Official Luthiers Forum!

My wife is looking for some ways to make a little extra money on the side, and she has always loved photography, and such so I just bought her a really nice Digital SLR camera that cost me way too much money (more than both my motorcycle, and our car are worth..combined), and we got some lighting, and backdrops. If nothing else I will be able to take some nice pictures of my own guitars, but I thought it might be a useful service for us broke luthiers to be able to get really nice professional quality pictures at a affordable price (I looked into some local places and prices ranged from $300-$700 for a photo shoot of my guitars). I thought of charging $100 or so for a shoot and the person would get 15-20 pics on CD in both raw form as well as edited (via photoshop CS) pictures that you can use for a website or prints, brochures..whatever. You'd own the pictures and have full rights to them. Of course she would be practicing on my guitars and getting thins right first, but it's just a thought right now. Anyone got any thoughts?

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

John,

That sounds like a really useful service, and the price is right if she can do professional quality photos. The travel or shipping costs for a bunch of guitars may increase the price. How do you plan on getting the guitars to her, or vice versa? Some good quality photos can make all the difference between a really cheesy website, and a nice professional looking one.

Good luck!

John

yeah shipping would have to be picked up, both ways, by the luthier, but that should only amount to $50-$75 depending on courier.

Agreed that pictures can really make or break a nice site. I'll post some samples once we get the camera, and she snaps a few pics....

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Sounds like a very useful service John. And I could even drop mine off and avoid paying the shipping charges.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Interesting idea John. Hope it works out. I too just purchased an over the top digital. Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to run it!   

John when you get a few samples snapped please post them.

I have a friend who is a professional photographer, but I have the feeling I am going to wear out my welcome there pretty quick.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Glad to see some interest. I'll post some pics once she gets the camera
and gets adjusted to it and we shall see if we can get results good enough
to justify the cost. I think we will. I'll report back in.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com