Taking pro pictures of guitars

[CFerraro]

A good lighting setup for a reasonable amount of money coupled with probably the best warranty service available is offered by Alien Bee.

AlienBees: Illuminating the Galaxy with Professional Photographic Lighting Equipment

You could start off with two AB400 lights (800's are only a little more and will give you more flexibility). A couple of small or medium softboxes (one for each light), two stands, and you're all set if your Canon has a PC Sync connector for triggering the lights. If not, you can buy a single CyberSync transmitter and receiver to trigger your lights. The second light would work as an optical slave (flashes when it detects the firing of your primary light).

Thanks so much! What do you recommend for a back drop?

 

[EhJsNe]

a backdrop could be one of your bedsheets.
However, If you were doing this professionly (for other people, or doing portraits etc), and had a bedsheet thumbtacked to a wall...it wouldnt scream "Hmm....prefesional. He has nice stuff. You would want to get a thing meant to be a backdrop....but a backdrop like that is around 50 dolalrs (according to my B&H Photo Video book in front of me)

I was going to recomend a soft box and a few small flash units or some rather inexpensive studio strobes (such as the AlienBees setup Tharmsen recomended.)

 

[GeneralBenson]

Tharmsen, did you intentionally have the from of the 24-70 out of focus? I would think with studio heads, you could shoot with a high enough f/stop to have everything sharp. Same with the p90?

 

[inTempus]

Tharmsen, did you intentionally have the from of the 24-70 out of focus? I would think with studio heads, you could shoot with a high enough f/stop to have everything sharp. Same with the p90?

I purposely did that by shooting the angle I chose. I wanted the focus on the business end of the rifle.

 

[inTempus]

Thanks so much! What do you recommend for a back drop?

I would go with paper backgrounds, but as mentioned muslin or a sheet would work. If you go with something that wrinkles, you'll want to set your subject far enough away from the background that the wrinkles won't appear.

I'm moving to paper.

background paper

That's for 9ft wide paper, they do have 53" which might better suit your needs. You'll also want a background stand to hold the paper... those can be had from Amazon for $100 or so.

 

[GeneralBenson]

I purposely did that by shooting the angle I chose. I wanted the focus on the business end of the rifle.

Whoops, type-o on my end. I meant did you mean to have the from of the 24-70 OOF in the two camera picture? It looks slightly in front of the focus plane. Right on with the gun, though. Is that your gun? How exactly does one go about getting such a thing?

 

[CFerraro]

I would go with paper backgrounds, but as mentioned muslin or a sheet would work. If you go with something that wrinkles, you'll want to set your subject far enough away from the background that the wrinkles won't appear.

I'm moving to paper.

background paper

That's for 9ft wide paper, they do have 53" which might better suit your needs. You'll also want a background stand to hold the paper... those can be had from Amazon for $100 or so.

cool thanks so much

 

[CFerraro]

I would go with paper backgrounds, but as mentioned muslin or a sheet would work. If you go with something that wrinkles, you'll want to set your subject far enough away from the background that the wrinkles won't appear.

I'm moving to paper.

background paper

That's for 9ft wide paper, they do have 53" which might better suit your needs. You'll also want a background stand to hold the paper... those can be had from Amazon for $100 or so.

cool thanks so much