Photographing shiny guitars cheaply and efficiently

[Steadfastly]

Lots of good suggestions here. The cloudy day is one of the better ones. Even so, the sun can still affect the picture if it's cloudy bright. Make sure the brightest light is off to the side or behind you; never in front.

Take lots of pictures from different angles, different settings, close ups, etc and then pick the best 5-6.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by der Geist

Get a polarizing filter for your camera lens. Cheap Chinese no names are $10 - $15 on flea bay. It will knock that glare right out.

Hi dG

A polarizer filter only works if one is at right angles to the light source.

Not a bad filter to own, but not magic either.

[Photojeep]

As a photography professor, I feel qualified to offer some suggestions...

Remember a shiny guitar is essentially a mirror. Whatever your guitar is “looking at” will show up in the shiny seuface. An easy thing to use would be a large piece of black cloth (type of fabric really doesn’t matter) and tack it on the wall or drape it over the back of a chair and place your guitar facing that cloth. Black in photography is the absence of light so the black will show in this “mirror”.

Position yourself right beside your black cloth and make sure your guitar is turned slightly away from you (while still facing the black cloth) so you don’t show up in the reflection.

Cloudy days are great lighting but we don’t always get them when we want them. However the “mirror thing” still happens on cloudy days. Use the black cloth trick and the beauty of your guitar will show just fine.

Hope that helps,
PJ

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Honkmaster

…For smaller surfaces like the guitar's head, taking the picture from a slight angle does the trick eliminating reflections and glare.

The large surface of the body however is another story. Regardless of the angle I shoot it from, there's a clear reflection of everything surrounding it in the room.

Hi Hm…
If you move the guitar away from the black curtain and position the camera looking back at the black curtain, you can minimize it.

And with a tripod and delayed shutter, you can also control the exposure which can help.

A tripod also helps because you can adjust the camera to awkward (for a person to hold) angles, and slow the shutter so you can experiment.

By the way, it's no different with a professional setup. I have a full photo studio in our basement, and you still have to choose your angles wisely when using props in pictures. This picture still has a reflection of the chair in the body…it's not offensive, but it's there.



I shoot a lot of guitars (with and without people) and I occasionally get them 'clean' from reflections. But not 100% of the time.



Hope you have a good time figuring it out.

[JoeCharter]

Most of the things you need to take good photos are free but not given to everyone. Having a good eye for good photos is a must -- and being patient in creating the proper setup is a step that many would rather skip.

Photojeep offers advice on what I think is the most important aspect that most people overlook.

[gfsark]

Photojeep has great advice, and it seems easy to implement if you have a bunch of black material. Of course if there were absolutely no reflections, the guitar wouldn’t look particularly shiny. So maybe the art form is getting just the reflection you want.

[guitar george]

Originally Posted by JoeCharter

Most of the things you need to take good photos are free but not given to everyone. Having a good eye for good photos is a must -- and being patient in creating the proper setup is a step that many would rather skip.

Our son-in-law posts numerous pictures of the backs of our grandchildren's heads, other people's kids and cut-off body parts when he is trying to photograph our grandchildren. He is completely unaware of the surroundings and position of the subjects.

[Long Jon]

Originally Posted by Ozark

Make sure to not get a reflection of your bare feet in your photos.

Or yer bare anything else really. (OK, hands may get a pass, but scrub those fingernails !)

[jaybones]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

...or, from above and a bit to one side. Also, of major importance: never use an on camera flash.

If possible, angle it upward and put a piece of white paper tilting forward on the back edge of the flash unit.

Or, tape a piece of white paper across the flash until there's the right amount of light on the subject.

You can make a cheap reflector with a piece of white poster board held to the side opposite the light source.

[Jeff Scott]

Here are some quick photographs I made of my custom Martin 000/OM-18. These were made with a simple ceiling mounted chandelier in the middle of a 13x13 room, no extra special lights involved. Camera on tripod, moderately long exposure so I used mirror lockup on the camera (Canon 6D with 17-40 f4 L ). Always use a good cable release when on a tripod (Gitzo 224 with RRS BH-40 head, in my case).











All these were made with the same simple, sort of diffused light source high up near the white ceiling to evenly diffuse the light throughout the room.

Yeah, the photo of the back of the guitar does show some reflections, but these were just made quickly so I was not interested in these being perfect at all. Don't mind the bare plaster walls; they were slated to come down during a renovation.

BTW, this guitar is looking for a new home.

[Long Jon]

Wow ! Great illustration of what a difference lighting can make Jeff.

That Martin almost appears to have a double cutaway , did you use mirrors ?!

[Mystery123]

I took a picture of this Seagull with and without flash.
Flash made it shiny in few places.
Without flash, it came out great.
Angle also makes big difference.
If it were facing little bit right, there would be reflections of outside through the window.