Official Luthiers Forum!

I don't buy wood for the sake of buying wood, and I don't keep a "stash" of sets in my shop. But over the last couple of days I have come across a couple bargains that were just too good to pass up. The first, of course, is Brian's generous offering of pomelle Sapelle (I'm not greedy --- I just bought one). I couldn't let that one get away.

The second is a piece of figured mahogany I picked up at a local wood store Saturday for $115. I wasn't planning for my next guitar to be mahogany, but this wood left me with little choice. I sawed it up yesterday, and got two back & side sets out of it. They will be awesome.

So I figure I'll take a couple pictures to post here and invite suggestions for binding and soundboard materials. But this brings up a question: how do all of you photograph unfinished wood in a way that displays the figure well? Do you normally get it wet first, or what?

The best way to show figure is a light wipe with naptha or alcohol. They don't raise the grain like water will. If you want to use water thats fine too just sticker it afterwards so it doesn't cup/warp.

Try to find a nice place where you've got good natural light so you don't need a flash. It makes a difference.

And if you lay the wood on something dark (like a black sheet) it will look even better.

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If the wood is failry rough sawn give it a light sanding aswell. I normally take my photos without wetting the wood, just a smooth cut and occasionally light sanding.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

Hi Kelby,

Some folks disapprove of this practice, but I will wipe my sanded or planed wood down with mineral spirits to simulate a relatively clear finish. It does a good job of bringing out the grain and/or figure.

Mineral spirits will not raise the grain the way water will, and it evaporates pretty quickly.

Oh and Jason reminded me of something. Sometimes you don't have a choice but to use a flash. If you're in that situation, your results will improve if you angle your camera so that the "line of sight" of the camera is not perpendicular to the plane of the wood. It's the old "the angle of consequence is equal to the angle of reflectance" thing. Which means that, if you take a flash photo straight on, you'll get lots of glare. So, if you angle the camera somewhat, the angle of reflectance will miss the camera, and the glare will be eliminated or at least substantially reduced.

Best,

Michael
Michael McBroom38558.9258912037

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Jason and Michael, thanks for the quick and helpful responses!

I'll take some pictures as soon as I can get some natural light on these!

Kelby,

The most perfect light to show true colors (without resorting to "digital darkroom" voodoo), is sunlight. Our incredibly adaptable eyes adjust to major differences in light intensity and we still see and interpret colors accurately. To a large degree, our eyes adjust to the different hues of various types of artificial light as well. No film or digital sensor "sees" and adjusts as well as the human eye.

Bright sunny days intuitively seem like the best days to get great outdoor photos, but bright sunlight washes out (mutes) colors, as well as creating harsh shadows. A fully overcast day is a nature photographer's best friend. Colors are accurate and saturated on both film and digital sensors on overcast days.

Hope this helps.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

[QUOTE=DennisLeahy]

Bright sunny days intuitively seem like the best days to get great outdoor photos, but bright sunlight washes out (mutes) colors, as well as creating harsh shadows. A fully overcast day is a nature photographer's best friend. Colors are accurate and saturated on both film and digital sensors on overcast days.

Hope this helps.

Dennis[/QUOTE]

Over cast also inproves depth of field perspective which is important when trying to show of a curly or quilted figure.