Street Photography Magazine

as making sure the light is reflected in the way

you want, you have to make sure that neither

you nor your equipment produces reflections

in the finished image. Always wear

inconspicuous clothing (black is great) and, if

necessary, you can always ‘zoom’ yourself out

of the frame by using a longer lens.

Safety Considerations

You also have to take great care of your

‘model’ on a shoot like this. Guitars are

sensitive instruments, and the mid-80s

‘Bluesbird’ model shown here is now a

valuable collector’s item. We attached small

pieces of foam rubber to the guitar with

double-sided sticky tape to protect it from

scratches and scuffs. It wasn’t always possible

to keep these out of the shot, so we had to

remove some of them digitally later on.

Both the lighting and the nature of

the environment made this quite a difficult

location to shoot in, but a considered

approach and a modest amount of equipment

enabled us to produce a thoroughly

atmospheric sequence of images. (jr) c

64

Location Workshop | Guitar Shoot

Direct lighting caused unwanted reflections on the instrument’s

shiny surface and, in this photo, the shadow behind the guitar also

spoiled the overall effect. The background and the metal objects

scattered on the floor of the wagon all look too plain and

two-dimensional in this shot.

A soft lateral light gives the entire scene a much more

three-dimensional look and eliminates the unwanted

shadow. Although this image was shot using just flash,

it creates the impression of a low sun shining through

an opening in the side of the railroad wagon.

ISO 200 |1/125 s |f10|24 mm

The book Ojo de Gatoshows the cream

of Jan Henning’s huge collection of

guitars in a number of spectacular

settings, captured using a variety of

photographic techniques