still RG550

Comments would be much appreciated on both compensation and

lighting. I have a reason for the wide frame and large amount of negative

space, and that is to make the guitar stand out more from the background.

I have some spare time over next couple of days so will be more than

happy to discuss any of your pictures too.

The guitar is beautifully lit and I love the negative space surrounding it, acting as an envelope from which the guitar will emerge. The only thing I could wish for would be for the shadow to be opened up just a bit. The guitar taking up so little of the overall space keeps the viewer interested in the guitar only and not everything surrounding it. It speaks to the music of the soul, nicely done! ....Sherle

Sherle, many many thanks for giving me some feedback on this photograph. The shadow that could do with opening up a bit - do you mean the shadow under the neck? If so, then I tend to agree as it is possible too hard edged. Or maybe a little more light on the left hand side of the guitar body?

 

There's a bit of a story behind this guitar. I hadn't touched a guitar since I was at primary school. Then at age of 21 started work at a charge card company in their fraud department. A policy was introduced where recovered goods that had been bought with stolen cards were auctioned off within the company to put some money back in the coffered. Some fraudster had bought this guitar by mail order and we managed to get it intercepted at an airport. It arrived in our department in a poor battered cardboard box, and I fell in love with it straight away and bought it for GBP200 (a third of its value), And I've been playing it ever since, and now my 12 year old daughter plays it too!

 

If you managed to read this far...thanks again!

 

Pete

It is a beautiful guitar , the color palette is very much my personal taste, I like as well the lighting, and agree about a tiny bit more of it, in order to see better the details and the shadow it reflects. The negative space is fine even though again for my taste I would have liked the L side a bit cropped( trying about 1 santimetre) so it will be more on that side and the negative space on the R , will be more accentuated.

In any event it is very beautiful , well placed diagonaly on the frame, and well composed. Your story attached to it, is interesting ,and the generation use ;-)).

 

 

I really like it pete. I wonder what do you think?

HI Pete,

 

I did mean the shadow under the neck, however for my personal tastes I don't think I would add any more light to the left side of the guitar body, I like the mystery. .....Sherle

I think the composition and lighting is fine, great. You highlight the shape of the instrument nicely and your toning adds to the beauty. I find the shadow a problem too. It happens when things are so close to their backgrounds. I'm not looking at this from the perspective of "the product shot" which may allow for totally different esthetics and approaches. But, just as a casual observer, I tend not to like when things are photographed right up against a wall or background or on a floor like this. The shadow becomes so solid and so much a part of the subject. I tend to like a sense of depth in a photograph and such a compressed situation, object right against background, seems to flatten out the feel of a photo and, therefore, not draw me in as much as I often think it could if shot otherwise.

Sherle, thanks for confirming what I thought. I'll do a re-shoot at some point and move the light around a bit further to soften the shadow under the neck.

 

Fred, thanks so much for your valuable input (and sorry I've taken a couple of days to acknowledge it). During the exposure, I moved a small torchlight around to bathe various parts of the guitar in light. I could have softened the shadow (as just mentioned) by lighting some of the area under the neck as well. I get what you're saying about the floor and appreciate what you mean about separating subject from background. But what I was doing here was separating using light rather than distance, while wanting to leave some hint of the floor and the lines going across the picture - I wanted the straight lines of the floor and the straight lines of the strings and the guitar neck - all looking quite harsh - to highlight the curves of the body coming out of the dark. The more I look the more I'm happy with the way it turned out - except that shadow!

 

Thanks again for all the thoughts.

 

Pete

It might be fun to try this with two flashlights at once, a brighter and a lower wattage one. Using one for main and one for fill. You'd need a long exposure and some dexterity. I like the overall effect but yeah that shadow is too harsh and takes on a life of its own upstaging the subject. Nothing a mini-mag light couldn't fix :-)

I really like this shot a lot. The fact that Ibanez is such a fantastic guitar and the kind my husband plays (lets not forget Mr. Steve Vai) helps too. The choice of tones, color and the lines of the floor I think are very well done. I don’t mind the shadow so much; I think if you took it away it would lessen the 'mood' of the shot. I have wanted to take some shots of my husbands little collection and this has only fueled my inspiration! Well done my friend!