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doh! wrong thread!

Here's a few I've done of some pistols.  As you can see I'm a big fan of black and white for these particular shots.  This is definitely a poor man's setup but it works decent enough for what I do.  Natural light from the window off to the side of the table and then the chandelier light from the top.  Terrible light combo for color shooting but it seems to be okay for B&Ws.  Using only a 5mp Kodak EasyShare camera and MS Paint (very poor, like I said) for the resizing and bordering.  Camera set to close-up, B&W, High sharpness, daylight.  Works decent for having very minimal hardware.  








These obviously don't touch the quality of others' photos here in sharpness and lighting.  Thanks to all for the tips!

I have posted theses a few different places already... but I can get some photo critique here... do your worst! haha.

White curtains and clamp lights

Taken with Canon Rebel XS ... manual, f/10, 1/6 second, hand-held (with elbows rested on table). Background was a bunch of 16” x 20” drawing paper laid out on my work bench. Focus was on the ejection port. Every light in the garage was on, a mixture of tungsten and fluorescent. I had to adjust the white background a bit in Photoshop.

f/9, 1/40th, manual. Lighting was natural, shade.




f/4.5, 1/15th, manual. Garage lighting.




f/4.5, 1/20th, manual. Garage lighting.

I take pictures for a living, for some 30 years now. I could take a couple of guns to the studio, pull out the gear and impress the hell out of you guys but I think that showing you what you can do with what you have and perhaps investing on a small piece of white cardboard even a handy wall painted white will serve you guys better.

The basics:

The camera as your eye "sees" the reflection of light on stuff, some stuff "reflects" more, some less and this is influenced on the angle of the light source in relation of the viewing/photographing point of view.

So DO NOT point a light source (built in camera flash) directly into your shinny (extremely reflective item) gun.

Best way is to have a flat white surface in the opposite angle of the camera and to have the light fall on this surface, it makes all the difference and the way pros shoot highly reflective items.

Natural light, open shade works too but try this, get a piece of white cardboard, let's say 2x3', place gun on a table and point your camera at an angle at the gun and hold the cardboard on the opposite angle, Imagine, if you throw a rubber ball from the camera lens into the table and it bounces, where it would bounce too is where you want your white card, a white wall works too.

Now if you where to use artificial light DON"T point the light straight into the gun, aim your light so it will hit the white board and this wide surface reflection of light will provide you with beautiful gun images.

Sorry if my explanation is too cryptic but best I can do keeping it as short as I can manage.

Here is a shot of a Beretta 92 FS shot in my terrace using just available in an open shade a white board was held at the oppocite angle of the camera.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/bruchi007/beretta.jpg

Glock 21SF same lighting setup as above:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/bruchi007/Gbarrel.jpg

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/bruchi007/Gtfo.jpg

Next shots where done indoors just guns laying on my bed, lit with a full auto hot shoe flash away from the camera via an extension cable, flash was aimed at the white board that as explained here was held at an angle opposite the one of the camera pointing at the gun.

Colt Detective Special:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/bruchi007/38coltds.jpg

Glock 23 (even black can be overly reflective!)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/bruchi007/40g23.jpg

HK USP compact two tone finish:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/bruchi007/40hkcomp.jpg

Works on rifles as well but you are gonna need a much bigger white cardboard:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/bruchi007/lores308rem700.jpg

and works fine on "pocket" guns too:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/bruchi007/500sw.jpg

I really want to make a copy of this image with my rifles
I think my main problem is I only have a 12 megapixel Nikon
Give me any comments and advice you can think of please


Original
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b441/dstrokes/DannyGlover/black1680x1050.jpg?t=1279092086


My attempt after 10 minutes or so in photoshop
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b441/dstrokes/DannyGlover/project2.jpg?t=1279092087
I don't think it is to bad consider I spent a total of about 15 min on the whole thing ... so far

What does the original image look like?

http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b441/dstrokes/DannyGlover/DSCN0153.jpg?t=1279164991

http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b441/dstrokes/DannyGlover/DSCN0153.jpg?t=1279164991

Some Macro:

My first attempt.


Rebel XSI  50mm f1.8 lens,
Tripod, 2 second timer, Shot at f20, 0.6s, 800iso

Final Edition. First time messing with photoshop i must have changed this like 5 times.




 
 
 

 

 

Everything here is way better than mine.  I guess mine are "ok" but I really suck at the getting creative part.   I did go and buy some white posterboard, and a piece of white plastic to use as a "product studio" and I'll play around some more.

http://myc3g.com/photos/Guns_hikey-3.jpg
http://myc3g.com/photos/Guns_hikey-4.jpg

try using a darker back drop (black is ideal). the photographer of the image you are trying to duplicate probably used a solid black backdrop and pasted his image onto the gradient background to make the image a little more minimalistic.

you need more light as well, but remember to keep it soft and similar colors (try using all same type of bulbs) with some large white objects off camera to reflect and reduce shadows.

if you dont have a set of lights, try moving your setup into a room with good natural lighting(large windows and white walls) put your backdrop down and shoot your same subject again.

make sure you use a tripod to get a crisp image.

Was taking some more for an ee add, thoughts?

Bunch o' Ammo

One of the best threads on ARFCOM.

Couldn't remember if I posted this:

Great Pic

Here was my first crack at it with a 1s exposure and a blue filter on my E2DL set to low.  I moved the light over the whole scene while it was exposing, but it could still be a lot better...

I really need to get some better lights as this was done with overhead fluorescent lights.

I recently pulled out my camera and some lights and decided to give it a go for the 1st time since college (where I got a degree in graphic design including a few photo classes).  I setup a makeshift studio in the garage and this is what I came up with.  The creative process definitely developed along with the shoot








my studio
including a pillowcase, 2 cheapa$$ lights, a led flashlight (blue temperature), a tea glass (red/purple gel, haha), and a tripod.


please critique.  I was using a Nikon d80, low ISO, long exposure, small aperature. (I dont recall exact settings at this point, was trying to stay around f16, taking approx 13secs, differing shutter times in different lighting conditions and distance from subject)

Hello Guys

I'm new on here and I have a stupid question. How do you post a picture to a post.  Its asking for a picture url but the pics I would like to post are on a flash drive?

please dont be to rough on me.. haha

Upload to a picture hosting site like photobucket.

Tag for family photos!

This thread inspired me...


http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e186/tslabaugh/photography/G19.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e186/tslabaugh/photography/pmagvmax.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e186/tslabaugh/photography/g19bw.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e186/tslabaugh/photography/g191.jpg

Took these last night.





And added a little blur to these to get a cartoony effect:

Great pictures   I like the worn knife picture

I might have to try this. Way better than I could do. Nice job. In pic 2 couldn't help but notice fingerprints on mag. sorry

I think I'm finally getting my lighting closer to how I want it...work in progress:


Diamondback DB9 by st33ve0, on Flickr

Hey everyone, I wanted to thank everyone in this forum for all the information. I have been stuggling to get good pictures but built a setup like you guys showed with my shop lights and I think I am getting it! Here is an example.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww105/Crypto314/Shooting/tacentII.jpg

Sweet gun and a pretty good pic.  Read up on setting a custom white balance.  This should help you get a more pure and bright white background.  Nikon D3000?  A quick google search produced the following:




Check pages 83-84 of your manual for additional info and instructions on adjustment.
 
 
 

Hey thanks good info I will study more! Yes D3000 great guess.  Ive had it almost 2 years and still learning. I have finally decided to take a local class to learn how to use it. It really is a powerfull camera. Here is my ProCarry II, I found the silver to be easier to shoot than the black.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww105/Crypto314/Shooting/procarryII.jpg

i wish i could take great pics like some of you have, but i dont have a camera, nor can i afford one right now and it's not on the top of my priority list (red dot sight is right now) but here's an attempt at taking a pic of my XD
oh yeah, these are taken with an iphone4

That'd be cooler with a 92FS.  :)

would definitely be more true to the movie, but i do love my XD

Tag for tips. I did sports photography for a few years but downright suck at still life.

A few shots from a few months back

More pics in Album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickbreeden/sets/72157627143250054/show/

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6054/5914455910_5503b8570b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6011/5914466152_1defab6af7.jpg