Shooting Guitars for calendar

[Tuffythepug]

I'm working with someone who wants to produce a brand-specific guitar calendar for next year. Since I have several guitars of this particular brand I was asked to provide some photos for the calendar. I've learned the hard way that lighting is critical when shooting guitars due to reflections from the gloss finish on most of them.
Also, it's harder than you might think to get a good shot from an interesting angle on one of these.

So, I've been trying different lighting approaches both indoors and outdoors and I thought I post some preliminary results here before I sent any to the calendar producer.

Here's a few for your comments and critique

 

[Tuffythepug]

And a few more...

I kinda like B /W version of it too

 

[tirediron]

#1: Lean the guitar out a little more, add fill image left, and lose the digital picture frame (and if you could find hardwood flooring, even better).

#2: Not fond of the background shadow or the one near the bottom.

#3: Clean up the background upper right, and it's great.

#4: Love it! (maybe dial down the exposure on the couch just a tad).

#6: Lose the ivy at the bottom

#7: Sorry, this one just plain doesn't work for me. Classic blonde wood guitar and yellow plastic (or metal?) lawn furniture????

Overall, it looks to me like you're on the right track, but you need to be more cognizant of your shadows and highlights, as well backgrounds.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

 

[Tuffythepug]

Thanks John, Those are the kind of comments that are helpful. I'll work on the things you brought up. With regard to #1.. ironically, I was not paying good attention to background distractions when I shot a series of pictures with the guitar in this same general position. After inspecting the images on my monitor I discovered that there was a box of laminate flooring left over from a den installation hiding under this sidebar; fully visible if you looked down and to the right. Then, that's I all could see when I looked at most of the pictures. The ones from this angle avoided that distracting box of flooring. I will shoot some more pictures with the guitar resting on top of dark wood flooring. #4 is my favorite also.