This is not a tutorial, but rather some things that I learned after taking thousands of pictures of guitars.
The first thing is that I don't usually use the flash. It's better to get a slightly underexposed picture that you can bring up the levels in Photoshop or similar than an overexposed can't-see-anything shot.
The seond thing, and equally important is reduction of motion blur (especially if you're not using a flash). A monopod is much easier to use than a tripod. The monopod and head I use are both made by Manfrotto in Italy. Do not cheap out on this part. I bought them at
Shutterbug on Santa Rosa Ave.
Manfrotto monpod 684B (I think around $79)
Manfrotto ball head 486RC2 (I think around $89)
This is a photo before monopod. You can see the motion blur pretty good.
Here's one of a very similar guitar after the monopod. Even the littlest string looks very sharp!
The third thing is to take lots and lots of photos. If you look at the photos in the Features Customs, you'll notice I don't always take them at exactly the same angle. I look at the specular highlight (shiny reflection) and move the camera until it looks good and defines the shape.
The Camera I love is Sony F717. I bought two used ones on ebay recently. They are only 5 mega pixel resolution, but the lens is awesome. I'd rather have a great lens than than a high res picture with chromatic aberration.
On ebay you have to search for Sony F717 - if you leave off the F you won't find the camera! There's lots of accessories for the camera too, many of them are not offical Sony products.
I also got a
ring light - it's awesome for closeups without shadows!
I also recommend these two products for downloading and organizing you photos automatically. Keep in mind I have over 30,000 images to sort through, so I need a tool like this:
Breeze Broswer Pro - it is great for sorting, and it even automates web galleries of photos. I don't use that feature, but it is very cool
http://www.breezesys.com/BreezeBrowser/index.htm Breeze Downloader Pro - put the memory stick in your card reader, and the program automatically launches, one click and your files are dowloaded to your computer. I have the program automatically create directories sorted by year-month (like 2007-03 for March 2007) and all the photos get dumped in the right place. You can also rename the photos as they are downloaded, like with the insurance policy number or serial number. It's nifty!
http://www.breezesys.com/Downloader/index.htm Both of these products are worth much more than Chris Breeze charges for them.
