Creative guitar photography with long shutter speeds & colorful light trails

As a passionate guitarist—and more importantly, a creative photographer specializing in model shoots with flash and vibrant colors—I’m always up for a fun challenge. In a recent workshop themed around motion, I decided to push my usual photography boundaries and dive into the world of long shutter speeds in this blog about creative guitar photography

Workshops are always fun and creative

And I always like to challenge myself. I don’t often use long shutter speeds. I decided to use this in a workshop about motion.
As you all probably know, I love guitars, and also play myself as often as I can.
You may have noticed guitars appearing in my photos from time to time. I often use my guitars for those shots. It also, of course, gives me an excuse to buy more, but don’t tell Annewiek.

Why Use Guitars as a Prop?

You’ve probably spotted guitars in my portfolio before. They’re not only a creative element—they also serve as a great excuse to expand my collection (shh, don’t tell Annewiek!). Normally, I shoot guitars solo or let models use them, but for this session, I wanted to capture something radically different: dynamic guitar performance combined with light movement.

Long shutter speeds

I wanted to create an image where you saw the motion of someone playing guitar and follow the play with lights.
One of my all-time favorite guitarists is Steve Vai, and he recently did a session very similar to this, so I thought it would be fitting to select my vintage Ibanez Jem 777V BK for this. This is a Steve Vai signature guitar.

For the lights, I’m using small LEDs with small elastic bands on my fingers.

Playing guitar is one thing, but playing with LEDs taped to your fingertips is a workout in itself (you’ll hear it in the video 🙃).

The trick is, of course, a long shutter speed and not using white lights, but only the colors.

 

The technique: long shutter & colored LEDs

 

We recorded a short video tutorial explaining the setup and how you can recreate this effect at home. The results are both creative and achievable with common gear.

Interested in hearing my music, too? Find me, Frank Doorhof, on your favorite streaming platform.

👉 Click the image below to watch the full video tutorial on Long shutter speeds: creative guitar photography—including stunning final shots!

 

 

Read another blog about movement with Nadine and LED lights