Hi! noob w/questions about image detail

Artemis · May 30, 2005

Hmm...I gotto say again...I dont like that background...with a lighter background it may give you more textured results as you want, or you could just use normal shots in conjunction with nice macro shots

Ultimate Garage Band · May 30, 2005

Ok. I'm finally at the office! I'll go through the manual and figure out how to adjust the aperature to the largest setting. In looking at the white balance, you're right; I can't tweak it. I can only select 'auto' or chose some programmed settings, those being sunlight, cloudy, incandesent, or florescent. Man, I don't think I'm spelling those right but I know I can't draw the icons they have in manual! ;-) I also don't have an FTP here at the office so I can't download them here and host them someplace for ya'll to give me some direction. I'll have to take a bunch of shots here, make notes on what I'm doing, then upload and host from home. I'll put up the images untouched other than cropping/resizing for what I'd use.

Ultimate Garage Band · May 30, 2005

I think that's about all the testing I can do, or all I can think of anyway. I won't be able to host the pics until later, but here's the method and details.

ISO is 100
F 5.6 (highest it would go)

For most of the pics I pulled the backdrop out of the view. The best white balance setting, to me, is incandescent. It's better than auto and the closest to the actual color. I took about 7 or so shots of a full body view. I downloaded those into the pc and played around w/one in a program I've never used before; it came w/my Dell pc and it's called Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 5. It really blows away the Camedia stuff I've been using. I did a couple and they are VERY close to the grain that I'm looking for, however, the soundhole rosette on the guitar gets very 'pixely' and geometric looking when I get that good, punchy grain. What's the 411 on this program? I think I have to pay $29 w/in 60 days to keep the 'pro' version, or whatever I'm using. How does it compare to some others mentioned above, if anyone knows?

I ended the session taking the standard shoot I do for each guitar for this same one. I did 2 w/the backdrop gone and 2 w/the backdrop in place. Of both sets of 2, one had the sharpness set at 'hard' and the contrast set at 'high' and the other both parameters set at 'normal'. I'm going to download those now. I'll play with them a bit in this Jasc program to see if either of those setting affects the soundhole rosette issue.

Ultimate Garage Band · May 30, 2005

well, the manual says the F stop will go up to 7.1 and I was able to set that! I don't know why it wouldn't go that high before. Oh well, I'll go snap another test set.

John Orrell · May 30, 2005

Lighting at an angle to the guitar, rather than front-on, will exaggerate the grain. Though how you avoid shadows I'm not sure.

There are other problems, too.

Firstly I'm not entirely sure if 3.3Mpixels will be enough to capture the detail you're trying to get.

Secondly, it may well just be enough, but if your camera can only save the photos as JPGs then you can kiss the level of detail you want goodbye. I'm not familiar with the camera you're using so I can't say for sure if it can or cannot save photos in any format other than JPG.

Thirdly, regardless of how good the image is, by the time you've shrunk it to fit onto a typical screen (e.g.: 1024x768 pixels) you'll loose that detail anyway. Your website will have to include the option to download the photos in a very high resolution format in order for potential customers to see the detail you want them to. This will put off virtually everyone still on dial-up (is there anyone left in the US on dialup? It's dying a slow death over here in the UK, but I for one am not shedding a tear).

Perhaps the best thing you could do is do on your website what you have done on this page: a full-length shot and close-up "guitar-porn" shot (! the mind boggles !) to show a small representative area in great detail.

Ultimate Garage Band · May 30, 2005

Thanks John!

Not being at the office w/the manual, I'm not sure about what formats it can save in as well. As I link the pictures in this thread, these are the actual sizes I'm using. Too large an image is just too cumbersome to deal with especially for dial up users like you say.

I'll start with some pics of my 'studio' set up. I use that word VERY loosely!

Ultimate Garage Band · May 30, 2005

Not wanting to put too many pics in one post, I'm breaking it up a bit. Here's some more from today.

Ok so here's ISO 100, f 5.6, hard sharpness and high contrast with the backdrop pulled away.

Here's a similar pic after I've punched it up in that new program I discovered today:

This one adds the backdrop back in; no editing other than cropping:

Same guitar, same postition but now the f stop has been set to it's highest setting, 7.1. I can't really see a difference:

Ultimate Garage Band · May 30, 2005

Lastly, I think the backdrop does it's job pretty well. To me, the one w/o the backdrop looks flatter and more washed out. The one with the backdrop punches the edge binding and makes the color and grain richer and much closer to what it really looks like:

Ultimate Garage Band · May 30, 2005

I guess the quick answer probably lies in a couple of phased steps; first, get better editing software, secondly, get a better/dslr camera, and perhaps third, keep working on lighting.

Christie Photo · May 30, 2005

Hi. My situation is reversed... I eek out a living in photography, but my "second hat" is that of musician. My instument is guitar. I think you've done a fine job in presenting your product. I can see all that I need to make a decision. Yup... there's always more you can do, but I think you're well on your way.

You can expect different results from gloss finish vs. satin. If you want to brighten up the detail a bit when shooting the close-ups of the head stock/tuning machines, hold a white card as close in as you can without coming into view. This will help with anything metal or shiney so long as you allow some of the light to fall onto the card. Make sure the card is large enough to illuminate the entire area.

Good luck!

I'd LOVE to have a Guild DV-52 with electronics. Can't bring myself to pay for a new one, but would seriously entertain a nice used instrument.

Ultimate Garage Band · May 30, 2005

I do carry some makes that have a satin finish. I'll see how that affects the processing. Thanks!

Artemis · May 31, 2005

I personally really like the white background, but if you prefere the background in thats your choice, remember I dont take pics to sell on ebay.

Youve done a great job here, and no, you wont see much of a difference from 5.6 to 7.2, I was hoping you could get a nice F/22, but it dont mtter, youve done really well.

Try downloading the Picasa2 program for google, and use the "Im feeling Lucky" tool on the program (Youll see when you get it) its worth having, and it may just help your problem.

Ultimate Garage Band · May 31, 2005

I have that program on my home pc; I've used it a bit before. I'll play around w/some of these here at the house and see what happens.

Ultimate Garage Band · Jun 1, 2005

Ok. I think for now I'm ok. I'm going to go ahead and get this Jasc program I've been using. It has enough stuff for me to tweak to get good results; good enough w/what I have anyway. As the capital permits, I'll upgrade to a dslr and proper photography lighting. This camera has some quirks but I'm getting used to it. The best feature is that 'my settings' or whatever it's called. Man, w/my old camera it was a full minute of button pushing and menu scrolling just to get ready to shoot.