Taking photos of guitars - how?

[Danhedonia]

 

I am a decent portrait photographer, but have completely struck out when taking pics of my babies.

How do you do it?  Specifically interested in:

 

* choice of light source (natural? fluorescent? incandescent? does it matter?)

* camera angle.  as specific as possible ... "about a foot away from the bridge and above it ..." etc.

* tweaks / settings?  I think all of us now do at least some post-production ... I think.

* anything else? 

People on here have some fantastic shots of guitars - I both want to do this for fun and need to as I prepare to thin the herd on Reverb.com.  Help!

Thanks!

[kayd_mon]

This thread would benefit from the return of cratz22 and GreatDane.

[kayd_mon]

Oh, Docjeffrey takes nice shots, too, but rarely checks in anymore.

[gardo]

I'm no expert but I know  there is something special about the light outdoors just after sunrise and again just before sunset. Auto companies have used this for years.,it seems to enhance the colors

[noisebloom]

I'm no expert, but I do have some standards I like to follow. Until recently I shot all my stuff on autofocus cameras. I did use film cameras years ago. Now I'm beginning my journey with a DSLR camera and getting a little more serious about the hobby.

 

I prefer natural lighting whenever possible, so I like to shoot my guitars near windows in daytime settings. I'm a believer in using extra lighting very sparingly. I keep the flash off as much as possible as a general rule. It's just a thing with me.

 

I shoot in all kinds of angles and distances. I generally don't like shooting with the guitar in a nadir or straight-on position, or anything that will show a reflection of me, say in the hardware or the shine of the finish.

 

Of course, with static shots I like to keep the ISO as low as possible while preventing overexposure. I think that's the general rule, anyway. I guess aperture and speeds kind of follow along that standard. I want to get as much light and sharpness and image depth and color depth as possible without overdoing it.

 

I'm learning the importance of shooting black guitars with some kinds of reflections in the finishes. That livens up the shots and gives the finish a little more character. A lot of people have said shooting black guitars can be a nightmare, especially up close, when you're always fighting dust particles, and that is quite true.

 

I also believe in shooting full guitar shots at an "8-to-2" angle, so the guitar almost looks like it's in a playing position. I find that's a very good way to present a guitar.

 

That's the basic approach I'm taking as I build my own skills.

[pweller]

The one problem with photographing anything shiny are reflections.  So, learn to scrutinize your photos very carefully in this regard.  What this means, is that you almost need a 'white room' - because anything inside the room will likely get reflected, especially in carved-top guitars which show reflections in almost all directions.  

Even in Sparky's photo above, you can see an odd reflection (looks like wall mounted cabinets to me) in his second photo.  I'm not knocking his photos, they look nice overall, but anything in the room gets reflected and shows up in the photo.  Photoing a black, carved top is probably the hardest, as the reflections are strongest.

I've seen people photograph stuff outside and you can see the reflections of the trees in the guitar body.  It isn't a professional look - of course it is good enough to make a one-time sale on ebay, though.

[liko]

 

 

Danhedonia wrote:

 

* choice of light source (natural? fluorescent? incandescent? does it matter?)

 

A lot of the best amateur shots of guitars that I've seen have been in daylight, either outdoors or near a window (don't backlight your shot, though). Failing that, put as much of the same color temperature light onto the subject as you can. I generally recommend against using the camera's built-in flash unless there's no other option; the biggest mistake that screams "amateur with a cheap camera" is using a built-in flash, which is typically a blue-white color temperature, in a room lit with incandescents or other "warm white" sources. As the built-in flash faces forward, in contrast to the aftermarket rail-mounts which can be pointed any which-way to soften the illumination, you're also liable to bleach out the foreground.

 

* camera angle.  as specific as possible ... "about a foot away from the bridge and above it ..." etc.

 

This, you'll have to play around with (and it's the easiest to change once you have the subject "posed"). It will be a function of where the light's coming from; obviously you don't want to cast a shadow in your shot so don't come between the light source and the subject. Beyond that, find an "interesting" angle that highlights the finish features of the guitar, especially trans finishes. A direct face-on shot should be avoided if you're using a flash.

 

* tweaks / settings?  I think all of us now do at least some post-production ... I think.

 

You'll want a camera that allows you to play with the "exposure triangle"; ISO, shutter and aperture. This type of control typically starts in the "superzoom" class and moves up into DSLRs. I typically shoot all my indoor photos at ISO 1600, which allows me to get away with not using a flash, but this approach typically requires the aperture to be wide open and a pretty long shutter. Again, the more light you can put on the subject, the better, and you can compensate by reducing shutter time.

For taking pictures of a guitar, the aperture setting will most likely be wide open (the minimum number the lens/camera will allow). A narrower aperture decreases available light, requiring a longer shutter or higher ISO, but it increases your "depth of field" (the amount of relative distance from the lens that can be brought into focus at once) which allows you to get close up at angles looking across the body without half the guitar being fuzzy. Just remember that our eyes naturally perceive a change in focus as a change in distance, so in an extreme angled closeup, you may want to see the far side of the guitar slightly out of focus, which will tell your brain that the composition of the shot has depth; if everything in the shot is in focus, it looks flatter.

On digitals, "white balance" is also very important. People typically look yellow or orange in pictures taken indoors with a point-and-shoot, while they can look green or even blue in pictures taken under fluorescents. The camera is trying to compensate for natural variations in what "white" looks like under different light temperatures, but incandescent and fluorescent are two opposite extremes of color temperature and need correcting in opposite ways, so if you don't have the white balance set correctly (or if you have it set to "auto", which is a limited "best fit" option that takes passable pictures in most light) your pictures won't look natural.

If you have access to Photoshop or Lightwave, you can typically save most shots with a sub-optimal exposure level, using filter transformations like "ISO Correct" or similar. They can also fix bad white balance corrections in most cases. These pieces of software don't come cheap though, so don't buy them just to take one perfect picture. 

 

* anything else? 

---

 

Experiment. The camera's not going to set the guitar on fire if you don't use it exactly right. Digital cameras also relieve you of the worry of running out of film, so you don't have to worry about getting just the right shot in only 32 tries; take 302 shots if you like. Find what works for you and your guitar; that may involve bending or outright ignoring any of the guidelines I've outlined in this post.