C&C on an guitar pic please

RichyX

First time posting a picture here

Played around with the curves, contrast and changed to B+W in Photoshop.
The white specks on the scratch guard are little bits of dust.

elven

Welcome

My instant response is that I like it - the light/dark balance seems just about right, it's lovely and contrasty, and the white specks don't bother me, in fact they possibly break up what would have been an expanse of black otherwise. To be picky, the screw in the LL bothers me slightly probably because it's so close to the right of the frame - not sure if you cropped it so you might have space to bring back in there? Not sure if it would work with it cloned out, either, it makes a nice line with the others down the right of the shot. The DoF is perfect to my eyes, seeing the grain in the wood at the front and the numbers on the dial - only nit pick would be the hard edges onto the white background, something about that doesn't sit right with the amount of blur in the subject itself - if that makes sense?

Hope this is what you're after C&C wise... look forward to seeing more of your stuff now

sineadw

Welcome. I've spent all day today doing my first 'proper' shoot with a 1959 Annie Gretch, a green and black double bass, a skull mic and a snare so I'm in the instruments zone Coincidence..

I like it too. The DOF is lovely (I think I went too shallow on mine). I think I might have taken exactly the same angle today too.

Looks great to me. I hope mine turn out as well.

Ruu_Old

You got the angle spot on imo and the B+W conversion worked well. Welcome to the forum and hope to see more of your stuff.

frobisher

I'm a guitarist more than a photographer and I think it looks like a pic you'd see on the inside on a CD cover. I really like it, it's very simple but totally holds the eye, like there's a sense of anticipation. Probably not the kond of critique you were after but sure there you go.

440Hz

Like the DoF, like that the second dial isnt clear.. it might have been nicer if it was stronger still, with the strings out of focus a little more, well IMO anyway. Im not 100% sure I like the crop, but other than that I think its a good shot, great conversion, nice contrast and very interesting composition with the angle.
I take alot of instrument shots, and its hard to make them new and interesting alot of the time, I think you did a good job there, refreshing angle/take.


Look forward to seeing more! (fellow tralee person :S hmmmmm ponders whether i know you or not)

RichyX

Thanks guys. Nice to get a positive response with some useful comments

The image isn't a crop, that's how it was originally taken.

elven wrote:

only nit pick would be the hard edges onto the white background

You're right. Hadn't even noticed the hard edges before you mentioned it.
Any advice on a way around that?

440Hz wrote:

(fellow tralee person :S hmmmmm ponders whether i know you or not)

Probably not. I've been a student in the IT for the last 2 years but really from Macroom.
Tralee is more my adopted home now
Had a look at your flicker gallery. You've some lovely shots from around Kerry.

Great shots from the Duke Special gig too. Saw him along with the Divine Comedy in Cork last year.
Have a few pics from that gig on my deviantart page - http://richyx83.deviantart.com

melekalikimaka

sineadw wrote:

Welcome. I've spent all day today doing my first 'proper' shoot with a 1959 Annie Gretch, a green and black double bass, a skull mic and a snare so I'm in the instruments zone Coincidence..

I like it too. The DOF is lovely (I think I went too shallow on mine). I think I might have taken exactly the same angle today too.

Looks great to me. I hope mine turn out as well.

sounds good, d basses are the most beautiful instruments to photo imo. look forward to seeing them

elven

RichyX wrote:

You're right. Hadn't even noticed the hard edges before you mentioned it.
Any advice on a way around that?

You could pure and simple blur them. Make a duplicate layer of the pic, apply gaussian blur of maybe 10-15, then add a layer mask, change it to all black, and paint white at 15% with a medium sized very soft brush along the bits you want to blur, building it up stronger as you fancy by going over it to make the mask darker, and let more of the blur show through...

magicbastarder

i like the composition, but i'm going to go against the flow and suggest that the blown highlights take up too much space - that you could get some nice tonality if you reined the highlights in.

440Hz

RichyX wrote:

Probably not. I've been a student in the IT for the last 2 years but really from Macroom.
Tralee is more my adopted home now
Had a look at your flicker gallery. You've some lovely shots from around Kerry.

Great shots from the Duke Special gig too. Saw him along with the Divine Comedy in Cork last year.
Have a few pics from that gig on my deviantart page - http://richyx83.deviantart.com

Yeah I noticed the Divine Comedy shots from when Duke supported. I was at a few of those gigs as well.

Did you enjoy Duke's set?

RichyX

440Hz wrote:

Did you enjoy Duke's set?

Yeah he's great. Really good performer.
Planning to go see him again when he plays Cork next month.

dazftw

I like this, I just started playing guitar! My only little problem is it might be a bit too dark in places but thats just me :P

Is this a yamaha pacifica?

440Hz

RichyX wrote:

Yeah he's great. Really good performer.
Planning to go see him again when he plays Cork next month.

be quick, the second night in Cyprus Ave only has about 20 tickets left.. but there is another gig on in the Brog at the end of March. You cant beat Duke for a live gig.

RichyX

DeafVision wrote:

Is this a yamaha pacifica?

Yup, Yamaha Pacifica 112

RichyX

440Hz wrote:

be quick, the second night in Cyprus Ave only has about 20 tickets left.. but there is another gig on in the Brog at the end of March. You cant beat Duke for a live gig.

Just ordered my ticket.
Never been to Cyprus Avenue for a gig before. What's their policy on photography?
Would they let you in with an SLR?

sineadw

Richy what set up did you use for that shot? I don't get mine back till tuesday (damn film...) and I'm starting to get seriously worried I blew the whole set with too large and aperture.

RichyX

sineadw wrote:

Richy what set up did you use for that shot? I don't get mine back till tuesday (damn film...) and I'm starting to get seriously worried I blew the whole set with too large and aperture.

F/2.8, shutter speed was 1/1.6. Has it mounted on a mini tripod.
There was quite a bit of natural light coming from a window to the left of the guitar.

Is that any help to you?

sineadw

Yes, thanks. I used a 100 macro and there was very little light so it was hovering around 3.5 the whole time. If you were on 2.8 with that though I should be ok? Or were you using a much wider lens?

I need a digital. Sigh.

mtracey

I like this, must get out my gibson and try something like this. cheers !

dazftw

RichyX wrote:

Yup, Yamaha Pacifica 112

Same guitar