Guitar Photography

[iamjoe]

New member here (Joe) and a complete newbie.

I own a 7D, 17-40L, 50 1.4 & 580IIEX. I am trying to teach myself how to photograph guitars. Mostly for hobby, but I sell one every now and then and would like to create some better looking ads.

All help will be deeply appreciated.
Here are a few that I took.






Would love to learn how to do this.

[snyderman]

wow, nice stable of LPs you have there. Love the honeyburst std. in the last image.

The only advice I can give you is to not shoot such a narrow DOF. I recently sold a CS strat and both prospective buyers asked for a number of shots I hadn't considered. Neck pocket, back of headstock (??), back of neck, better fretboard shots to assess fretwear ... stuff like that.

It's also tough to get consistent light across the body ... especially with the high-gloss finish most guitars have. You did a really good job there. The gold-tops might offer the most challenge to you but the honeyburst looks great. The last image is probably the best for 'selling' a guitar, I'd guess.

Overall, nice work and beautiful guitars.

dave

[etaf]

i see what you are trying to do with the natural look, and quite like the idea

do you have guitar stands at all - maybe stand away from the tree so they are slightly out of focus and if you have an image editor - see if you can get rid of the two posts

when you say

Would love to learn how to do this.

are only the top 3 yours ? -looking at exif the others are no exif or a sony

as they are still subjects - you may want to try a tripod and then you can compose and walk off and rearrange and comeback to the composure

also try different times of day, i suspect they may benefit from a lower sun ,for the gold - could be completely wrong though - looking at the exif taken in May @15:00 - dont know US at all

[some_dude]

The best guitar shots I've ever achieved have been as a result of the way the light plays off the top of the guitar. In the past I only owned a cheap point and shoot and had to depend upon natural lighting because the built in flash would ruin pictures. I'd typically orient the guitar so that the sun would highlight half of the carve and cast shadow on the other half for a more dramatic effect.

In this photo I added a pair of brown ankle boots into the background as a prop and reduced the colour saturation to create a bit of a sepia effect whist creating more focus on the guitar.




In this more recent picture I have a better camera and I mounted it on a tripod. The tripod allowed me to take test photos for composition and inspect them on a laptop while maintaining a consistent framing, then allowed me to work out the details of focus and lighting without having to worry about the composition changing. I then bounced the flash around the room at various angles and inspected the photos on my laptop looking for the image that created the best 3D effect when looking at the fretwork and knobs.

[some_dude]

Originally Posted by iamjoe

Here are a few that I took.

In the photo above you've created a 3D shape to the top of both guitars, but the two reflections in the top of the guitar on the left disrupts the shape of the highlight and shadow. I would've moved myself or the guitar around until the top looked "clean". Additionally, the shadows under the guitars help separate them from the background.

In this photo the guitar on the right looks like a flat top while the guitar on the left has a very shallow look to it. Plus, the lack of a shadow around the pickups makes them look like they're flush with the pickguard instead of sticking out slightly.

This is another photo where the top looks flat, but I've found its a lot harder to create depth in a figured top than a solid colour like gold. Mostly I'm just going to comment on the glare on the finish being a distraction to the eye. It looks like the sun is really high in this photo, and it might have been easier to create a more dramatic effect if the sun was lower on the horizon. The trick I use is to rotate the guitar until the half of the top is highlighted while the other half was in shadow...then move myself around until I find a position where the top is free of glare or reflections.

[Andrushka]

All I can think of is those beautifully smooth necks getting scratched on that raw tree bark!!!

Amazing guitars though

I have a Gibson SG studio and a ES135 - wish I played them as much as I shoot, of course, I've never made any real money playing guitar... so... back to the cameras!!

[DannyMorrisPD]

Heres a few of my guitar shots. The first one I changed the body to green using photoshop. Its original color is cherry red

[Airedale1]

I too want to learn how to take better pictures of my guitars. So, I did a search here and found this thread. Some beautiful guitars here and good tips. Controlling the reflections on the body is always a challenge with guitars.

This image is of my beloved Gibson ES Artist. Over the years I have bought and sold so many guitars that I have lost count. That being said, this is the one guitar that I wish I had never sold. It had everything I lust for in a guitar and more. It had an ebony fingerboard, offset dot markers, a bound neck and amazing grover tuners that had pop out winders built into them. It was a 335 body without f holes and it had active electonics. Image was taken with a Canon A1 and natural light. I can't remember what I was using for a lens.

[ktan7]

I like the 3rd composition best!

Originally Posted by iamjoe

New member here (Joe) and a complete newbie.

I own a 7D, 17-40L, 50 1.4 & 580IIEX. I am trying to teach myself how to photograph guitars. Mostly for hobby, but I sell one every now and then and would like to create some better looking ads.

All help will be deeply appreciated.
Here are a few that I took.






Would love to learn how to do this.