p.1 #1 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
I have always found these to be a challenge because of the reflections ruining the wood grain, and flash also tend to make the colors change in the photo. I would like to find out if anyone has suggestions on taking these without having huge lightboxes...
Attached are just snap shots of the guitar and you can see the challenge I always face.
p.1 #3 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
I specialize in photographing guitars, and have shot dozens or maybe even hundreds.
As was previously recommended, get the book "Light - Science & Magic" It will show you how to light shiny objects.
The secret is reflection and shadow control. You need a couple of strobes, with medium to large softboxes (the light source should be larger than the subject), and a good neutral background. I use 54" rolls of seamless paper for most of my work.
For detail closeups like #3 or #5, I typically use a softbox directly over the instrument and add a strobe with a standard reflector to create highlights.
It's about light control, you can't have light bouncing all around the studio, so I use a lot of flags and gobos to keep the light off places I don't want it.
Click the WWW button at the bottom of this reply to see my guitar photography web site for some ideas.
p.1 #4 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
I'll also recommend Light: Science and Magic. It has entire chapters on how to photograph surfaces, and builds on itself throughout each chapter.
They go through the family of angles, which explains why you get reflections, how to avoid them, and how to work with lights to emphasize texture and grain.
p.1 #5 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
Thanks everyone for your input. I do have that book but haven't read it much yet. I guess it's time to take it out again.
"anotherview", I tried Circular Polarizer before and I think it changes the color of the wood. Also, with curves I don't have one angle that I can cut out all reflections so it's basically choosing.
Chas, I know if I have huge softboxes I can manage reflections easier (or the reflections will just be even), but that's exactly what I am trying to avoid because it is too serious of equipment for just occasional use. I do like your cover shot though
p.1 #6 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
You don't need anything you can't make yourself if you know why you need it.
You can make large diffusers from shower curtain, drafting vellum, ripstop nylon, or even plain paper. It's all about understanding what the diffuser is doing, where the "family of angles" is that is causing your reflection/shadow, and where to put the light.
Study the book, using it and your guitar to go through some of the examples, and you'll quickly learn what works and why.
I use fancy gear because I do this all the time. It isn't magic, it just makes my setups easier and more efficient. I could do the whole thing with some strobes and paper and fabric.
p.1 #7 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
cwebster wrote:
You don't need anything you can't make yourself if you know why you need it.
You can make large diffusers from shower curtain, drafting vellum, ripstop nylon, or even plain paper. It's all about understanding what the diffuser is doing, where the "family of angles" is that is causing your reflection/shadow, and where to put the light.
Study the book, using it and your guitar to go through some of the examples, and you'll quickly learn what works and why.
I use fancy gear because I do this all the time. It isn't magic, it just makes my setups easier and more efficient. I could do the whole thing with some strobes and paper and fabric.
SCRIM. Plain and simple. ANY light source you choose, be it studio strobe, natural window, hot shoe type strobe... Anything can be diffused with a scrim.
Watch your angles and bracket at first...
Sep 23, 2011 at 02:24 PM
selece Offline • • [X]
p.1 #8 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
The key with reflective objects is that you need to realize that they REFLECT what they see. I know this sounds obvious, but stay with me for a second.
If you're getting a small & hot specular highlight in the gloss, that means that surface of the gloss is seeing a small & hot specular light source. If an area of the gloss is dark, that means it is seeing a dark area of the room you're shooting in.
Therefore, if you want to light the reflective surface, don't light it directly. Light what the surface "sees" - e.g. the walls/panels/surfaces around the object. If you want to place a shadow somewhere, just don't light that part of the surrounding area.
p.1 #9 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
I addition to the above advice, I'd add that with a STURDY tripod you can take several photos of the instrument, each lit from a different angle, and combine them in Photoshop to eliminate any glare that does happen.
When you have a subject with multiple compound curves, that's often the easiest way to get the effect you want.
Some specularity can be desirable, as it gives visual cues as to the shape of the surface, and by adjusting the opacity of layer masks in the composite image you can get the balance between flat and shiny that pleases you.
p.1 #10 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
I recently shot some guitars in my studio for a friend who makes them (a "luthier" I think he's called)
I think its all about the reflections and using them to give the wood texture and shape. These were done with one softbox (5ftx7ft) and a hard light with gridspot for the speculars. Nothing fancy, but the trick I think is to set up the lights and move the guitar until you get the reflection you want. The other way around (moving the lights around a fixed guitar) takes more time and is laborious.
Here is a link to a few of the shots, I think they show the shape and texture and feel of the wood:
p.1 #11 · Anyone with experience taking photos of glossy guitars?
oops, sorry, glee719, I did not read your post completely. You wanted to know how to light guitars "without large softboxes" ...sorry
Like CWebster, I have a pro studio and have to be able to repeat setups so use stuff like large softboxes and strobes all the time. Like has been stated; You can do the same with a large white wall lit by the sun, or a cloudy day sky, and then use large black foamcore as gobos. But you WILL need a large soft light source to shoot specular objects. The simplest way I can esplain it is that we use diffuse light to light speculars and specular light to light diffuse objects and a combination of the two to light combination subjects.
My main advice is to have an assistant move the guitar around under a fixed lighting situation
