My Axes *devil horns in the air*

As many of you know, I like to have a strum on a guitar every now and then. The great thing about guitars is, like bikes, they lend themselves to photography...so I've started to investigate getting some pictures of my two trusty axes; My jackson something-or-another, and my Vintage Les Paul Replica.

Any suggestions are welcome; I'm not sure what the background colour should be, but lots of people use black.

Oh, and I really need a tripod

My Jackson:







A shot of my Les Paul rep:



Soooooo any tips / ideas?

Matt

A man with taste... Jacksons absolutely MUST have an upside down headstock.

Needs a tastefully done lightning strike paintjob though.

Originally Posted by alpinestarhero

Soooooo any tips / ideas?

Matt

Wipe the dust off your Les Paul?

Ps, is that a Vintage?

i have a honner? i will post pics later as i have no idea what it is?

my dad got it for me (2nd hand) about 20 years ago, its under the bed, where its spent most of its life

[Bluepete]

Cool subject!
Get it away from the background, keep the background very plain as clutter detracts from the guitar. Light it with a spot to create contrast or use the spot on the background to make a shape. Pay attention to the apature for depth of field, or lack of it. Shame our Nikons don't have depth of field preview, but you can shoot and check easily enough. F22 will give the sharpest images, but everything will be in focus!
You can create very tight spots of light with a cardboard sheet wrapped around the light and tapered to a narrow opening. Like a "princess" hat with the tip cut off!
Take loads, experiment with light, play with close-ups of specific parts of the instrument.
I learned a lot by looking at images I liked and trying to imitate them. The tech of pics is interesting when you get to grips with it!

Originally Posted by BluePete

Cool subject!
Get it away from the background, keep the background very plain as clutter detracts from the guitar. Light it with a spot to create contrast or use the spot on the background to make a shape. Pay attention to the apature for depth of field, or lack of it. Shame our Nikons don't have depth of field preview, but you can shoot and check easily enough. F22 will give the sharpest images, but everything will be in focus!
You can create very tight spots of light with a cardboard sheet wrapped around the light and tapered to a narrow opening. Like a "princess" hat with the tip cut off!
Take loads, experiment with light, play with close-ups of specific parts of the instrument.
I learned a lot by looking at images I liked and trying to imitate them. The tech of pics is interesting when you get to grips with it!

f22 give the sharpest images ? I always thought f8/11 usually gave the best sharpness ? Oh an invest in a good tripod as well, I always weigh the tripod down with my camera bag slung over it to keep down vibrations, usually with addition of a rock or stone when Im out about, otherwise as Pete said experiment like mad, especially with digital, don't like it, delete it etc.. good luck, oh and listen to Pete, he,s an ex pro I beleive.

Alternatively, invest in a good photo clamp, attach your camerea to the headstock, set apeture at say f2.8 focus as close as possible and get it all out focus as the body comes into view, try B+W as well.

Sam took some pics of my guitar a while back..... she forgot to dust it too

[Bluepete]

That's a good pic there Rigor, I think in B&W dust and smudges add to the image, kind of makes it personal, not a brochure pic.

Some really nice pictures- the first one works best and the view along the guitar with the narrow field of view.

That Gibson pic is lovely too, Rigor!

I am starting to get pics of mine- here's my Epiphone Black Beauty- it's on my quilt. Not the best shot ever (focus?!- bad light), but the red of the quilt contrasts nicely with the black guitar-



For some reason, I called it Ibanez on quilt. Doh! Oh well- they're both black and made in SE Asia, so I guess that's an easy mistake to make!!!