Guitar Photography

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zaphod B
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Zaphod B

Zaphod B

Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
I know I was harassing Metalhead28 a few days ago about the photos he took of that very handsome hand-made guitar, but I have the same problems getting decent pictures of my guitars, which is one reason I haven't posted many of them.

As I think Muttley said, if you have too much direct light then the reflections off the finish screw up the camera metering, and without enough light you can't get any detail.

So I guess the answer is some kind of soft diffuse lighting from multiple sources.

I don't want to spend a fortune on specialized studio lighting but I'd love to rig up something that would help me obtain good shots.

Any ideas?
 
Check out the pics in this thread (the AFTER pics) and tell me if you like 'em:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=264434

I took an acoustic panel off the wall and laid the guitar on it for a neutral background. I then used two little Ikea desk lamps (like $10 each--my desk is wide, so I have two)--one on either side to balance the shadows. Here's the lamp:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40050451

My camera had the flash off, so I was only using the lamps not the flash. That makes the exposure long, so it's on a tripod to avoid shaking and blurring it.
 
These days I have some one shoot my publicity shots but have done quite a bit of experimenting in the past with various degrees of success. The key things to look out for are these

The light source as you say needs to be diffuse. Without access to expensive lights and diffusers the best option is to find a location in you house that has a large window letting in a good deal of natural light. If the light is to direct or strong use a net curtain or greaseproof paper taped over the window to diffuse it.

One of the problems of natural or available light is that it can cast quite strong shadows and doesn't always pick up all the detail you want. To get round this you can bounce light back onto the shadows or onto areas yo are focusing on. I have found that large polystyrene sheets make good diffusers and you get them free with all sorts of white goods these days. I keep 4 or 5 stored away just for this. They are about 4 foot square. Any white reflective surface will do but the whiter the better to avoid adding unwanted colour casts to the pictures.

You can also use household spot lights to bounce light onto shadows or details. Avoid using too much and never point straight at the guitar.

The background is also very important. You want a background that will not reflect light and also will look "flat" in the final picture. Flat as in matt not surface flat. The best materials I have found for this are dark coloured velvet or felt. If the backdrop is to reflective you can get unwanted casts and back lighting issues. Of course if you after that effect fine but in my experience to get good depth of field you need a none reflective backdrop. If you want back light use a small light and diffuser

With digital photography the temptation is always to shoot hundreds of pictures and try and pick out the decent ones. I find this rarely gives good results. Spend more time composing and lighting and less time clicking. Once you have a shot you like take as many as you want and experiment with bracketing and white balance all you want.

I'm sure there are others here that have more photographic knowledge than I do so please chip in, but I have found this approach has always given me more than acceptable results.

God luck with it.

Just to add. Flash rarely works unless you have very expensive gear. Even then it needs bouncing and placing away from the hot shoe. So no flash. Your other option is overcast days outdoors with the sun high in the sky. Not sure how often that happens in Texas? Never for the month I was there a good few years ago.
 
WhiteStrat said:
Check out the pics in this thread (the AFTER pics) and tell me if you like 'em:
Click to expand...
Right, I remember those. They're better than the average guitar shot that you typically see on the boards. They still have quite a bit of sharply-defined shadow and the light isn't quite evenly distributed across the instrument.

I think you have the right idea with multiple light sources but I think what is needed is some kind of reflective material that you point the light source at, that reflects the light back at the photographed object and prevents the light from being a point source.

I have used aluminized insulating bubble wrap for insulating the water pump at my lake house....it is reflective, not too expensive, cuts easily, and could be mounted on some kind of board (like 1/8" luaun plywood) and angled.....wonder if that would work....
 
muttley600 said:
These days I have some one shoot my publicity shots but have done quite a bit of experimenting in the past with various degrees of success. The key things to look out for are these.......
Just to add. Flash rarely works unless you have very expensive gear. Even then it needs bouncing and placing away from the hot shoe. So no flash. Your other option is overcast days outdoors with the sun high in the sky. Not sure how often that happens in Texas? Never for the month I was there a good few years ago.
Click to expand...
Good post, Muttley - thanks.

I have found you are right about the flash - it always results in too much harsh shadow. If there isn't enough light to get a shot without a flash I don't even try.

We do have days as you describe in Texas often enough - uniform cloud cover with high sun. These are the best days for photography, as my father taught me back in the days of hand-held light meters, since the availability of light is so high, yet it is naturally diffuse.
 
Zaphod B said:
Good post, Muttley - thanks.

I have found you are right about the flash - it always results in too much harsh shadow. If there isn't enough light to get a shot without a flash I don't even try.

We do have days as you describe in Texas often enough - uniform cloud cover with high sun. These are the best days for photography, as my father taught me back in the days of hand-held light meters, since the availability of light is so high, yet it is naturally diffuse.
Click to expand...

Exactly, but you'll find you will still need to soend a good deal of time on composition and then bouncing light around. The main problem with outdoor available light, at least around here is that it's a bit like fishing, you can sit around all day waiting for the perfect moment. I don't have the time for that.;)

I'll try and find some shots of a simple home set up like I described and some examples of what you can achieve with simple equipment and a bit of careful thought and prep. The pictures I posted here recently are a good example and I'm sure I have some wide shots among them that include the off set stuff.

Later
 
Zaphod B said:
Don't flourescents have a tendency to affect the color of the shots?
Click to expand...

Yes, and you'll have to do quite a bit or colour correction afterwards if you want to be fussy about it. It's also very hard to control the amount and direction of the light they throw.
 
Zaphod B said:
Right, I remember those. They're better than the average guitar shot that you typically see on the boards. They still have quite a bit of sharply-defined shadow and the light isn't quite evenly distributed across the instrument.

I think you have the right idea with multiple light sources but I think what is needed is some kind of reflective material that you point the light source at, that reflects the light back at the photographed object and prevents the light from being a point source.

I have used aluminized insulating bubble wrap for insulating the water pump at my lake house....it is reflective, not too expensive, cuts easily, and could be mounted on some kind of board (like 1/8" luaun plywood) and angled.....wonder if that would work....
Click to expand...

Yep, you're spot on about the shadows and lighting. I think I succeeded in avoiding the washed out flash look, but it's still not even enough. If I did it again I think I'd follow your line of thinking and diffuse that light, reflecting it back onto the guitar, instead of pointing it right at it.
 
OK the pictures I posted a while back here, here, and here, were done using the basic techniques I described above. I've found a few wide shots of the setup. I have a very annoying habit of photographing everything and taking notes on everything I do just in case I need to remember how to do it again.:rolleyes:

From my notes:-

the front of the headstock was shot using natural light from a large window to the left and bounced back up and on to the shadow cast on the right. the back curtain was lite using a torch held in a mic stand and pointing away from the guitar. I like to try and use backdrop colours that pick out the detail in the front of the frame so this one is a dark silk sheet to show off the rosewood. The rear of the headstock used a dark red cotton sheet which was lit from behind the sheet with a strong spot light. The headstock was lit in exactly the same way as the last one. The red was supposed compliment the mahogany and let the tuners and maple stand out.

finally the front on shot was done with a white background and lit from the front with available light and bounced from a large polystyrene sheet underneath and up close to kill the shadows from the tailpiece and pickgaurd. The gradient on the backdrop was added in photoshop (cheat).

The basic setup was done in a spare room in the house as you can see from the pic below. Just add different colour backing and white card or polystyrene to bounce the light where you want it and a few spots for accent.;)
 

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Using a polystyrene sheet to bounce some spot light.

The instrument does have quite a high gloss despite what the pictures show. Not extreme but what I like to call a soft gloss. Using well placed light and diffusing it stops glare spots even on high gloss finishes. It is impossible to get rid of them altogether but you can get them where you want them in most cases.
 

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A few shots done years ago with nothing more than the tools described above. All it takes is careful composition and trial and error.

Not proffesional standard pics but good enough to keep as records of past work and all done with things you can find round the house.
 

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TelePaul said:
Get a diffuser for your flash gun.
Click to expand...

Did you actually read the rest of the thread.
Just to add. Flash rarely works unless you have very expensive gear. Even then it needs bouncing and placing away from the hot shoe. So no flash. Your other option is overcast days outdoors with the sun high in the sky. Not sure how often that happens in Texas? Never for the month I was there a good few years ago.
Click to expand...

It's a tungste bulb in a spot case. bounced onto the backdrop. I would never use flash on instruments unless I had a VERY good flash and remote sync. I don't.;)
 
Zaphod B said:
Don't flourescents have a tendency to affect the color of the shots?
Click to expand...

Most artificial lighting will skew the white balance - your white's will appear off, sometimes even close to beige. Not very nice. You can compensate for it though if your camera allows you to set the WB manually.

Also, with regards to a previous point, remember when taking shots outside that midday sun usually creates the most contrast.
 
TelePaul said:
Of course. What's the problem? You're the guy advocating shooting outdoors, but you've never heard of fill flash?
Click to expand...

Yep and in most cases your better off bouncing with a white board. Thats how the BBC do it.;) Flash is OK for certain things but if you have a fixed object and time to compose your nearly always better off using bounced light. Even a good diffused flash can be harsh and very directional. Thats my experience and I have tried using flash for fill in but on gloss and shiny surfaces it never really cuts it. I'm sure if I had a better flash and a better technique it may be different. Zaphods original query was how, easily and on a budget. Sure by all means try flash but it's never worked for me on this sort of stuff.
 
muttley600 said:
Thats how the BBC do it.;) Flash is OK for certain things but if you have a fixed object and time to compose your nearly always better off using bounced light.
Click to expand...

Flash is bounced light - you can tilt a flash gun head in a variety of directions. Buy one of these and bounce off a low roof, or better yet, use it outside to cut way down on that pesky contrast (though I'm not ENTIRELY sure why you'd want to)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31-v7puGQzL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
 
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