Any hints and tips for photographing guitars?

heyjoe
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Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:14 am

Hello

As all of us here have guitars, and no doubt like taking photos of them(not just for insurance purposes), does anyone have any hints and tips for taking good photos of your guitars.

Thanks

Joe


Chasplaya
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Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:08 pm

I have dabbled with Photographing my guitars and I have started to shy away from the plain guitar upright on the stand and have started looking at different angles or picking out particular features and maybe using macro to get the detail. I am still getting used to digital camera, but so far natural light works best as often with glossy finish you get too much reflection with flash. I don't have the luxury of extra lights or reflectors to avoid shadows etc.


quincy451
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Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:26 pm

This is a intresting topic for me. For I have taken pictures of my guitar for reference went starting to do things, like change the wtrings, or in the current situation, replace the nut and saddle. The saddle for example is compensated. And ot flip the back and front would not be good. I also take pictures on changes strings so I am sure to leave it as neat as I found it. But I have found getting even good reference images to be difficult.

On a slightly different note...there was a youtube contest a while back where you put up a 1 minute video as a entry in the contest. You could play guitar or not. Well, of course you are going to play guitar. And I can tell you I spent over an hour getting 1 minute of postable video...and yes after not winning the contest I took it down. bad bad...

So I know there is a huge effort that goes into Niel's videos on here.


BigBear
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Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:22 pm

heyjoe wrote:
Hello

As all of us here have guitars, and no doubt like taking photos of them(not just for insurance purposes), does anyone have any hints and tips for taking good photos of your guitars.

Thanks

Joe
Joe- I think the worst way to photograph a guitar is with the new digital cameras and their little flashes. For the same reason you get red eye, you are often getting a real bounceback flash with a small camera.

The best thing you can do is turn off the flash, use lots of good natural light, put your camera on a tripod and slow down the shutter speed to get enough light. You can also use slave flash or a seperate flash that you can hold off to one side. It's okay to underexpose a little because you can boost brightness during photo editing.

I'm an old film guy and this digital revolution has really adversely impacted good photography. But you can't beat the convenience of the whole system! :cheer:


map4242
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Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:55 pm

Chasplaya wrote:
I have dabbled with Photographing my guitars and I have started to shy away from the plain guitar upright on the stand and have started looking at different angles or picking out particular features and maybe using macro to get the detail. I am still getting used to digital camera, but so far natural light works best as often with glossy finish you get too much reflection with flash. I don't have the luxury of extra lights or reflectors to avoid shadows etc.
A suitable reflector can be made from cardboard covered with aluminum foil. Just think big; 3 feet by 3 feet or even bigger.

Or soften light (shine through) with a white bed sheet.

Mark


heyjoe
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Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:02 am

Hello

I'm going to take on board all thats been said and try taking some new photos soon. The comments about lighting your subject are so true. I've recently been trying to get some good pictures of an old watch I have, and its certainly awkward with digital cameras ( not dslr) and their flashes. There were reflections everywhere, until I worked out how to remove them, I think the same goes for guitars.

Then again, maybe I should take photos outside, less reflections, maybe its time for a trip to the beach?

I'll post some shots to let you all know how I got on.

Thanks for the help

Joe


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