new guitar, painted with light...comments please

[Walczak Photo]

Hey Folks,
I have a shot here that I'm thinking about re-shooting. I had actually shot this for a bud of mine so I could show him my new axe but I also was trying to be a little "creative" as well.

In my haste to get this shot, I made several mistakes...I should have removed the two space heaters in the background, I should have cleaned the guitar first as I had been playing the crap out of it all week, etc.. What I'm concerned with here is comments and/or suggestions about the lighting.

With this shot, I took it down in my basement studio (music studio for those interested) and the light was actually "painted" with a Maglite. I used the Maglite at about a 45 degree angle (more or less) to the camera axis. The studio was completely dark and I think I used around a 13 second exposure at f/3.5 with my 40D and my cheapy Tamron 28-80mm lens.

I'm probably going to reshoot this in the next week or so as the guitar needs a string change and I'm going to change the pickguard/pickup covers and such while I'm at it as they have a very slight green tint to them (going with pure white). Other than cleaning up the background, I would like suggestions as to what I could have done better here (aside from the issues already mentioned which were obvious). I know I want to keep the piano in the background both because of the color and to give it that "music studio feel" and I certainly want my beat up old amp in the shot as well. I also want to keep this shot "dark and moody" as it were. Any other suggestions?



http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/863/img2274px0.jpg


As always, thanks for any comments, opinions and suggestions!

Peace,
Jim

[MikeES]

This is probably picky with composition, but I would do the following: leaving the guitar exactly where it is, roll the amp a bit more to the left so that the guitars arm(?) is on the opposite side of the amp's handle, then put the mic stand back where the space heaters are...otherwise, I love the concept and the lighting. Nice shot!

[Flo]

I like the guitar, speaker and mike.The piano doesn't add anything to my ol eyes..to see these together with a solid black Bg would be sweet.but I like dark:confused:

[joedlh]

Close the piano, if it has a cover. The line of keys look like they protrude from the guitar.

[mi_reefy]

Other than cleaning up the background, I would like suggestions as to what I could have done better here (aside from the issues already mentioned which were obvious). I know I want to keep the piano in the background both because of the color and to give it that "music studio feel" and I certainly want my beat up old amp in the shot as well. I also want to keep this shot "dark and moody" as it were. Any other suggestions?


Hope you do not mind me editting your picture.
I like the lighting. I love the blues on the piano as the background. I also love the dusty surfaces... adds to the feel.... (it goes with the 'beat up old amp' and the big one with the rusty border too)

The heaters ruined a tiny bit of the picture, but thanks to photoshop and its clone tool, it isn't hard to get rid of.

Don't ever be afraid to crop. A good crop always tells more about what u wanted to capture, and its story. Remove what is unnecessary. From what I gather, the subject of your story was the beautiful guitar, and its home, the studio. Good bye to everything else.

Slight edits I did. First, gave a subtle S curve on it, cropped (in the process making the keyboard horizontal, and the mic stand as vertical as i cud make it), cloned the heater out, decrease overall exposure (for the 'dark' effect that you wanted), chose a black point on the picture (curves again), and lastly, decreased overall saturation of the picture to give the 'moody' effect.
No wait. Unsharp mask, for defined lines, edges, to make it more 3D. I felt your image was a little flat.

Your image is perfect in terms of composition (considering the availability of the clone tool to get rid of the heaters), lighting, and arrangement of the equipment, even the dust!
I suggest that if you like the turnout of my edit, just do the same on your original image, and retype that copyright line! :D

A beautiful guitar, beautiful capture. Three cheers.

P.S: sorry about the small amp on the right bottom corner thats gotten a bit too dark, it has an important part in the picture, do give it some attention when you do the post-processing.

Cheers/

-Reef

[acchildress]

Nope the original color was better on my monitor.

Next time blow a little cig. smoke across one corner.

[griptape]

I think the lighting is very well done. As you already seem to have noticed, the background is indeed too busy. My only other complaint would be that the bottom by the jack plate looks dirty, like it's covered in finger prints, even though I know it's probably just the light. I guess if I had one more complaint, I don't like strats. I'm a les paul guy.

[dig-it-al]

For impact, douse the amp in kerosene, ignite it, and shoot away! :)

[Walczak Photo]

First and foremost, thank you to everyone for the great comments and suggestions...I'm quite greatful!

This is probably picky with composition, but I would do the following: leaving the guitar exactly where it is, roll the amp a bit more to the left so that the guitars arm(?) is on the opposite side of the amp's handle, then put the mic stand back where the space heaters are...otherwise, I love the concept and the lighting. Nice shot!

Hey...picky is good in my book! I'll keep your suggestion in mind...the "tremelo bar" would act as something of a leading line into the amp or something.


I like the guitar, speaker and mike.The piano doesn't add anything to my ol eyes..to see these together with a solid black Bg would be sweet.but I like dark:confused:

I had thought about doing that, but honestly I didn't want the shot to come off looking like one of those Fender Calender shots. Although those shots are usually quite excellent (not to mention the toys are quite cool!), I want to do something that's going to convey some sense of "studio" as well as of the guitar and amp. I will however keep the thought in mind and maybe play around with it a little...throw the rack case or the drum kit or something in the background instead.

Hope you do not mind me editting your picture.
I like the lighting. I love the blues on the piano as the background. I also love the dusty surfaces... adds to the feel.... (it goes with the 'beat up old amp' and the big one with the rusty border too)

The heaters ruined a tiny bit of the picture, but thanks to photoshop and its clone tool, it isn't hard to get rid of.

Don't ever be afraid to crop. A good crop always tells more about what u wanted to capture, and its story. Remove what is unnecessary. From what I gather, the subject of your story was the beautiful guitar, and its home, the studio. Good bye to everything else.

Slight edits I did. First, gave a subtle S curve on it, cropped (in the process making the keyboard horizontal, and the mic stand as vertical as i cud make it), cloned the heater out, decrease overall exposure (for the 'dark' effect that you wanted), chose a black point on the picture (curves again), and lastly, decreased overall saturation of the picture to give the 'moody' effect.
No wait. Unsharp mask, for defined lines, edges, to make it more 3D. I felt your image was a little flat.

Your image is perfect in terms of composition (considering the availability of the clone tool to get rid of the heaters), lighting, and arrangement of the equipment, even the dust!
I suggest that if you like the turnout of my edit, just do the same on your original image, and retype that copyright line! :grin:

A beautiful guitar, beautiful capture. Three cheers.

P.S: sorry about the small amp on the right bottom corner thats gotten a bit too dark, it has an important part in the picture, do give it some attention when you do the post-processing.

Cheers/

-Reef

No worries on the edit mate, but I would add that whatever you did with the color/saturation really took away the colors of the guitar itself. The instrument really is a bright cherry burst finish very similar to a Les Paul...which you don't usually see on Fender's (and one of the reasons I fell in love with the silly thing! LOL!). It really is one of the most beautiful finishes I've ever seen on a Strat...I still can't get over that it's on a $200 "Crafted in China" Squire!

Also I will be the first to say that I am NEVER afraid of cropping...I just hadn't put that kind of thought or effort into this shot since I'm planning to reshoot it. Ordinarily I consider cropping as much a standard part of my work flow as RAW processing, levels adjustments, saturation, sharpening, etc.. In fact, since I normally shoot critters, I usually try to leave a little extra room in the frame when I'm shooting so I have room to crop later :D. For that matter, I could have just cloned them out of there, but since I'm planning to reshoot anyways...just wasn't worth the effort.

Aside from the heaters, there were a few other things that I really wasn't happy with in this shot....the big smudges from fingers prints on the bottom right hand side of the instrument by the jack plate (I really should have cleaned it first!), that drum stick laying behind the amp and the more I look at it, I'm really not happy with the over all focus either...I really should have used a bit smaller aperture (the headstock on the guitar is just a tad soft). I wanted the piano to be a little soft, but I think I went to wide on the aperture for this one...I"ll have to play with it a bit next time. I think there's a degree of lens distortion there too now that I look at it again.

Again here though I will certainly keep your edit in mind when I reshoot this...some good ideas there!



Next time blow a little cig. smoke across one corner.

Now THAT is an excellent idea! I like it! Or maybe even just a cigarette in an ashtray with the smoke swirling up during the long exposure...hmmm. Thanks!!!

For impact, douse the amp in kerosene, ignite it, and shoot away! :smile:

Err...no. I know she don't look all that grand, but that old L5 simply rocks and it's the loudest 100 watts I've ever heard...she's actually crushed a Marshall or two in her day. Maybe someday I'll think about setting a live roadie on fire or something...but not my amp :D.

Alrighty, again thanks to all for the comments and suggestions! I'll get the reshoot posted in a new thread once I get it done and processed.

Peace,
Jim