit hole began that Brooks found themselves going down.
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“In 1770, inside a French violin prepared by Nicholas Augustin Chappui. It was brought to New Zealand by violin Le Violin Roose Luthiers (Auckland). They will spend it to restore it next year or two. Photo: Charles Brooks |
Brooks say that they started buying 20 to 30 adapters, which allow you to attach medical scopes such as Endoscope or Arthroscope in cameras. However, many problems were presented in them. First, they are made to cover small sensors. You can adapt it to a full-frame camera, but most of the resulting image will be black. So they had to find a combination of adapters and magnifier. He said, “I stacked them over each other to get that image circle, as much as I could,” he said.
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“This remarkable picture successfully takes photos to the interior of the first violin. Initially, it was presented to me as a hopaf, but I believe it is actually a replica of the 19th century. It has been played a special violin, but has never been repaired or opened since its composition, a rare for a device of this age. Photo: Charles Brooks |
Unfortunately, every time you add more glass, this image reduces quality. Make things more complex, “These scopes are so small, they are correct at the limits of diffraction,” Brooks explained. “Even if you blow it, you are going to get a big image, but it is not necessarily giving you any other data. It is just a big blurred image.” He spent a lot of time playing with the adapter and magnifier and talked to the manufacturers what he could do.
Finally, Brooks decided to use Micro Four Third Panasonic Lumix G9 II with their scope setup. “It is as big as I could increase it without falling into pieces,” he explained. Then, he uses high-rage mode to achieve large images, which specially helps because there is still some vignating that he needs to harvest.
Unfortunately, everything was not solved by detection of camera and adapter combination. He explained that with all magnification, he was shooting about F250 equal to F250, meaning that there was essentially no light. Their solution was to use a bunch of glow on the highest power, but it adds too much heat, and the older equipment does not tolerate heat well. To protect these expensive equipment, he must ensure that the varnish does not exceed 28 ° C. Therefore, he stops the temperature between each shot to keep everything cool continuously.
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A Geminhardt Elkhardt Alto is a picture inside the flute, which is the result of a combination of 960 individual images. Photo: Charles Brooks |
After a lot of testing and error, Brooks landed on a procedure associated with focus stacking and panoramic stitching. He uses the probe to move around the inside of the device, almost like a clock. However, the investigation focuses at about 2 mm at a time only at a time. He wants all this in the focus so that it does not look like a classic macro shot, so he is taking 20 to 30 images to keep all this in mind. He also takes dark frames like astrophotographers to prevent hot pixels. Furthermore, given that the investigation lens is not made for photography, light transmission is also not beyond the frame. Therefore, he takes pictures of a piece of paper to identify where the viewing begins, determines where to take additional photos to compensate him.
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“One of the world’s best gorgeous piano deep under the action (moving parts). Fazioli makes about 100 of these devices in a year, every 8000 individual parts are handled with more than 8000 individual parts. A lumix S1R and a lava test lens have been shot with a different focal distance, 100 images have been mixed from back to backwards. Photo: Charles Brooks |
If you are thinking that looks like a lot of images, you are right. Brook says that there is not a single final image with less than 100 shots, and some have more than 1,000 individual frame stacks. This is an incredibly time-consuming and technical process, both in shooting and post-production.
Every part of his process is intentionally because he does not want images to look like miniatures. Focus stacking helps him to avoid specific beauty of macro photography by reducing the amount of background blot and focal compression. Creating an image that looks that it was taken with an ultra-wide-angle lens, resulting in we connect with the common size things, such as roads and buildings, which thinks your brain thinking that the subject is not small. He also uses lighting so that it shows that the sun is shining down, emphasizing the feeling that you are standing inside something. Finally, when the bruex displays print, they are massive, adding the feeling that you are inside a grand structure. For example, an upcoming show will prints from five meters (16 x 23 ‘).
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“This is a picture displaying the interior of one of the world’s most extraordinary vialas, a spectacular 1619 construction by Nicolo Amati. The instrument is on a long -term loan from Adam Foundation to New Zealand String Quartet. Photo: Charles Brooks |
Their unique way of taking a picture of equipment is part artistic and part documentary. He is taking a picture of some of the best equipment in the world. While they can look similar to the outside, with fine polish finish and ancient surfaces, there is a historical record inside. Their photographs reveal the manufacturer’s mark, repair, signature and use of equipment or cleaning. Because of this, they have no plans to slow down and they have a list of famous equipment that he would like to be photographed someday. You can see pictures of Brooks and read stories behind some devices On their website,
