Thursday 4/26 Lunch Report

Thursday photo stuff. AKA, this may take some time.

Lunch will be something on the road. Where or when is to be determined.

Some of the oldtimers around here might remember Griff. He would take beautiful photos of his vintage G&L collection in all sorts of natural surroundings near his home in SW British Columbia, Canada. For him, it wasn't so much about equipment (though his was very good); it was all about composition and focus. Imagine an old F100 (as I recall) at the foot of a tree with crimson leaves scattered on the body. Some of his guitars were in less than pristine condition, yet they looked immaculate in his photos.

In my dreams I could do that sort of thing. A visual artist I ain't.

But I have learned a thing or two. Here are some of them.

Be aware of the background. You probably don't want it to look ratty. Put the kids to work seeing how many trash cans they can fill up.



Watch out for reflections. Or for God's sake, at least wear clothes. And keep your feet out of the image, especially if they have Crocs on.



Casting a giant shadow isn't necessarily a good thing. Unless you're Chong Wang. Maybe even then.



If your camera is on a tripod, make sure its wrist strap is where you want it to be. Like out of the way.



And cel phone images can be really bad. Easily. There was some character a couple years ago trying to sell a guitar or bass or something on Craigslist. Now, CL photos are small and it takes a bit of attention to make it look like you're actually trying to sell your item. Not this guy. Nope. I swear on a stack of bibles that his photos were backlit by the sun on a bright day and the phone's lens had greasy nose prints. It was like looking through fog. Just…. Don't. Damn!

But seriously…

Whenever possible, take your photos with your camera mounted on a tripod or other support. Unless the lighting is optimal, it's likely that the automatic settings of your camera will make it possible for camera movement to make for a blurry image. Image stabilization is nice, but a tripod can hold the camera a bunch steadier than most people can and allow you to turn IS off. You can spend a little or a lot, but $50 to $70 seems to bring some nice lightweight tripods.

If you know you're shooting in reduced light you can help yourself even more by taking your trigger finger out of the equation. Learn to use the timer feature that most cameras have. Turn the timer on, press the shutter halfway and allow the camera to focus, then press the rest of the way. 10 seconds later the camera fires. Some cameras can take multiple images on one firing, others can auto-bracket.

A camera-mounted flash can make things look really washed out and can cause some weird looking shadows. Accessory bounce flashes can help here, but the average snapshot camera can't use these without the proper slave and they need a ceiling to bounce off of.

This image was taken in hazy sunlight (which actually ain't bad for a photo), but I forced the flash on. Range to the bass was about 7 feet. You can see the flash's shadow on the wall to the right of the headstock.



Same as the above, with the flash off.



My camera does have a fast lens (f=2.0) which makes no flash images a lot easier. But slower lenses can do nearly as well with a little thought and a tripod.

=======================

For many compact snapshot style cameras, it’s a good idea to try to set your camera's image size with the target audience in mind so that you can avoid big jumps in resizing. Resizing a JPG image will many times leave you with jaggies or other sorts of artifacts that detract from the image. More mega pixels doesn't necessarily help here, though good onboard image processing does help. You can sometimes get an idea of what you can get away with by viewing an image from your camera and zooming in to or out of it. The practical limit is reached when the image quality starts to deteriorate. Take lots of pictures, play and learn.

To back up just a little bit… JPG images are compressed representations of the original image using "lossy" compression; kind of like MP3 audio vs uncompressed WAV. The camera will optimize the compression for the desired image size (in pixels). Some cameras use more compression, others less. Less is better because the images can be altered a little without looking like they've been altered. Editing a highly compressed image can leave you with a visual disaster.

A camera that can take RAW images is an asset. These are uncompressed images and can allow a great deal more flexibility when manipulating them. RAW is a generic term used to refer to a proprietary image format used by the camera; there is no standard. For example, Canon's RAW and Nikon's RAW are different. Manufacturer-provided software is used to convert these to uncompressed image formats that are not proprietary, such as TIFF. (Some image editing applications can work with various manufacturer's RAWs, but YMMV.) With an uncompressed source image, you can zoom in, out, resize, alter, adjust, etc; all with very little degradation. The downside here is that cameras with RAW capability can be spendy.

Here is a closeup of the L-2500 headstock. Like all the images above, it is resized from a 2736 x 3648 RAW to 600 x 800.



Here's the D string post cropped in and at its native resolution.



I've purposely taken some pretty crappy and goofy pictures for this, though I really couldn't replicate re-sizing issues because I ran out of time. But I damn near wore black socks under the Crocs just for you guys. Then I thought better of it.

This certainly isn't the last word on this stuff, and I really would like to hear about some of the methods and tactics you guys use when photographing your collections. A lot of your work is pretty stellar.

Ken, great pictures and I am not known as a world class photographer myself! You do have some great pointers and the closeups are awesome. My camera doesn't seem to do well on closeups. I have taken some pictures after reading your advice and I am seeing improvement on every picture that I take.



Sometimes uninvited guests appear for some of the action.



Oops, I didn't get all of the headstock!



Now were getting there. I have the headstock.

These are my entries for todays photo contest.-- Darwin

Here are some of my favorite pictures of basses:
First is a creative shot of my '82 Fender Precision Special, which was taken by a pro:


a Tribute L-2000 shot in my basement with my small Canon digital camera:


My Wacky Marina bass on the deck:


Here are my G&L 5 string basses , taken in my studio with the same Canon camera:


Here is a group shot of G&Ls in a Gazebo:


This is a closeup of my old SB-2:


One of the best tips that I can offer is to shoot your basses off axis so that the flash can't reflect off of the shiny parts of the instrument, back at the camera. good luck with your photography.

Take care,
bassman

bassman, the pro managed to get a reflection in the pickguard and some bad shadows of the pots.
not using a flash and not shooting at harsh sunlight is the best thing. try the magic hour, outside if you really want good result. the fully automatic point and shoots get pretty crappy results, can't adjust anything. getting a 150 dollar panasonic lumix zs8 with a leica lens is a big step up.

Hey Ken,

Crazy busy week for me.... boy time flies, i can't believe it is thursday already. I really enjoy photography and a few years ago a spent a fair bit on a Pentax DSLR, money that was very well spent. My iPhoto library just surpassed 10,000 photos! That doesn't mean i am very good mind you, but those are certainly some great tips you provided.

Here is a shot of my SC-2 that i took the day i got it last year. I love how the pool and the Turquoise Metal Flake go so well together.



Out of every photo i have ever taken this has to be my favourite. I was just at the right place at the right time and yes those were the actual colours i saw ( i have no idea what i am doing in photoshop! )



Have a good one

Scott

I shoot everything inside the house. Nowadays I'm using a Canon 40D, 2 Flashes, an umbrella like reflector mounted on a microphone stand, a wireless flash trigger and two receivers. The wireless set (Cactus) and the reflector (incl. mount bracket) was very cheap bought directly from an Ebay seller in Hong Kong. As he calculated the price for each piece with low shipping costs, I splitted it up to toll free pieces.

One flash is mounted at the reflector, the other one rests on a small stand delivered with the wireless set and points to the wall or the ceiling, which are fortunately colored white. The flashes are a Canon Speedlite 430 EXII and an old Metz 35 CT 3.

For example this 2 pictures have been done with the described system:

I maybe will upgrade to a system like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Square-Perfect- ... 43aea9caa9, some of them are found even cheaper too.

I am so F...king pissed, I just spent almost an hour on that pic post and hit the preview button only to tell me I need to log in, I was already logged in WTH

'Duck, sorry you lost your post. I'd be pissed too.

FWIW, I normally write long posts in a word processor (right down to the BBCode) then copy & paste them in. You can also Preview your post as many times as necessary to keep your session alive, then Submit when you're done.

BTW - Lunch ended up here at the house. Reese's sardines and Townhouse crackers.

I use auto log in and have never lost a post. I am assuming that prevents a timeout of the session but I could be wrong.-- Darwin.

I use auto log in and have never lost a post. I am assuming that prevents a timeout of the session but I could be wrong.-- Darwin.

It might be a good time to re-visit this Announcement post which is in the G&LDP forum & guitarsbyleo.com site Discussion forum:
Session timeouts - losing post while creating it?

Hope this helps.

Gotta love all the fantastic photos, I have been into cameras for a while but fell into a trap of buying alot of point and shoots so I always seem to have better editing software than cameras Next sunny day mayhaps I'll take my tripod and camera and try to do my G&L justice

Gotta love all the fantastic photos, I have been into cameras for a while but fell into a trap of buying alot of point and shoots so I always seem to have better editing software than cameras

There are some good point & shoot cameras out there. You do get what you pay for.

I wanted RAW capability, "fast glass", and good onboard image processing; all of which ups the ante a bit. I also wanted a pocketable camera. After a load of research I bought a Canon PowerShot S95. It meets my meager needs and fits in a pocket. Add a compact Manfrotto tripod and I'm good to go. A DSLR would be more capable, but I just don't need that much camera for the things I do with a camera. The S95 ain't cheap, but it's a pile less than a low end DSLR and I haven't even scratched the surface of its capabilities. If I have anything to bitch about, the thing is almost too small for my hands.

Ken...

Thanks for the good info Ken,
Your mention of a word processor took me right back to the late 80's,
I have one of these in the shed...I'll have to figure out how to configure it to post the GLDP




I never use a flash ,but I only have the on the camera flash.
It would be cool to have some remote indirect flashes .

I find that in most situations a neat photo can be taken with a few minutes of trial and error .
We are lucky that we can have immediate 'development' with the digital cameras.
Remember these?


There was a certain palatable anticipation that went with waiting for the pictures to be picked up at the drugstore
3-4 days later.

Here's a few shots that turned out better than average IMO.

I shoot everything inside the house. Nowadays I'm using a Canon 40D, 2 Flashes, an umbrella like reflector mounted on a microphone stand, a wireless flash trigger and two receivers. The wireless set (Cactus) and the reflector (incl. mount bracket) was very cheap bought directly from an Ebay seller in Hong Kong. As he calculated the price for each piece with low shipping costs, I splitted it up to toll free pieces.

One flash is mounted at the reflector, the other one rests on a small stand delivered with the wireless set and points to the wall or the ceiling, which are fortunately colored white. The flashes are a Canon Speedlite 430 EXII and an old Metz 35 CT 3.

For example this 2 pictures have been done with the described system:

I maybe will upgrade to a system like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Square-Perfect- ... 43aea9caa9, some of them are found even cheaper too.

i think we can see part of the flash set up in the first pic i have a 2 flash set up as well, but i rarely set it up at home and i still prefer the natural light in the magic hour.

i finally was able to get a pro level camera that is small enough to carry everywhere. i am very happy about that. no need to carry point and shoot cameras any more.

elwood, looks like your first 3 pics are self portraits, using the guitar as a mirror as far as the anticipation waiting for development, the point of learning photography is to know what the picture will look like before pressing the shutter. a skill that has greatly diminished with the advent of digital photography, and the trial and error method as you said.

i think we can see part of the flash set up in the first pic i have a 2 flash set up as well, but i rarely set it up at home and i still prefer the natural light in the magic hour.

That's the regular light (3 bulbs) in that room, as the picture has been taken in the evening, it was on. That picture was thought just for documentation and I didn't care about reflexions and I think the rest of it looks good for the smooth light and even for the reflections.

As long the reflection isn't the photographer or his equipment, it should be OK, but especially for that chrome surfaces, it's hard to avoid.

Maybe I should try shootings outside, as my wife did some work in the garden last year and now it looks more like an exhibition of the stone department in a building center. At least it's not just boring green now.

i think we can see part of the flash set up in the first pic i have a 2 flash set up as well, but i rarely set it up at home and i still prefer the natural light in the magic hour.

That's the regular light (3 bulbs) in that room, as the picture has been taken in the evening, it was on. That picture was thought just for documentation and I didn't care about reflexions and I think the rest of it looks good for the smooth light and even for the reflections.

As long the reflection isn't the photographer or his equipment, it should be OK, but especially for that chrome surfaces, it's hard to avoid.

Maybe I should try shootings outside, as my wife did some work in the garden last year and now it looks more like an exhibition of the stone department in a building center. At least it's not just boring green now.

like elwood's better than average pics? (just messing with you el-tiger)

I think I see my shadow in the SC-3,
(does that mean I should go hibernate for a 6 more weeks?)

I pulled the word processor and X-15 pic off the web,
so I'm not sure who that is in there...

I might have to start looking for a nice DSLR...you guys have got my PAS
goin'

rrrroooooww,
El-tigger

as far as the anticipation waiting for development, the point of learning photography is to know what the picture will look like before pressing the shutter. a skill that has greatly diminished with the advent of digital photography, and the trial and error method as you said.

I don't think most folks pay close enough attention to the errors during the trials.
Being able to have immediate results brings the opportunity to plot many points on the learning curve
in a relatively short time - with a drive and passion to learn the art ,skills can progress faster.

Seeing the picture in your minds eye beforehand is key, like hearing the note before it's played .

I think I see my shadow in the SC-3,
(does that mean I should go hibernate for a 6 more weeks?)

I pulled the word processor and X-15 pic off the web,
so I'm not sure who that is in there...

I might have to start looking for a nice DSLR...you guys have got my PAS
goin'

rrrroooooww,
El-tigger

lking only about the guitar pic, not counting the first 2.