My first guitar shot [How to fix blown highlights?]

Too cold to have fun with the new XSi outside, so I am trying to think of some things inside to have some fun with. I have took quite a few pics of my guitar, and although I am sure it could be picked apart- it is my best one so far. I dont have a "studio", so my crowded loft will surely be the place for quite a few pictures. LOL

I wanted to blur the balusters in the background, and bring detail to the bridge, pickup, knobs, etc.. The colored lights are from lighted garland overhead on the railing.

Your criticism is welcomed.

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I'm sorry- I think I posted this in the wrong forum. Maybe this is a forum for more accomplished shots, and I should have posted this in the "critique corner". Should I delete this, and post it in the cc? I would really like some feedback on what to try to get the blown out whites between the balusters adjusted, and also why the lights look grainy...the body of the guitar is very smooth and shiny.

Should I move this post? Either way, apologies for posting this in the wrong forum.

No need to delete based on quality Greg. It's a fine shot!

Greg In Ohio wrote in post #9317702
I would really like some feedback on what to try to get the blown out whites between the balusters adjusted, and also why the lights look grainy...the body of the guitar is very smooth and shiny.

For technical questions, you might be best off here : Sub-Forums : RAW, Post Processing and Printing.

I'll move the thread there

Question one: Did you shoot Raw?

A couple of things:

1) Can you post the EXIF data?

2) The depth of field appears to be very narrow so that focus is achieved on the near post of the bridge and the plane that goes through that area, but with blur starting to become distracting on the prominent foreground elements and the pickups. Try the shot again, stopping down the aperture to something like maybe f/4 to f/8 - you will need to decrease the shutter speed or increase ISO accordingly to get your exposure, but you will get more focus on the desired guitar elements. Experiment - it seems you would like to have the guitar in focus and blur the background to pop the guitar off of the background - that and the contrast between the dark guitar and the bright background will do the trick.

As far as the blown background highlights go, you are trying to capture a scene that probably has a dynamic range in excess of your camera's sensor. This is typical of a combined indoor scene with direct capture of the outdoor light, like a window with daylight. This will likely be exacerbated by exposing for the shadows on the black guitar elements, which are the intended elements within the image that you are trying to expose properly. The more you expose the shadow end of your scene, the more overexposed the brightest highlights become. You may have enough data in the RAW file, if you shot RAW, to recover something useful - otherwise, if the bright background portion of the scene contains any meaningful elements in reality, you will probably need to take a second exposure to properly capture the background elements and then blend the two images so that the guitar and background receive proper exposure.

As far as grain - I am not sure where you are seeing "grain" - can you be more specific?

Kirk

If that background brightness is too much, you could try some very subdued flash to lighten up the guitar while you set your exposure to keep the background "dimmer". Since your camera is new to you you probably don't have an external flash (very good for this type of thing), so you would try to work with your built-in flash -- try setting your Flash Exposure Compensation to a level low enough that it doesn't make the guitar overbright and putting maybe a paper towell over the flash to "diffuse" the light -- that is, to try to keep "hot spots" from showing up on the guitar.

Thanks blackshadow for the kind words.

Rene- Thanks for moving it. No, it was not shot in raw. I have yet to experiment with raw, and I think I would probably need a bigger memory card.

Kirk T- F-stop was f/5, exposure time: 2.5 seconds, ISO: 800, and focal length 43mm. Not sure if thats everything you're looking for, but I hope. I am going to print this post, just to refer back to it. As for the grain, I didnt realize it wasnt in this particular picture. I will post another similar one that shows it. Again, I am going to print this, and have it handy when I try it again...lots of good info.

Tony- I did not use the flash on this shot, because I didnt want it too "lit up". Your idea has got me thinking, and I will consider that in the future. Would work great for when some light is needed, but yet not too intense.

BTW, I was going to include the settings for the second pic, but for some reason, theres no specifics listed...just the picture size, H and V resolution and bit depth.

Thanks for the help. It is much appreciated!

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