A guide to photographing guitars

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Jason Rodgers
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Jason Rodgers »

Mark Swanson wrote:Here is a photo I have done with the new tricks I learned from that article.
I spotted this! Looking good!
-Ruining perfectly good wood, one day at a time.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Mark Swanson »

Thanks Jason....I keep looking for the "like" button here.
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Pat Foster
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Pat Foster »

Wow, Mark, you got that with your FZ8?

Pat
I like to start slow, then taper off.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Mark Swanson »

Yes, the FZ8 which is a 7 megapixel camera.
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Pat Foster
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Pat Foster »

Could probably thank the Leica lens design for some of that success too.

For shop photos I use a Panasonic Lumix FZ150, a later iteration of your FZ8, Mark. I just shoot jpegs for the shop photos, usually on aperture priority, opened all the way up, at f2.8 to f3.2, ISO 200. Shutter speed usually comes in around 1/60. Those photos are output into a photo album on CD when I send a guitar to my customer. I also put these on the web site for my customer to follow along if they request it.

For the web site photo gallery, I use a Pentax K7 DSLR, from around 2009. I like the Pentax brand best, because they put a lot of features on their mid-range "enthusiast" cameras that are only available at the higher end cameras from Nikon and Canon. Also, it's weather-resistant, though not weather proof. All the little hatches and doors are sealed as are some of their lenses, giving ease of mind if I use it in the shop. Image stabilization and autofocus motor drive are built into the body, so you get IS even with old manual lenses from the 70s and AF from any of their AF lenses, new or old. They have nice, big viewfinders. I especially like their 35mm f2.4 lens: sharp but inexpensive, and the 2.4 maximum aperture provides a nice, soft background if needed. I shoot RAW, and mostly use Aperture for editing, Photoshop Elements if I need it for more than color and exposure correction. Lighting for the web photos is a mishmash of large CFLs and softboxes, mostly from Cowboy Studio or Steve Kaeser (no affiliation with either).

Pat
I like to start slow, then taper off.
Jason Rodgers
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Jason Rodgers »

Thanks for these additional tips on gear, Pat.
-Ruining perfectly good wood, one day at a time.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Mark Swanson »

Yes Thanks Pat! that is good info.
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Pat Foster
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

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Jason, Mark,

Sure thing. Here's a link to the results, from a determined amateur photographer.

guitar photos

Pat
I like to start slow, then taper off.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Mark Swanson »

I'd say those photos are just about all you could ask for Pat! Good job. I think your biggest issue, and the hardest to deal with, is a little glare. And sometimes. that works in your favor, shows the finish and a little character in the pictures.
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David King
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by David King »

Files size is pretty heavily compressed at 124k
Files size is pretty heavily compressed at 124k
Here's one I just worked over. Please let me know what you think could be strengthened.
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Pat Foster
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Pat Foster »

Mark Swanson wrote:I'd say those photos are just about all you could ask for Pat! Good job. I think your biggest issue, and the hardest to deal with, is a little glare. And sometimes. that works in your favor, shows the finish and a little character in the pictures.
Indeed, Mark. Glare is tricky. Those were intentional, and like you said, can bring out the finish. The book I mentioned earlier in the thread was helpful for that. I use it sometimes to bring out a curve, like the tops of some of the headstocks, seems to add a little depth. For that, a separate light is situated above and a little behind the guitar, while trying to keep the light off other parts of the guitar and off the background.

Pat
I like to start slow, then taper off.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Mark Swanson »

Thanks, Pat.
Looks good David, I don't know what I would change! Did you cut the bass out of the background, or what? how did you get the bright white? Nice edges on the instrument.
I am freezing and we are having a snowstorm here right now, and I remember a beautiful sunny day when we tossed a frisbee for a while!
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Jason Rodgers
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Jason Rodgers »

Mark Swanson wrote: I am freezing and we are having a snowstorm here right now, and I remember a beautiful sunny day when we tossed a frisbee for a while!
:D "Like"
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Mark Swanson
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Mark Swanson »

Indeed, Like!
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David King
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by David King »

Thanks Mark,
Today would have been a nice Frisbee day in Portland had there been anyone to throw it to.
I used a white cloth background and with photoshop I traced the neck with a 1 px wide white line and did the same around the lower bout to help delineate what was body and what was background. The line tool can only make straight lines so it's easy to trace the edge of a neck but with a convex curve you need to make dozens of overlapping lines, each tangental to a section of the edge. For convex section I'll use the eraser tool and select a diameter that's nearly as big as the curve I'm cropping up to. Then you can select the background with the magic wand tool and keep adding to that selection as you go around instrument. Once the whole background is selected I usually use the "inverse selection" to select the instrument instead of the background. I can then "grow the selection" by a pixel's width all the way around giving me a tiny slip of background all around the instrument. At that point I select inverse again and hit the delete button to erase all the background and replace with FFFFFF or white in webspeak. I'll resize the image and "save for web" using jpg set at 50% image quality which is pretty high. It's easy to drop any background color back in if I want but I like white because it's the opposite of all the other custom guitar websites what use a black background.
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Pat Foster
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Pat Foster »

David, that's a great looking bass. Amazing what you did with Photoshop. I've never been able to pull that off. My son uses a green screen (or is it blue?) in his videos to get a similar result, like they do when adding backgrounds in movie making. I wonder if that would accomplish the same thing?

On The Luthier Community forum, some years ago, there was a long thread on photographing guitars. It had some good stuff. Here's a link:

http://luthiercom.org/phpBB3/viewtopic. ... &hilit=d60

It requires joining, but that's pretty painless.

Pat
I like to start slow, then taper off.
David King
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by David King »

Thanks Pat,
The green screen will cast a green reflection around the edge of the instrument. I find it easiest to use a background that's as close as possible to the to be dropped in background.
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Pat Foster
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Re: A guide to photographing guitars

Post by Pat Foster »

David King wrote:Thanks Pat,
The green screen will cast a green reflection around the edge of the instrument. I find it easiest to use a background that's as close as possible to the to be dropped in background.
Aha! Yes, a green halo around our guitars would be a little weird.

Pat
I like to start slow, then taper off.
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