Guitar Photography

[KentNZ]

Pedals shouldnt be left out.

[mop]

This one is probably technically quite bad - a bit washed out, no detail etc. But I really like the wheel of the car centred in the background, the red brake caliper and the rest of the car being the same colour as the burst of the guitar.

Img_1494.jpg

I think this guitar would look better with artificial lighting inside, but I have no idea how to do that. Expert tips appreciated.

I posted that photo at sevenstring.org and had a couple of people ask for pics of the porsche

[GrantB]

I had some much better ones but these will have to do... best I can do without an invisible stand

BG, I don't think I've ever said how great that Les Paul is...bloody nice mate.

[ash]

I posted that photo at sevenstring.org and had a couple of people ask for pics of the porsche

Yeah, I saw that... It's a Nissan!

[dayl]

Butterscotch nomnomnom



Uber el cheapo looking sweet imo.

[Ears]

Nice strat shots KentNZ

[ash]

Rejected for being out of frame, but I like it better than most of the others in this set anyway.
Having the guitar partly out of frame has made the background more interesting. The building, the wires and the plants are almost as important as the guitar in their respective ways. Even the little silhouette of the scooter adds character. I like than angle of the building versus the wires overhead. And the big blocks of colour - yellow, blue, grey, green.

Ryan's Radian Tele-tron

This one of the same guitar in almost the same spot from a different angle has the opposite feel. The background is really muted and it's all about the guitar. The previous shot was with the sun over my right shoulder, so lots of afternoon light hitting the guitar directly, bringing out the luminescence of the wood grain. This one has the sun 95 degrees left of the axis of the camera (ie, guitar is at zero degrees - straight ahead) with most of the background in shade.

These two are the same Canon SX110, but of the "Portrait" setting which seems to tighten the focus on the subject and blur the background more. All my shots posted so far have no software correction at all, just watermarked, cropped and resized. With my old camera I used to often increase the brightness and contrast a little bit on the computer, but this one usually doesn't need it.

Ryan's Radian Tele-tron

[ash]

And another fave that got rejected for some reason... Probably because it's too subdued in colour.

This would have been a slightly overcast late-Spring afternoon, so the look is slightly gloomy and the colours are a bit more tan than the guitar looks in person. Likes: the carved top looks really smooth and perfect and well represented, the metallic texture is really clear, the mother of pearl inlays look quite vibrant - not like fake pearloid, the body shape isn't distorted.

[ash]

You seem to take pretty decent pictures of your guitars Ash. What's your secret?

I don't really know what I'm doing, but here's the formula I've stumbled upon that seems to work best for me:

1. natural light - outside, preferably late afternoon, early evening with little or no cloud cover
2. spotlessly clean guitar
3. an interesting looking backdrop that gets sunlight at an angle - I have about six regular spots that I choose based on the colour of the guitar and the ambient light
4. point the guitar half-way between the camera and the sun to start with, but try other angles
5. on my camera the Portrait automatic setting is the best I've found so far. No flash.
6. Move around until you find an angle with no glare/flare reflections on the shiny bits
7. try some shots un-zoomed and some standing back, zoomed in lots
8. shots with the camera level with the pickups and lower seem to work best for me, hence the towering-guitar shots
9. take lots of pictures and choose the good ones (choosing takes me longer than shooting)
10. rotate pictures a few degrees if neccesary to make them look properly upright. Depends on the other vertical elements in the picture
11. crop to make the neck pickup area central in the frame. Don't crop too close or it looks crowded

[ash]

I like this one lots

[Bg]

I had some much better ones but these will have to do... best I can do without an invisible stand

BG, I don't think I've ever said how great that Les Paul is...bloody nice mate.

yeah its a corker and relatively unscathed considering how its brethren get treated

[Zaulkin]

These are some pics of my mates Telecaster which I assembled/built for him. Definitely not my best shots but I particularly like how I caught the beautiful sapele grain. I was obviously in a rush - as shown by someone holding the guitar rather than it actually be put down... but yeah. Should have cleaned that damn dust off it beforehand too.





Here's some pics I found on the net. They are of an Orville by gibson les paul. So much want...





Guthrie Govans sig. Has bengal burst ever looked this good?



I think I can definitely take some sexy pics as long as there is suitable weather. Usually if I'm inspired it helps me get that 'perfect' shot. In the end I'm more into experimental photography anyway...

[slash-ed]

Just a couple of random nice looking ones picked from my photobucket album:

"Fence" shot:



An "Ash-style" lying down on the ground looking up shot:



One of my favourites: (although unfortunately that amp rig is completely gone now)



My old PRS:

[dayl]

That Kelly/Amp shot is just awesome... really well balanced.

[danrawkz]

Good light is definitely the secret




Miss that LP. Was not worth selling it at all.