Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Tried to take some shots of the 660/12 in the early morning sun:






It's not much of a camera and I'm surely not much of a photographer!!

I'd call it 'fireburst'.....

The six string voice of God.

I found myself squinting!

I was told the secret of superior quality guitar pix some months back by an Ebayer from Adelaide (Oz) called synthstasher. The recipe goes:
- Outdoors, overcast sky
- Black background (cotton sheet is perfect) for all but black guitars
- Pale blue or similar background for Jetglo
- 5.2 megapixel digital camera with minimum 3x zoom. - also works for standard 35mil camera and scanner.
- Photoshop/Paintshop to polish up

Here''s some I took with standard 35mil/scanner method:

http://worldzone.net/music/dotcommies/jbass1.htm
http://worldzone.net/music/dotcommies/jbass2.htm
http://worldzone.net/music/dotcommies/jbass3.htm

http://worldzone.net/music/dotcommies/LPaa2.html

I'm hoping to find the right time to photograph my Rics soon.

Ya reckon I wasn't squinting when I took 'em?

I was trying to get a radiating sparkle effect (if you get my drift) rather than a blinding flash!

I'll take synthstasher's secrets on board, Lee but I'd have to sell a Ric or part thereof to afford the type of camera and software he's suggesting and that just wouldn't be on, would it??

Simple solution - stick to the basics!

I have gotten some great advice about using lighting in guitar pix. I know next to nothing about photography. I was told to use a couple of halgen shop lights to bounce the light off of white backgrounds...no direct light at all. A gray or light blue background. I'm going to try it.

Go for it, Bob! I'd like to see the results.

Might try moonlight next time... Oooouuuuww!!

Lee, Photoshop has a feature called "Auto Contrast" which, with one push of a button, spices up washed-out photos. Here is your scanned LP shot before and after. Just took a second.

Bob is one the right track. I use halogen shop lights bounced of the ceiling, with the guitar on a light blue flannel sheet. Sunshine is also good for color balance, but as Lee's source intimates, direct sunlight can cause troublesome shadows. And as Paul notes, Photoshop can do wonders for some problems.

I think me mum snapped them shots!

Thats how all 'er shot come out

My Mum's shots all have the heads missing. If she shot my guitars they'd prob have no headstocks.

My father-in-law leaves his video camera running while he's walking around - all you see are his feet and a lot of movement. It's great stuff - but gives us all motion sickness!!