Guitar Amp Product Photography

On Camera Flash

To demonstrate the immense difference between using the built-in flash or shoe mount flash compared to a professional lighting kit we have started here with an example of photographing this guitar amp with only an on camera flash unit. [figure 1]

You can immediately see that this is not a pleasing photograph. This type of lighting has created an ugly reflection on the specular diamond plate on the front of the amp. This has also created a very high ratio between highlights and shadows. We are losing a lot of detail in the black areas on the amp. We can do much better than this!

In-Camera White Balance Settings

We decided early on that we wanted to use both halogen and fluorescent lighting; we were forced to make a decision on what color temperature to set our camera to.

If we set our camera to 5600K (the color of daylight) then the light from the CoolStar would appear neutral and any light from the halogen lamp would appear very orange. If we set our camera to 3200K (the color of the StarLite halogens and most tungsten lighting) then the light from the halogen would appear neutral and the CoolStar lamps would appear with a blue color of light.

We knew that the 1000w halogen bulb we were planning to use would be the most powerful so we chose to set our camera white balance to 3200K. Since the halogen is most powerful here had we balanced to 5600K the orange from the halogen would have flooded the majority of the image making it appear with a rather uniform orange hue. Below is a comparison of setting your camera's white balance to 5600K and 3200K. [figure 2]

Setting Up The First Light

We will begin lighting this Mesa Boogie guitar amp by setting up one StarLite with a SilverDome nxt: medium soft box. We will use a CoolStar 150 CFL as the lamp for this light. Here is our light setup for this StarLite. We used a Photoflex Boom to angle our light above and behind the guitar amp. We placed our first light in this position so we could use it as a rim light. This light was positioned at 180˚ camera right, about two and half feet above the amp and two feet back from the amp, we had this light angled down at about 45˚. [figure 3 & 4]

We positioned this light in this way because one of the principals of photography is "the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection." Here this means the light is coming in and rimming the amp at a 45˚ angle and "bouncing" off at 45˚ angle, which is the light that the camera sees.

Here is our result image with the the StarLite and SilverDome nxt positioned as a rim light. [figure 5] We hit the nail on the head with the positioning of the light and have created a nice rim light that completely covers the top edge of the guitar amp. This will help our subject jump off the page and really give the viewer a sense of separation from the background.

Setting Up The Second Light

Our second light will be another StarLite also with a SilverDome nxt: medium. This will be the light that we place our 1000w halogen bulb in. [figure 6 & 7]

To help us to accurately place this light, we turned off our rim light. This is one of the great things about using continuous light, you can see exactly how the light is acting before taking a single photograph. This isn't always true with strobes!

We placed this light at 45˚ camera left, 3 ½ feet high, and pointed straight at our amp.

With the rim light turned off we took this image. [figure 8] We can see that the light coming in from the left is highlighting the left edge perfectly as well as brightening up our background. We have some light spilling across onto the face of the amp, but not nearly enough to properly illuminate it. We will fix this problem next.

We turned our rim light back on and took a photograph with both lights. [figure 9] Here you can see the effects of setting the camera's white balance to 3200K. The light coming from the left (StarLite with 1000w halogen) appears to be neutral light and the rim light (StarLite with CoolStar CFL) has a blue color shift to it. We still need to get some light into the front of this guitar amp so next we will need to add in some type of fill light.

Setting Up A LitePanel

We decided to use a LitePanel fabric: 39 x 72-inch translucent as our fill light. We placed the LitePanel in a horizontal position at 45˚ camera left. We raised it up to about 4 feet high. We also angled the LitePanel so it was on a diagonal type orientation to the amp. We positioned the LitePanel in this way because of the reflective nature of the diamond plate on the front of the guitar amp. [figures 10 and 11]

With the photographer looking through the lens our assistant moved the LitePanel around until the photographer saw the entire LitePanel in the reflection on the front of the amp. Thus creating beautiful diffused highlights on all the specular pieces on the front of this guitar amp.

The reason for angling the LitePanel in this way is that, in theory, the closer edge of the LitePanel will appear brighter in the reflection then the far edge. This will create a smooth gradation in the intensity of the highlight across the diamond plate.

Here is another view of our setup with the two StarLites with SilverDomes and LitePanel fabric: 39 x 72-inch translucent. [figure 12]

This is our result image using the LitePanel as our fill light. [figure 13] You can see that we got our positioning just right thanks to the convenience of having more than one person on the set. Although this a good image there are a couple more things we can do to get this image to a higher level.

Below is a comparison of the LitePanel in use with the rim light only, the left light only, and both lights at the same time. We have included this just as a helpful visual learning tool to see how the positioning of the lights interacts with the positioning of the LitePanel. [figure 14]

Adding A Third Light

To take this image to the next level we decided that we wanted to have more control over fill light (the LitePanel). For us to take control of the tonality and brightness of the reflection from the LitePanel we will have to light the LitePanel itself. We chose to use another StarLite with SilverDome nxt: medium and CoolStar 150 CFL to do this.

Adding this third light gives us control over the highlight on the diamond plate as well as the overall brightness of the fill light across the entire image. We also feathered the light across the LitePanel to create an even smoother gradation on the reflective diamond plate. [figures 15 - 18]

We placed this light at 4 feet high, at about 90˚ camera left, and positioned at about 1 foot from the LitePanel. We took out the internal baffle and front diffusion fabric to make this light brighter. We were not worried about losing the diffused quality of the soft box because the LitePanel will act as diffusion. The CoolStar 150 CFL has a somewhat diffused quality of light to it to begin with as well.

Here’s the result with this three light setup. [figure 19] We have our guitar amp wrapped with a beautiful rim light all the way around, we have made the specular surfaces of the amp shine beautifully with the diffused lights, and we can clearly see all aspects of the product. The addition of another CoolStar has also added more of that blue into our photograph which we enjoy very much. Below is a comparison of before and after the addition of the third light. [figure 20]

This could be considered a complete image, but there was one more thing we wanted to do, for ourselves, to make this product look even better.

Adding A LiteDisc

The final step for completing our image was to get more light onto the Mesa logo on the front of the amp. To accomplish this we used a LiteStand: extra small, which is a short floor stand that extends up to about 3 feet. Attached to the LiteStand was a LiteDisc Holder holding onto a LiteDisc: 32-inch white/silver with the silver side bouncing light onto the logo of the amp.

This was positioned at 3 feet high, directly in front of the camera, about 1 foot below the guitar amp, and angled up at a little more then 45˚. [figures 21 - 23]

In our final resulting image [figure 24], you can see that we have brightened up the logo with the placement of our reflector. We were pleased with our final results here.

Here is a comparison of our images with the on camera flash, with two lights and the LitePanel, and our final setup with three lights and LitePanel. [figure 25]

Changing Lamps

Since we already had our lights setup, we decided to play around a little with the lighting and positioning of the amp on our background. We moved the camera angle up about 2 feet and moved the amp back to the middle of our background (a diamond plated cabinet). We also repositioned our rim light as a background light by simply rotating it around on the boom and pointing it towards the middle of the background. Doing this lessened the intensity of the highlight and also dropped the saturation of the blue on the amp. This has also made the background appear more bluish than neutral because the CoolStar 150 CFL is now overpowering the halogens in that area. [figures 26 & 27]

We changed the lamp in our StarLite behind the LitePanel from a CoolStar CFL to another 1000w StarLite Halogen bulb. This will make the blue reflection on the diamond plate become neutral toned. [figure 28]

Here is this altered light setup. [figure 29] Hopefully this gets your mind rolling about different little tweaks and adjustments you can make to any lighting setup to it make it more your own style.

Detail Images

Once we were done playing around with our full-length images of the Mesa amp we returned our lights and lamps to their original positioning so we could take some detail images of the amp. [figures 30 - 32]

For detail shots of the rear of the guitar amp we turned off the light on the left side of the camera, the StarLite with the 1000w halogen bulb, to create a more dramatic light. We also left our camera white balanced to tungsten to give these images an overall blue color shift. [figures 33 - 36]

Now that we have our final overall image done and our detail shots complete we are ready to post our amp onto an online auction site (these great pictures will help this sell quickly!) or we can begin building our online music store. The StarLite Dual Spectrum Kit is the perfect continuous lighting kit to tackle this type of imagery and gives you the ability to get add-ons to the kit to take your photography to the next level!