Reply To: Lighting: would like guitar strings & fretboard to be a touch clearer

I saw the picture of the red guitar but not the other one. But I can see your problem. Your focus is not good due to poor focus. Nothing in the picture is sharp. Ideally you want to see the fingers, fretboard and knobs all in sharp focus. To get that you can use more lighting, and also shoot at 30fps/1/60th of a second shutter speed, with an aperture small enough to cover the depth of field needed. If you can tell me your focal length, camera model, and distance to the subject, the online DOF calculator will give me/you the correct f stop to use.