Eye Candy
I love it when people are passionate about their mandolin.
About once a week I get scolded by one of my readers for not including their favorite builder in the Eye Candy section. A few of them get downright nasty without even as much as an introduction.
I didn't get those images by driving around the world and photographing them. The fact is, if a suitable image of a certain mandolin doesn't exist, then it's unlikely I can display that builder's work.
So, if you're an active builder (hint, only active ones are listed here) and you'd like to be listed there, take a look at the general layout of those images and you'll get an idea what I need. If you have the photo and it's good enough, I'll display it. I've even had builders mail photograhs to me so I can scan them and add them to the site.
Sorry, we don't display vintage instruments here. That's another project for someone else.
Taking the picture: photograph it against a neutral background. Not lime green, not black, not blue, not red. Not against a tree or your mother-in-law's floral muu-muu, but I'll work with whatever you have. Contrast and detail and key. I'm going to cut the background out. Having a colored background can cause some bleed of that color into the instrument. The better the picture, the better the end result. The bigger the picture, the better. The higher the resolution, the better. If it's fuzzy, grainy or otherwise out of focus I can't work with it. Make the angle straight on facing the instrument.
