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Photo tips

gottagun
Looking for some tips on how to photograph firearms. My attempts thus far have been dismal and before I waste anymore film I thought I'd ask for help. I have a few I'd like to post on the host site but need to get photos first. The one's I've taken do a poor job of displaying the blue on the firearm or the condition of the grips or stock.
Cora

GottagunTexas
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • gonepostal
    its all in the lighting

    natural light is best ,even the "fake natural" bulbs help

    what type of camera are you using?



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  • nmyers
    gonepostal hit it on the nose.

    Most indoor lighting is incandescent, which turns out too yellow. I use a fluorescent shop light that hangs over my work bench, & I use a handheld fluorescent shop light for "fill" lighting.

    Many cameras, both digital & film, do not allow close focus. I use a digital camera that focuses down to 1 1/2" (& it is a very basic camera); look for a camera that has a "macro" mode.

    Neal

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  • gottagun
    Thanks, light is the key in all photography. I have a number of cameras to choose from the one I'd like to use so that I don't have to have film developed is my Olympus Camedia C-700. Looks like I need to figure out the macro mode on it. I ran outside and took a few pics with it, shade seems to work best but it has difficulty focusing in the shade. Will continue to play with it.
    Cora

    GottagunTexas
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  • Outlaws
    quote:Originally posted by gottagun
    Looking for some tips on how to photograph firearms. My attempts thus far have been dismal and before I waste anymore film I thought I'd ask for help. I have a few I'd like to post on the host site but need to get photos first. The one's I've taken do a poor job of displaying the blue on the firearm or the condition of the grips or stock.
    Cora

    Gottagun<BR>Texas


    A good camera is important.

    If its a day with a lot of overcast, I found that to be good source of lighting.
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  • Rembrandt
    Still learning....found the best way is to imitate what others have done. Use a cloth for the background color, indirect lighting seems to work best. I'd love to be able to take a picture at the same level as Inchiro Nagata (American Handgunner Magazine)....

    Liegeset5.jpg

    PerformanceCenter44.jpg

    ClassicGoldCup.jpg

    GC3.jpg

    * Here is a link to photographing firearms, enjoy... http://www.praxagora.com/lunde/firearms.html

    (excerpts)
    Never, ever, use a flash. It destroys the photo. I prefer natural light, but when that's not available, such as at night, I prefer fluorescent. My camera has four light settings: direct sunlight, indirect sunlight (cloudy), incandescent, and fluorescent. I need to set this correctly, according to the light source, otherwise the photo may turn out with a strange color (either too reddish or too blueish).

    Careful focus. I always manually focus my camera when taking these photos. When adjusting the focus, my camera automatically zooms in to maximum (beyond maximum when the zoom is already set to maximum). This lets you more easily confirm correct focus.
    Zoom in to the maximum setting, but don't use the "digital" zoom feature. The default lens angle may produce slight fish-eye effects, and to minimize this, you should zoom in to the mximum setting.
    Use a tripod and a remote release. My digital camera came with a wireless remote release. If you don't have a remote release, you can use a delay timer, which almost all digital cameras have.

    Use the smallest possible aperture (that is, the highest possible "f" number, such as "f11"). This allows less light through the lens, but it increases the depth of field. The greater the depth of field, the greater the range of distances that can be in focus at the same time. This doesn't help when taking side views, but when one end of the weapon is significantly closer to the camera than the other end, it allows the entire weapon to be in focus. Also, because less light is coming through the lens, you need to increase the exposure time, often to more than a second. Steadiness is thus critical.

    Post-process in an image-manipulation application. I use Adobe Photoshop, and use a combination of "Auto Levels," "Auto Contrast," and "Auto Color" to enhance the photos, and improve the color. Sometimes I use all three, but sometimes only one or two of these functions. It depends on the photo. If the color is really bad, I typically "Desaturate," which essentially takes away all color, resulting in grayscale. I feel that desaturating is better than poor color.

    For posting to the web, I resize the image to be ten inches wide (720 pixels). They end up being about 100K, which is reasonable. The photos that I use for posting to forums are all set to 720x540 pixels. They begin at 2048x1536 from the camera. Photoshop lets one freely resize images. I resize after I post-process them (see #6). I also have full-size (2048x1536) versions for use as computer desktops, which is what this page provides.
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  • gottagun
    Beautiful photos, now how did you attach them to your post?
    Cora

    GottagunTexas
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  • Outlaws
    Oh yes....and multiple lighting sources. That reduces shadows where you don't want them, but need light somewhere else to highlight what you wanted to start with.
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  • nmyers
    If you want to send me an email, I can send you written instructions on adding a photo to your posting.

    Neal
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  • rimfire72
    Rembrandt: Where did you get the grips on that .44? Those are really sweet.
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  • Rembrandt
    Smith & Wesson Performance Center....

    http://engraving.smith-wesson.com/contentbuilder/layout.php3?contentPath=content/00/01/34/83/20/userdirectory37.content
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