Official Luthiers Forum!

I am planning to set up a website with pictures of my guitars. I have very little know-how in photography. So, I would like to ask for input on what I need to shoot good pictures. I have a pretty good camera, but figure I need some kind of backdrop and lights, as well as any good how-to books. I'm on a budget so please bear that in mind. What types, sources and approx. costs for these and any other stuff you think I need.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Max

_________________
Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

Hi Max my friend.

I am sure that others will weigh-in here with some back drop and lighting set-ups but I wanted to suggest that you take advantage of summer in/near Brighton. Pictures of guitars taken outdoors often look great. Check out the Dream guitars site for examples.

I read somewhere that a good outdoor picture of a guitar will show the sky and clouds in the reflections in the finish.

Of course here in Michigan we only have about 6 months of decent weather to work with.

Oh yeah I just remembered that Frank Ford built a new set-up with lights a couple of years ago and posted on his site frets.com how to build the set-up.

I'm no expert but you can find some basic photographing tips here; http://www.liutaiomottola.com/BunnyBass/intro.htm

I'm no expert but you can find some basic photographing tips here; http://www.liutaiomottola.com/BunnyBass/intro.htm

Hi Max

It's an intimidating learning curve. I've been reading some good lighting books lately, but I've gotten the most out of http://strobist.blogspot.com. If you read the lighting 101 archive (first drop down menu on the left), it will take you through all the basics. The author takes most of the confusion and intimidation away (at least for me)!

You can get light kits specifically put together for his setups here (very cost effective): http://www.mpex.com/page.htm?PG=Strobist%20Kits

I plan on getting three in the near future.

This article has a few good ideas for shooting in direct sunlight outdoors: http://ny.webphotoschool.com/Bouncing_a ... index.html

Some guys here like using work lights. I don't particularly care for this approach. The lights produce a yellow cast that I haven't been able to get out with white balance and color adjustments. YMMV.

I bet Michael Jin will have a million great ideas as soon as he sees this.

Thanks for the link, Parames!

Not to hijack, but it's great that RM Mottola is hosting the bunnybass photo stuff on his site. It's an excellent photography resource and I was saddened when the bunnybass site was taken down. I'm glad to see this part of it return from the dead. It shows the basics what you can do with LIGHT rather than equipment. You could probably get results like theirs with a pretty rudimentary camera. I would strongly recommend a tripod. It really helps with your composition.

Once you understand what light does, you can use artificial lighting much more effectively. The Photoshop pointers are really good too.

_________________
formerly known around here as burbank
_________________

http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Quit 'cher braggin'!

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

When I started listing things on eBay, I needed backgrounds as well, so I went REAL cheap:

Made a frame out of schedule 40 PVC pipe (3/4"), basically an upright square with legs, so I can pin a backdrop cloth over it (Walmart dry goods, 2 yards does well for small instruments, may need more for guitars - got black velvet, camel and white polyester, doesn't wrinkle). I don't glue the PVC pipe together just so I can take it apart and store it in my closet.

A friend uses 3 halogen desk lamps ($10 a piece) for lighting, with no yellow. I use the sunlamp (because I have them), but would rather do the halogen thing. Sometimes I'll drape white cloth over the lamps to diffuse the light.

Key for me is to not use flash, no glare (especially with diffused light).

Yeah Bob, very true I didn't think that it could be worse...... My sympathies.....

All good advice. (Remember, guitar-building is easy....photography is hard.) I built a soft-box like the one in frets.com and use it with daylight tungsten bulbs - really helped. The bunnybass stuff is great basic info & on ny.webphotoschool.com, I found the writeup on "light control with soft box accessories for product photo" full of great cause-and-affect tips. I don't currently have a suitable backdrop, but for the few choice shots, I erase the background in Paint Shop Pro and replace it with black or whatever.

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

Hi Max,

I learn a lot on how to take good photo guitar construction by Erik Schmidt's at the luthierforum.
His setup was pretty simple with a single light source but the pictures came out great.
Take a look at the thread

http://www.luthierforum.com/index.php?showtopic=2760

For me, I merely use a table lamp as a light source and my cheap 2.1 Mp digicam.
But the pictures came out alright for my taste.

Sen.

_________________
-----
Sen CL Goh
http://senguitar.blogspot.com

I just ran across a very good article by Violin maker Terry Borman
"Photography for Instrument Makers"
http://www.bormanviolins.com/Articles/VSAP%20Borman%20145-62.pdf

take a look

john

Very nice thread! Thirty years ago my Nikon F and a whole bunch of Tri-X got to be really good friends. I've only recently been dragged into the digital world of photography. Dragged is probably the right word as I really miss a spot meter, manual focus and manual exposure control. Not to mention still being in business when the batteries go dead.

But that was then and this is now. These links have been very helpful to me and thanks to all who have posted.

_________________
Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

I think the composition in Erik's photographs is really strong. If I can say this without sounding critical, I think the light demonstrates what I was mentioning above. The light is on the dark and yellowish side. It's also very wide, so it splashes everything around the subject. In Rick Turner's words, I think we need to raise our thresholds. Professional images aren't out of reach, so why not reach for them? We just need to admit that pro' don't use work lights.

$400 can get you two strobes w/umbrellas and stands. With that kind of setup, you get bright light, you can manipulate the direction and shadows to taste, etc. With a moderate investment and a few hours of reading, you can be shooting.

Erik's pics demonstrate, really that strong composition and a sharp image can compensate for a less than ideal lightning.

But I digress. I tend to use a combination of natural light through a semi-opaque filter with an old xray box for artificial light. Sometimes, the end result is still too strong in the yellows, but on the whole, it can certainly give enough information to be very very useful. Oh yes, getting a tripod helped... a lot.

Of course, the more art-y pics I post up at http://www.guitarbench.com have much more leeway in terms of composition, lighting etc..... eg.

The only problem I often encounter is that we are too focussed on posting a gargantuan, ultra sharp image, which often is not required. Certainly, I think that in most cases, an informative picture need not be more than 5-6 inches, maximum.

But rules are made to be broken..

I post an example of a decent non-studio setup, non tripod, non-SLR shot with ONLY natural light on a 5mp standard digicam,... follow the link... http://guitarbench.com/?p=7

Warmest regards,
Terence
http://www.guitarbench.com
http://www.goodacoustics.com

Hi

I don't think a tripod is that great for composition, i normally get better composition from being free to move and try differant things, however i would suggest using one. especially if you don't like the unnatural light you get from some sources... because with a tripod you can set the exposure a little longer and not worry about camera shake (bloody photographers, blaming the camera, they should call it "can't keep my dang hands still shake").

how proffesional are you looking for your results to be? and what is the intended destination and size of your photo's? if you are going to have them printed no larger than a4 then a 3-6MP camera will be more than enough. if they are for web display (72dpi instead of 3-600 or more) then you will easily get away with less than 3MP. my old camera was a fuji thing which when i last looked was £100, it had access to all the major settings you would find on an SLR (exposure, apeture, film speed, white balance, etc) i could also use filters on it.

For your background, are you interested in a certain type of background??? if just a plain white background, then just get some CLEAN sheets (the thicker the better as thinner ones will let you see whats behind. the bonus being you can have the sheet going behind the guitar AND underneath. and just pinned/nailed at the top to suspend it.

lighting wise... i don't do much, as i prefer the longer exposure route... (and some of my fave photo's i took at around 3am) but the general rules will be: Use a key light (use one light to light up everything you want to be clear) for this you could use the cameras built in flash, and then a fill light (another light to take the harshness off of some of the shadows created by the first preferably diffused (again you don't need much some white cloth in front of the light will diffuse it) lastly use another light to brighten you backdrop to make the guitar stand out from it...

lastly, experiment... you don't need the greatest equipment (although i did end up upgrading my camera and buying some new lenses) try lights in defferant places with differant wattage of bulb try long exposures with no extra lighting and try shorter exposures with it. i don't think there are any set rules but there are always good places to start your own search. once you've done all that you've then got the whole software thing to correct little bits, but i won't go in to that...

Thanks to all for the input - just what I was looking for.

Max

_________________
Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan