Solo Acoustic Guitar

[GefaStone]

I work for a production music company and have been put in charge of coming up with the cover photo for a solo acoustic guitar disc we have coming out soon. Below is what I had in mind for the cover.

I shot this with my Canon Rebel XT and the 50mm 1.8 lens. The only post-production changes were playing with the levels a bit to bring out the white tones of the wall and then cropping to 5"x5". Since this is a solo acoustic disc, I wanted to have the guitar look "lonely" against the wall. I'm open to hearing some C&C from others regarding this image.



Thanks!

[Nicole]

I think the biggest thing is that I would crop the grass out of the shot. Before I finished scrolling down it was pretty good. But the grass seems out of place.

I think that it's an interesting concept to use for a solo acoustic album. You've captured the idea of loneliness essentially. I will admit I half expected to see the cliche musician against a brick wall shot. But I was pleasantly surprised I can see any text used fitting really well on the wall. I'm not sure if you've tried taking the shot at different times of the day to capture different shadows or not, but it might be worth considering too

[ashwinvissa]

Without getting into any technicalities, first off I'll say that I love the idea and the execution of it as well! Like Nicole said, maybe the grass could be cropped out. It does take away a bit from the image. I would have tried to push the guitar a little bit more to the right and maybe, just maybe you could try and fit the shot inbetween them two cracks on the pavement, leaving them out entirely! Once again, a really cool idea!

[ELAY]

If it were me, I would follow Nicole's suggestion and take the shot at different times of day, under overcast conditions, or maybe with some artificial illumination. You can see where I am going -- I think the shot would be better without that crazy contortionist shadow.

Might also try getting lower for the shot, see how that perspective compares -- this could help with the grass too, though it didn't bug me so much.

I couldn't open an original, so I can't tell for sure, but the pic might be a tiny bit soft. I was thinking that if it was being blown up for an album cover this might be a problem (if I am right) but then I realized of course that it was destined for a CD cover, so never mind...Until I made the realization, I was thinking tripod.

EL

[GefaStone]

Thanks for the comments. I too had some reservations about the grass in the photo, so I grabbed another pic I'd taken closer to the guitar and then cropped/cloned out the top of the grass. I also got rid of the cracks in the pavement, which did indeed help.

Elay, I did shoot these pics using a tripod, but I picked up on some of the softness that you are talking about. I had to be careful with my sharpening because I was getting some weird tones coming out of the guitar strings. I think this closer shot helped eliminate some of the softness, though.

Thanks for all the helpful tips. Below is the final image that my boss just approved.

[wyndhydra]

GefaStone,
Nice shot. I really like the second one, but the grass adds some unique texture all its own. I think this shot would look kick-butt awesome in black and white! Then you could have Eric Clapton use it for his next album.