Angel City Audio's Piano Rosewood Trinity Speakers

[PhenomeNhan]

I'm making a DIY tri-fold panels with a black background (and white removable background) for taking good pictures of a variety of things. It's not done yet (waiting for background fabric), but I couldn't resist taking it for a spin with a throw blanket for a temporary white background. I'll post more pictures of the Trinity speakers and my new Melody PM845 monoblocks when I finalize the tri-fold panels.

Here are some pics that I took yesterday. Feel free to suggest how I can make these pictures even better.

Hi-rez pictures are here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/...hotos-_-Sharee

[PhenomeNhan]

More pics....

[DeeJayBump]

Gorgeous finish.

Congrats

[PhenomeNhan]

And a few more...

[PhenomeNhan]

Gorgeous finish.

Congrats

Thanks! They sound every bit as good as they look. And the Trinity center kicked my Ninja Master Big Foot out of the HT. It makes the upgraded big foot sound really nasally!

[sbisheff]

Those are sick Nhan! Absolutely beautiful!!!!

[PhenomeNhan]

Thanks, Scott! They match pretty well with my piano rosewood LS6s, too. Now back to finishing up the panels :)

[brh986]

Great work!!!! And, thanks!!!!!

[Hugh]

Excellent Work Nhan.

I might also bring back PBEM. :)

[ben9732]

..... Feel free to suggest how I can make these pictures even better. .....

Never ask a curmudgeon that question.

First, direct sunlight is always too harsh, unless you really know how to control it. And I'm sure you already figured out to not have half the item in direct light. Diffuse light is the best, and a light umbrella / panel or two is ideal. If you are going to shoot outside, late afternoon or early morning is usually best when the sun is not as prominent..

Sometimes a black background can be as bad as a white background, but you might need to find that out depending on your light sources. If you don't want to go for the expense of light umbrellas or panels, portable lights, even those with a reflector that just have a clamp can provide good lighting as long as it bounces off walls and ceilings. Also keep in mind that the "color" of the light will alter the hues. Fluorescent and halogen are more at the daylight "blue" spectrum, although "kitchen and bath" fluorescents are more towards the "red" tungsten light spectrum, keeping a warmer tone to the image. In a pinch, I've used 4ft two lamp fluorescent fixtures borrowed out of the garage to do some lighting.

I try to go wider on the camera aperture to keep the background out of focus, but you have to play. You also need to compose what is going to be reflected in the gloss finish, promoting the gloss best you can.

Part B. Damn those are nice speakers.

For this free information you can loan me the PM845s to try out with my Ref 3s. :D You can even throw in a Trinity center. :D:D

[PhenomeNhan]

Never ask a curmudgeon that question.

First, direct sunlight is always too harsh, unless you really know how to control it. And I'm sure you already figured out to not have half the item in direct light. Diffuse light is the best, and a light umbrella / panel or two is ideal. If you are going to shoot outside, late afternoon or early morning is usually best when the sun is not as prominent..

Sometimes a black background can be as bad as a white background, but you might need to find that out depending on your light sources. If you don't want to go for the expense of light umbrellas or panels, portable lights, even those with a reflector that just have a clamp can provide good lighting as long as it bounces off walls and ceilings. Also keep in mind that the "color" of the light will alter the hues. Fluorescent and halogen are more at the daylight "blue" spectrum, although "kitchen and bath" fluorescents are more towards the "red" tungsten light spectrum, keeping a warmer tone to the image. In a pinch, I've used 4ft two lamp fluorescent fixtures borrowed out of the garage to do some lighting.

I try to go wider on the camera aperture to keep the background out of focus, but you have to play. You also need to compose what is going to be reflected in the gloss finish, promoting the gloss best you can.

Part B. Damn those are nice speakers.

For this free information you can loan me the PM845s to try out with my Ref 3s. :D You can even throw in a Trinity center. :D:D

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions, guys.

Jack, I do realize of of the stuff you mentioned. I was in a hurry to capture some pictures before the sun went down. The panel was incomplete and I had only 1 of them covered, hence the bad background reflection. I'll have to mess around with the setup to figure out the best way to get little reflection. I kinda like some of the effects of the sunlight for the washout shots, but you are correct. The first 4 pictures were taken after the sun was out of the way, hence I posted them first :)

I have Kevin (tigerkn) helping me with looking for the right things to buy and I'm sure he will tell me the same things you mentioned :) I'm not good with all this lighting stuff, as I am a bit too impatient with experimenting. I like the diffused daylight, and I think the mornings would be best for me, since the front of the house faces east, but it's difficult for me these days to get out of bed before 11 :D

Thanks again for the suggestions. I'll apply them as best I could.

BTW, I don't know if I can pick my PM845s up to move them anywhere, especially repacking. It took both me and Tim (woofersus) to pack them up in Vegas, and Tim's a pretty strong dude.

I can probably let you try out the Trinity center, but I'll need it back before LSAF in May :)

[ben9732]

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions, guys.

Jack, I do realize of of the stuff you mentioned. I was in a hurry to capture some pictures before the sun went down. The panel was incomplete and I had only 1 of them covered, hence the bad background reflection. I'll have to mess around with the setup to figure out the best way to get little reflection. I kinda like some of the effects of the sunlight for the washout shots, but you are correct. The first 4 pictures were taken after the sun was out of the way, hence I posted them first :)

I have Kevin (tigerkn) helping me with looking for the right things to buy and I'm sure he will tell me the same things you mentioned :) I'm not good with all this lighting stuff, as I am a bit too impatient with experimenting. I like the diffused daylight, and I think the mornings would be best for me, since the front of the house faces east, but it's difficult for me these days to get out of bed before 11 :D

Thanks again for the suggestions. I'll apply them as best I could.

BTW, I don't know if I can pick my PM845s up to move them anywhere, especially repacking. It took both me and Tim (woofersus) to pack them up in Vegas, and Tim's a pretty strong dude.

I can probably let you try out the Trinity center, but I'll need it back before LSAF in May :)

You can actually do a lot without all the photo equipment, I usually do. More so I was just trying to see if you were awake.

I have tons of cameras and lenses (film) but not much in the way of digital and lighting. But we had to take a lot of images of our test parts at work and learned how to use what was available. For the audio equipment I sell on A’gon, I take the images outside on the tailgate of my pickup when the sun is low in the west. It really is the best lighting to show all the details and flaws. For the background, I just use a neutral color sheet.

I still have some images of equipment about midway in my Webshots album http://community.webshots.com/user/fmtrvt

These were just shot under med-low resolution, and you can see I wasn’t concerned about showing the house next door or my driveway, but its me selling on A’gon, not selling as a dealer. I also presented these a little “hot”, or lightened. And you really should be using a good image-working program. Photoshop Elements is a great deal. I’ve got the full PS.

In the images of the A21 you can see there are no harsh shadows, like under the unit. It gives the viewer an easier time to view the object, and the back of the unit makes it clear to see all the details.

For background reflection I didn’t mean that you shouldn’t have one, at least all the time. Sometimes the reflections are distracting, showing the reflection and in this case not the wood grain. But in one or two you do want to show off how shiny the object really is. But you have to be careful, as in some perspective shots finish flaws can be apparent, especially in sunlight.

The lighting equipment would be more for situations indoors. And again, using ambient light that would require a camera stand (due to slow shutter speed) and not the camera flash can give you very good results. At work we were taking images of the same parts that our Plymouth tech center was. My director is an amateur Photographer so he bought light tables, light panels, etc. We just used a neutral background, the fluorescent building light, and a camera stand and consistently had better images then he did. Just learn to work with what you have … I know, no patients. But it's digital so you can play without the expense.

Don’t worry about the equipment loan, we’ll let this one go by. I’m kind of happy with what I’ve got ….. and no play money.

[PhenomeNhan]

Those are stunning speakers and they really sounded good too when I heard them. The first picture(2686) is my favorite by far because it shows all the details and build quality and the gloss stands out too.

Photography wise remember this: Professional photographers can take hundreds of pictures to only have a handfull that are acceeptable. Keep practicing.

Thanks, Mike. I like that one the most, as well, so I post it first :)

I did delete quite a few shots (although some of the included ones can be discarded, as well), but I wanted just to get the initial pictures out there. I'll definitely keep moving forward. I've not been keeping up with photography for a while, so I kinda lost much of what I learned :(

[PhenomeNhan]

You can actually do a lot without all the photo equipment, I usually do. More so I was just trying to see if you were awake.

I have tons of cameras and lenses (film) but not much in the way of digital and lighting. But we had to take a lot of images of our test parts at work and learned how to use what was available. For the audio equipment I sell on A’gon, I take the images outside on the tailgate of my pickup when the sun is low in the west. It really is the best lighting to show all the details and flaws. For the background, I just use a neutral color sheet.

I still have some images of equipment about midway in my Webshots album http://community.webshots.com/user/fmtrvt

These were just shot under med-low resolution, and you can see I wasn’t concerned about showing the house next door or my driveway, but its me selling on A’gon, not selling as a dealer. I also presented these a little “hot”, or lightened. And you really should be using a good image-working program. Photoshop Elements is a great deal. I’ve got the full PS.

In the images of the A21 you can see there are no harsh shadows, like under the unit. It gives the viewer an easier time to view the object, and the back of the unit makes it clear to see all the details.

For background reflection I didn’t mean that you shouldn’t have one, at least all the time. Sometimes the reflections are distracting, showing the reflection and in this case not the wood grain. But in one or two you do want to show off how shiny the object really is. But you have to be careful, as in some perspective shots finish flaws can be apparent, especially in sunlight.

The lighting equipment would be more for situations indoors. And again, using ambient light that would require a camera stand (due to slow shutter speed) and not the camera flash can give you very good results. At work we were taking images of the same parts that our Plymouth tech center was. My director is an amateur Photographer so he bought light tables, light panels, etc. We just used a neutral background, the fluorescent building light, and a camera stand and consistently had better images then he did. Just learn to work with what you have … I know, no patients. But it's digital so you can play without the expense.

Don’t worry about the equipment loan, we’ll let this one go by. I’m kind of happy with what I’ve got ….. and no play money.

Thanks again, Jack. I agree. It's a work-in-progress. When the panels are completed, I think there will be some improvements with the shots (plus I'll probably get more practice in by then). I find that shifting the panel around (3 hinged panels measuring 3ft x 6ft each) than it is to lug some of the equipment around. Each speaker and stand combo is about 80-85 lbs of uneven mass, and I'm not a strong guy :D Just don't ask me to take outside shots of the reference amps that we carry (MN845s), as they weigh close to 200 lbs each!

I've heard good things about PS Element. I don't need the full PS for it, do I? I like using free programs like GIMP.

No worries about the loan, Jack. I'm more interested in getting your opinion on it. Besides, it'll give me a chance to test out the larger L/R as a center speaker in the meantime..

[ben9732]

GIMP may be fine, I'm just not that familiar with it.

MN845s are out of my league. Although I do have a small backhoe so I could move them around .........