Interesting Photo of the Day: Interior of a Piano

Interesting Photos

Scale is an interesting photography subject, especially when intentionally manipulated by the person behind the lens. You see, it’s easy for the eye to perceive something smaller or larger than it is, particularly if any context is lacking, – as famed musician and photographer Charles Brooks knows all too well! His take on instrument interiors may have you envisioning exteriors and landmark buildings instead.

“Interior of a Steinway Grand Piano” by Charles Brooks (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

Forming part of his Architecture in Music series, the shots’ similarity to architectural greats cannot be denied. The arch of the keys is more akin to the eye-catching sweep of a tunnel or subterranean train station. Each pin looks more like a bolster or column than a rather small metallic object.

My goal is to take these tiny spaces and have them appear vast, as if the viewer is standing inside. To do this I need to remove the flags that tell the brain something is small.

That said, the fluffy grain of the wood and felting does make you take a second look. On closer inspection, it becomes clear this is no habitable destination. At least, not one where the average-sized human would feel well-accommodated.

In fact, as Charles shares;
This is the Action (the moving bits behind the keys) of a Steinway Spirio R Grand Piano….the entire space is only 20 mm in diameter….

Though seemingly simple, the actual process behind taking this photograph was also extremely complex. Firstly, Charles had to use a 24mm probe lens by Laowa, even melting off some of the casing so it would fit inside the piano.

Since the space and lens are really dark, and the lens is unusable beyond f/18, bright lights were needed. In order to focus, Charles also had to take well over a hundred shots with varying AF points. Each of them was pixel-shifted, resulting in this photograph containing a total of 1088 frames!