The X-170 has an artifact/light reflection (near the pickguard bracket) whilst the other one is free of such things?
Though all of you had great observations, this is the one that bothers me. There are specular highlights on the strings right at the neck pickup on the X170T. If you look at any of my pics where the guitar is head on, this reflection is there, though it will vary in position based on where I was standing.
It is an especially obnoxious problem on pics like this where the lighting is uneven with there being a hotspot on the fretboard.
This is me working with what I had.
The X-80 pic was taken with the flash off the camera and onto the side. That led to a whole host of other problems, though, most notably odd shadows. This is a version of the X80 pic before I processed it. Note the extreme shadows:
I finally got so fed up with all of this that I bought a new set of lights. Instead of trying to manipulate a single light (which is a great exersize BTW), I'll now have three lights that should allow me a lot more control over everything. My crutch has always been Photoshop. Since I'm reasonably good at post-production, I generally just fix any problems I see in post. Take the dirty footprint on the white background in that last pic - the one to the left of the knobs. That's in the original X-80 pic as well. I just removed it along with the goofy shadow.
Cookies for everyone!