Feedback on Kit Photo Composition and Style

[adam]

For those who've been here for a while, you'll know that we've been constantly playing around with the composition and style of the photos we use to show off our kits.

I don't mind admitting they were pretty awful when I started doing the photos, but, with a few pointers from some Pros, they improved dramatically.

I've now asked my Brother, Mark, who is a professional photographer, to re-shoot every kit (around 104 at current count). Obviously this will be a big job, so you will see new photos being added all the time.

Anyhoo, we really want to know what style and composition of the kits you think best shows them off to a potential customer. Bear in mind that a lot of customers are be seeing these pics on their phone or tablet.

This is the "Flat" style that we used when we first began. It's also a pretty common approach from other kit companies, including the Chinese.



We then went to a dark blue background and shot from the front:



The most recent photos are from the front, but with a white background (and with much improved lighting)


Personally, I feel the white works best with our site, which is predominantly white. It looks the cleanest and most professional.

So, here's Mark's first test shot from today, with the same composition as above, just much, much better. You'll see that these new photos show everything that is included in the kit, which we hope will put a stop to the many emails we get asking if the kits come with pots/caps/output jack/etc...



So, please, tell us what you think. Maybe you've seen something on another site that you really like, or you have your own ideas. We'd really appreciate your feedback.

P.S. for anyone into great photography, please check out Mark's photographs on his site: http://www.markboyle.com.au/

[DrNomis_44]

For me, the new kit photos seem to be a bit more easier on the eye than previous photos, they look sharper with better contrast especially when you click on them to get a magnified view.


As a side note, are you planning on making more demo videos for more PBG kits, like the ones for the Strat, SV and Tele kits?

[tonyw]

I used to work as a photographer for Newcastle Photogaphics in another life, and we did alot of catolog shoots, and the way your brother laid out the guitar and used the white background is the best way to do it, gives it a 3D effect, nice work.

[andrewdosborne]

Agree, prefer the new shot. It has some dimension to it and clear layout of the kit components.

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

[stan]

new style looks great, he does a nice job

[wokkaboy]

Hi Ads,
yes I agree with the others run with the new photo with the white background.
Might pay to put the less important parts that you need close up detail like the lead, wiring and strings towards the back and the parts bag (screws, pots, caps etc) toward the front then the buyer will get more idea what is in the parts bag and hopefully less emails to you asking what's included in the kit as you mention.
I'd say most buyers are most interested in viewing the bridge, tuners and pickups, and the body and neck are clearly viewed as they are

[zeromick]

Yeah, cant beat a seamless background and a nice bright fill flash for product shots.
Im saying that as a fan of the silk sheets and satin throw pillow shots as well

[adam]

Thanks for the comments guys, very helpful. Good to see we have some pro photographers amongst the membership.

White background it is.

Good point about placement of the important parts Wokka, we will do that. We will still have all of the individual component shots in the "Gallery" section, but I guess not everyone views all of those, especially on their phone.

Zeromick, please, tell us more about your silk sheets and sating throw pillow obsession... sounds intriguing. Is that called "Manchester-porn"?

[Tweaky]

The white background works well with the Rick style kit, as the different colour of the body stands out, it's clean and easy to discern what you are getting in the kit.

The layout design looks great, can't fault it, and the beauty is it's a lot better than every other kit supplier, and therefore it makes Pitbull Guitars look like a much more professional company to deal with.

Having a uniform design layout for all the kits is great, and it makes it easy to compare them.

But, in saying that, I don't think white background shows up exactly what you are getting with the lighter maple capped bodies though, the figuring on the tops isn't immediately visible.
When you say most people will most likely be viewing these photos via a phone, you want to make sure people know these bodies have figured tops ASAP, otherwise they will think Pitbull kits are the same as everybody else's, and just skip through the photos.

Unless they are especially eagle eyed, they are going to need to enlarge the photo to see this, and even then, the figuring in the top isn't that obvious.

So maybe a slight change in the modelling layout, or lighting / background to emphasis better this fact might be the way to go on kits that have this element to them, or I suppose you could leave the background white and do some selective burning and dodging in Lightroom or Photoshop of the guitar tops so the figuring is more pronounced....but IMHO even then it would still get lost in the background to a large extent, or change the bodies colour so much people might think the guitars have been pre stained.

Just my 2c

[wokkaboy]

Tweaky if you read the description on each guitar kit it usually describes what the body is made of and if there is a veneer of some sort. Some kits have a finished photo at the bottom as well so any figuring should be more obvious on the stained finished axe