What lens and technique to use to get professional-quality guitar shots?

[markcasq]

How can I get guitar shots that looks like below?  Do I need flash?  Special lighting?

I currently have a DSLR with 35mm f/1.8 lens - good for blurs, but I can't get a good all-focused full guitar shot.





And this one - everything is just in focus.  When I take a shot, I always get a part that is blurred.

[shoegaze geezer]

Use a minimum of f8 aperture for single shots and f11 for group shots so you will not have a shallow depth of field in your shots. everything would be sharp. to accomplish it, you will need to use a tripod for slow shutter and use the timer or remote trigger. For more dramatic effect, under expose your shot for about a half or 1 step. You can use natural light or speedlights. Depends on what kind of effect you want to achieve. Experiment on bracketing also to get the desired result. If you are using a cropped sensor / dx camera, then your 35mm lens is equivalent to 50mm in full frame cameras which is good for guitar shots coz it will not create any undesired distortion.
Hope this helps a bit. 

[gainsucker]

Spot on response

[coy_2cute]

Use a minimum of f8 aperture for single shots and f11 for group shots so you will not have a shallow depth of field in your shots. everything would be sharp. to accomplish it, you will need to use a tripod for slow shutter and use the timer or remote trigger. For more dramatic effect, under expose your shot for about a half or 1 step. You can use natural light or speedlights. Depends on what kind of effect you want to achieve. Experiment on bracketing also to get the desired result. If you are using a cropped sensor / dx camera, then your 35mm lens is equivalent to 50mm in full frame cameras which is good for guitar shots coz it will not create any undesired distortion.
Hope this helps a bit. 

+100 on the smaller aperture. values of f8 and above will produce a longer depth of field allowing objects at a wide range of distances to all be in focus at the same time.

I would suggest also to get a dedicated flash gun and a softbox diffuser or reflector to aid you in producing a softened and evenly distributed light source. This will come in handy should natural light is not helping in illuminating your subject.

[randymarsh]

Use 50mm or longer. 35mm is ok but it will start to distort the image of the guitar.

I used a flash mounted to a shoot-through umbrella for the first photo. Shutter speed set to 1/60 and aperture set f/5.6 to capture the background and ambient light.

The second shot was with a flash and bounce umbrella setup, shutter speed set to 1/250 to kill the ambient light.

[markcasq]

Thanks for the quick replies!  I have learned so much here and can't wait to try, especially the high shutter speed shot by randy below.  A few more questions:

I actually have two soft box and umbrella and two flash guns that goes with the soft box and umbrella. They are optically triggered so I have to use my camera's built in flash to trigger them, which I think creates shadows.
What is the best way to set them up? Do I need them all or just one will do?
How do I avoid shadows in the picture?
What does flash through mean?
And umbrella bounce?

What is bracketing?

[gainsucker]

Thanks for the quick replies!  I have learned so much here and can't wait to try, especially the high shutter speed shot by randy below.  A few more questions:

I actually have two soft box and umbrella and two flash guns that goes with the soft box and umbrella. They are optically triggered so I have to use my camera's built in flash to trigger them, which I think creates shadows.
What is the best way to set them up? Do I need them all or just one will do?
How do I avoid shadows in the picture?
What does flash through mean?
And umbrella bounce?

What is bracketing?

Andami mo tanong Mark 

It took me years to learn all these terms and how to use such equipments, magbabad ka dito sa photography forum and you will learn a lot

[shoegaze geezer]

Thanks for the quick replies!  I have learned so much here and can't wait to try, especially the high shutter speed shot by randy below.  A few more questions:

I actually have two soft box and umbrella and two flash guns that goes with the soft box and umbrella. They are optically triggered so I have to use my camera's built in flash to trigger them, which I think creates shadows.
What is the best way to set them up? Do I need them all or just one will do?
How do I avoid shadows in the picture?
What does flash through mean?
And umbrella bounce?

What is bracketing?

-buy a remote trigger sir so that you will not depend on your built in camera flash as master to the speedlight slaves. thus will not create shadow from your lens.
setting you speedlights depends on your location. you can even use one speedlight and use a reflector to bounce some of its lights. play along and experiment. rule of thumb to get sharp shot of your subject is to have a small aperture.

-flash through umbrella (i hope i understand what you meant correctly) is to diffuse the harshness of the speedlight to the subject which causes unflattering effect.

-bracketing is how the camera perceive the right exposure of the subject in relation to its surrounding.

i am not 100% on my replies. please let tito google help you for some added infos 

[randymarsh]

Thanks for the quick replies!  I have learned so much here and can't wait to try, especially the high shutter speed shot by randy below.  A few more questions:

I actually have two soft box and umbrella and two flash guns that goes with the soft box and umbrella. They are optically triggered so I have to use my camera's built in flash to trigger them, which I think creates shadows.
What is the best way to set them up? Do I need them all or just one will do?
How do I avoid shadows in the picture?
What does flash through mean?
And umbrella bounce?

What is bracketing?

Start with a one light setup. Pag comfortable ka na sa isa then add the second flash for fills or rim lighting.

Diffused light creates less shadow, shoot through or softbox at 45 degree angle will do.

You can hold a piece of paper or cardboard infront of the popup flash to eliminate shadows on your subject. It should still trigger the off camera flash.

You have to understand that flash photography is quite different from available light photography. STAY AWAY FROM TTL! Learn to use the flash in manual mode. Try this

- Place softbox in a 45 degree angle about one meter or arms length away from your guitar or object.
- TURN OFF FLASH
- Set camera setting to MANUAL mode
- When shooting indoors, set ISO to 400, shutter speed to 1/60 and aperture to F/4.0 or F/5.6. For outdoor situations, set ISO to 100
- Take a test shot, review the image. This is your AMBIENT EXPOSURE. This is how your BACKGROUND will look like after you add the flash.

If you want a dark background, you can move the guitar away from the wall OR you can increase the shutter speed OR decrease the ISO OR combinations of these settings.

For a lighter background, do the opposite. Increase ISO, decrease shutter speed for move the subject closer to a white wall.

- Take a few more test shots and tweak the settings until you are satisfied with the background of your photo. NEVER EXCEED 1/200 (or 1/250) for your shutter speed or you'll have flash sync issues
- Turn the POWER ON the flash (and set to MANUAL mode) and set to 1/128 or 1/64 power
- Take a shot then review the image. Increase or decrease the flash power until you get the desired result. Check the histogram as well on your camera, ensure you are not clipping the shadows or highlights.

You do not need bracketing for this. Bracketing is more used for HDR, film photography or as an insurance shot for a super special event (e.g. wedding)

You can use the same technique above to shoot portraits.



Head out to a public library and look for the book "Light" by Michael Freeman. It's an old book but full of information about use of light in photography.

[tonwins11]

We will have beautifully-shot Epiphones, Maestros and Phoebus one of these days. 

BTT: Keep them coming guys. I'm still 2 days old in photography. Starting with a entry level DSLR with just its kit lens. Maximizing the features first. Dami kong gustong malaman.

[guitarbrat]

You have the most versatile prime. Doesn't matter if your dx or fx. You shouldn't have any DOF problems with that kind of lens. Play with your camera.

[coy_2cute]

Yun o! Magbababad na din sa photography si Boss Mark! 

[Mocho]

Here's a great resource about lighting. Check Lighting 101.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

[Filippo]

maglessons ka sa akin

[markcasq]

Hey guys, thanks so much, this is a very very solid base to start on.  I'll try it this weekend and see how it goes.  I'll show you some pics soon.
Everyone - thanks for all the resources and taking time to provide some tips.

Master Esse, baka hindi ko ma afford hehe.

Coy - tulungan mo ako, pwede ka ba mag session dito? hehe.

[palmmuteboi]

it depends on how you really want it so it is essential to have some knowledge read from articles and how tos, youtube, google, friends etc.

http://jehysworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/workingwithmycamera/

i just used a kitlens 18-105vr d90 sa nikon shot na yun.

while sa cover photo ko na swan, i just used a canon eos 500n film slr camera + 100-200mm canon ef lens.

sa nikon was just given/natural light minimal pp done on photoshop nothing major
sa swan naman shot that sa isang pond using a flash.

when you are equipped with basic knowledge sir imho everything will fall into places. equiptments may come later

kahit laro laro muna sa kit lens, push its "potential" to the max then after that, feeling like graduation thing na ng lens then all means buy another lens, by that time alam mo na anu next lens or step mo

[coy_2cute]

Hey guys, thanks so much, this is a very very solid base to start on.  I'll try it this weekend and see how it goes.  I'll show you some pics soon.
Everyone - thanks for all the resources and taking time to provide some tips.

Master Esse, baka hindi ko ma afford hehe.

Coy - tulungan mo ako, pwede ka ba mag session dito? hehe.

Pwede boss Mark!