Guitar -- Gibson Les Paul Custom

[Mike Buckley]

My good friend bought this electric guitar in 1986 (manufactured a year earlier) as a gift to himself after working unusually long hours on a project for two years. Coincidentally, he and I first met on that project in 1988. He was my customer and our two families later became close friends. After we ate dinner Saturday night, he got out this guitar, which I had never seen, and asked me to take it home and photograph it. What an honor!

My background of photographing glass and other shiny surfaces such as labels on wine bottles gave me the experience needed to photograph this guitar, which is shiny almost throughout. Even so, I knew all those shiny surfaces on a subject that is three times as large as my typical subjects would make it one of my most difficult photography projects. That proved to be the case.

Setup
The tabletop and background are a single piece of black velvet. A small continuous-light lamp lights the very top black part that displays the name of the guitar. It is flagged to prevent glare on the rest of the neck. A medium continuous-light lamp to the right of the body lights the rest of the guitar and is flagged between it and the camera to prevent flare. A small continuous-light lamp in front of the top of the guitar is pointing downward mostly to light the lower two gold pieces that form the bridge. It is flagged to prevent glare on the neck. A white reflector redirects light onto the two largest gold pieces that form the electronic pickups to make them appear gold rather than black. The camera is tilted to create the diagonal composition.

[Wavelength]

Excellent image

[ST1]

Good work Mike

[IzzieK]

Nice job, Mike....

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[madcrow]

Fabulous image.

[Donald]

I suspect your friend is, or will be, highly delighted with that. He should be.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I hate being the only dissenting voice here, but, I think you can do better Mike.
When I first looked at this shot, the thing that jumped out at me was the guitar stand lock bar and shadow on the neck. Then the brightness of the neck itself took over. Because of this you've lost the detail of the inlays on the neck itself.
If I were shooting this I think I'd build a tent out of white bed sheet material to make like a giant light box that I could reflect all the lights off of from below. Then I'd shoot a long exposure shot at f11 or more to get all the details sharp.
The beauty of this guitar is not only the sound it produces but the fine craftsmanship that went into making it, and being able to see that is what is lacking in your shot IMO.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

Alan,

All voices including dissenting voices are most welcome!

This photo doesn't lose the detail of the inlays on the neck; the tonal values of the inlays and the surrounding blonde wood on the neck are very similar, as displayed in the photo. I actually wondered why the neck was designed this way and finally concluded that the designer felt that more separation between the inlays and the surrounding wood would have resulted in too much complexity. Even so, I still would like to have been able to see if more separation would have made the design more appealing. Note that some (actually, I think most) of the guitars made under this brand have a darker or even black neck that makes the inlays stand out considerably and very differently from the blonde wood in this particular guitar.

My thinking is that using a light tent or any concept similar to it would have produced many unwanted reflections that would have disguised the texture, shape and color of the various materials used to make the guitar.

[Rita]

It may have been a challenging project but the result is wonderful.

[bnnrcn]

The guitar looks very nice Mike I can see some different tones and colors on the black velvet though. I don't know if they are PP artifacts or something else

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Rita and Binnur!

I can see some different tones and colors on the black velvet though. I don't know if they are PP artifacts or something else

I'm not sure what caused the different colors in the velvet but the somewhat lighter tones mostly in the tabletop and less so in the background are an intentional result of the lighting. If everything had been all black, the guitar would have looked like it was floating, whereas I wanted the light tones in the tabletop to provide some subtle grounding.

This is the first time I've used this particular piece of black velvet, which explains why I'm not sure about its colors that are different from the expected shades of black and grey. Those other colors could be the result of an "inaccurate" white balance, as I wrestled with white balance just a bit. Ultimately, I decided upon the white balance suggested by my WhiBal card mostly because I liked the tones of the subject using that white balance.

[Mike Buckley]

My friend sent me more information about his guitar. It is the limited edition Gibson Les Paul Custom Maple. His was made in 1985. For more information about it and some very nice photos made for the manufacturer, see this.

[Dave Humphries]

Yeah, I can see the problems and this is certainly no worse than the official photos, better I'd say.

Any chance of some close ups of various detail features Mike?

I'd love (you) to get up close and personal with various bits of it.

If you still have it that is.

[bje07]

For sure as suggested by Dave, close ups of details could be very nice

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Jean and Dave!

Yes, I plan to make several close-ups, perhaps some on the more creative side and less documentary.

[Mike Buckley]

Four close-up images of the guitar are displayed in this thread.

[ionian]

Nice image Mike. Just one comment that hasn't been raised before: The curved mahogany fascia to the body of the guitar is such a feature of these instruments that I wouldn't be afraid to create a large specular highlight in the body that gives the viewer a clue to this shape. Your image here shows such a neutral black throughout the body that it looks flat. I understand why you have done this, but I'm just highlighting an approach that will give a different result that you may wish to explore in the future.

I have, in my misspent youth, poured over guitar pictures for hours - it is from this vast resource of guitar acquisition syndrome that I steak, not from my own product photography technique which pales in comparison to yours!

[Mike Buckley]

The curved mahogany fascia to the body of the guitar is such a feature of these instruments that I wouldn't be afraid to create a large specular highlight in the body that gives the viewer a clue to this shape.

Great point, Simon! That curve is very subtle, so subtle that even the manufacturer's photos of it display that curve only in the black version of the body, not the white version. I chose not to light the body to display that curve because doing so would have highlighted the many scratches in the surface near the strings. If I had decided to display it, I probably would have used a white reflector. The manufacturer's photo makes me think it was displayed using post-processing or work done in the darkroom that doesn't look real to my eye.

Before I began the project I decided to display those kinds of imperfections as a way of indicating that the guitar has been played rather than only kept on display. As I began making the photos, I decided to go the clean route.