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I was testing out some Gun/Knife Photo taking tips I read about. One mistake I made early on was trying to put to much in the picture. Natural outdoor light is the best. Don't put the main subject in the center of the photo. Also don't place something in the photo that is going to take attention away from your main subject.
Here are my two Harsey Knives. The trident belongs to my Kid, got it for his Birth Day. The other Knives are, Fox, MOD, AF Survival-Modern and my only Strider.
1.The first photo is pretty good.
2. The second photo is over crowded. The Air Force Survival Knife should be on it's side. The Fox and MOD should be tilted up instead.
3. Not to overcrowded but the Strider is buried and the Binos are too much.
4. Load out picture. The Bag is buried and the positioning was sloppy, I Suck.
5. Another Load Out with the Bag open. Best to take separate pictures in this case. Unless you really know what your looking at. It's hard to tell there is a Pistol Rig W/Drop leg Platform even in the picture.
Is your GB knife sporting dreadlocks? :p
CPTAUSRET
10-28-2007, 21:08
Is your GB knife sporting dreadlocks? :p
What he said!
Nice pic's!:)
Bill Harsey
10-29-2007, 08:34
Kgoerz,
Great images of your kit.
One of the keys to getting the pics of a knife is to show the blade shape all the way to the point. This way the viewer knows what kind of knife they are seeing.
I am a has been photo dog. Generally fill most of the lens with what you want someone to look at. Keep it uncluttered. To much is too much. Simplier is always better.
Lighting is not about light, but shadows.
Use F stops to keep main item in focus and non important stuff out of focus, it reduces clutter.
Thanks for the photos, always enjoy looking at them.
Bill's avatar shows an excellent way to photograph knives:
Simple background (poncho liner), a towel also works well. The background should go all the way to the edge of the photograph,
Full length of knife.
Something in the photograph to give a sense of scale (in his case, the SF flashes) without intruding into the knife itself as the center of attention.
Even lighting, (overcast is actually better than bright sun), no bare flash or hot spots.
Is your GB knife sporting dreadlocks? :p
Mon, you know how many jobs the Man give me to do with that Knife.....
Actually It's Red, White and Blue. Have to do it over with 550 Cord. The leather is to stiff, Doesn't melt well either:eek:
One of the keys to getting the pics of a knife is to show the blade shape all the way to the point. This way the viewer knows what kind of knife they are seeing.
But we had fun stabbing them into the Deck;) I am waiting for the rest of my stuff to get here to do more pics. ill try some of the stuff you all are saying. I need to use a Tripod.
Use F stops to keep main item in focus and non important stuff out of focus, it reduces clutter.
Whats ISO? I am using a Digital. It has a few Manuel settings thou. What do some of these mean to you, or how would you use them? They all have a default Auto.
1. ISO-80 to 800
2. White Balance-Daylight-Tungsten-Florescent.
3. level of Sharpness-Sharp-Soft.
4. Color-Saturated-neutral-Sepia.
5. Exposure metering-Multi pattern-Center weight-Center Spot. This is probably close to F-Stop
Smokin Joe
10-29-2007, 17:22
When using your tripod try using the self timer. Because (light dependent) sometimes just the pressure of hitting the button will blur your shot.
Bill Harsey
10-29-2007, 17:24
Kgoerz,
Sorry to take away the fun of your stabbing them in the deck.
Do you have any axes to take pictures of? :D
dmgedgoods
10-29-2007, 17:43
PiterM takes amazing shots. Maybe he has some words of advice for us all?
Shawn
Ambush Master
10-29-2007, 18:06
PiterM takes amazing shots. Maybe he has some words of advice for us all?
Shawn
AND Don't Forget TR!!!
The Reaper
10-29-2007, 18:39
1. ISO-80 to 800
ISO is similar to ASA. It is the old film speed equivalent. Lower/Slower is finer grain with better color and more detail, but needs more light. Higher/Faster is better in low light, or when shooting fast subjects.
2. White Balance-Daylight-Tungsten-Florescent.
You can calibrate the color balance of your digicam with a sheet of white paper. The settings you list are temperatures (Kelvin) for different light conditions. Daylight is outdoor. Tungsten is arrtificial light, usually bulbs or flashes. Fluorescent is for shooting under fluorescent bulbs. Use the right one for the illumination source, or rely on the Auto setting.
3. level of Sharpness-Sharp-Soft.
This controls your definition. Sharp is good for fine details, like a knife. Soft would be good for photos of your significant other, if she is over 40.
4. Color-Saturated-neutral-Sepia.
This is another color setting. Saturated would be great for that sunset shot. Sepia would be nice for antique looking photos, like re-enactors or for black powder guns. Neutral is probably best for most shots.
5. Exposure metering-Multi pattern-Center weight-Center Spot. This is probably close to F-Stop
Actually, that is for determining the exposure. This is for those tricky shots, such as when you are taking a beach shot of a subject with the sun behind them. Multi bases exposure off several different areas and takes an average of them all. If you use center weight, it favors the center meter, but still considers the others. If you choose center spot, it will base the exposure on the very center of your frame. Good if the subject is centered, and is the only thing you really want. The F-Stop affects depth of field as well.
Hints?
Try to use natural light, avoid the flash, shoot early or late in the day for best outdoor color, if shooting indoors, use every incandescent light you can muster, indirectly, bouncing the light off white surfaces, don't put too many subjects in the picture, use interesting backgrounds of different colors (you do not want to camo the subject, in most cases), shoot tighter on the subject than you think you need to, and arrange everything around the primary subject, which does not have to be centered, believe it or not.
HTH. Military Moron is an excellent photographer.
TR
dmgedgoods
10-29-2007, 18:54
This controls your definition. Sharp is good for fine details, like a knife. Soft would be good for photos of your significant other, if she is over 40.
That is the kind of expert advice that you will never find in any book.
Shawn
That is the kind of expert advice that you will never find in any book.
Shawn
I remember when I was first learning photographer, my mentor would only let me shoot in black & white for the first few months because it gives you a better sense of contrast, and is much easier to manipulate when developing the prints.
We spent a bit of time using colored filters to alter contrast, especially red and green. Red filters work beautifully to darken blue skies and add extreme depth to blue eyes. Green filters are amazing for adding contrast to skin tones, and bringing out details you wouldn't otherwise see. All of those amazing National Geographic photographs of old men, where you can see every wrinkle, pore, and whisker? Green filter.
That said... "Don't ever ever ever EVER EVER EVER EVER use a green filter when you are photographing a women. No matter how neat the shot turns out, she'll never want to speak to you again."
trailrunner
10-29-2007, 20:02
Smile... you could study theory of composition and find ways to lead your eye around a still life by how you compose the items, foreground, background...
but I say start with copying a master, look and see how the folks like Reaper, MM, various firearm mags arrange there stuff in photos. I always enjoy the ones guns and ammo uses the new one with surefire is a beauty from that stand point. Nothing is straight on, always shot on an angle, lighting is important, early am, pm, overcast days, bouncing light off a panel inside like mentioned before.
I might start with trying a composition in the form of triangles to lead your eye around the pic with simple contrasting backgrounds to make the items pop.
Good luck!
Looks like your further than you think.
BTW, parden the hijack, how's that comp/vortex working for you?
Brian, digital photography is amazing, I no longer have a dark room. I still have a bag of all sorts of filters. Who needs that stuff now, it all can be done on computer.
Plus, the original is never altered.
two of my favorite images,
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Hollis6475/lenaDuM.jpg
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Hollis6475/wm2001LAdyNBlack2.jpg
Brian, digital photography is amazing, I no longer have a dark room. I still have a bag of all sorts of filters. Who needs that stuff now, it all can be done on computer.
Plus, the original is never altered.
Absolutely. My Dad, who is the real shutterbug in my family, recently (6 months ago) purchased a top of the line Nikon DSLR setup, and won't shut up about it. He had been shooting on a Canon AE-1 for AGES, got bored, and gave it up. He even bought a DVD burner so he could archive all of the original .RAW data of the images he takes.
He was already a photoshop ace (he's a publisher), so it was only a matter of time.
Kgoerz,
Sorry to take away the fun of your stabbing them in the deck.
Do you have any axes to take pictures of? :D
Forgot all about the AX in the Truck. The story about it being left in a Park in Bogotá is false. I don't know who that kgoerz Person is over on LF.COM.
ISO is similar to ASA. It is the old film speed equivalent. Lower/Slower is finer grain with better color and more detail, but needs more light. Higher/Faster is better in low light, or when shooting fast subjects.
Thats what I was looking for. Translation from Digital to Film. Have to think about these things when buying that next Digital Camera. Appreciate this, ill be up late again tonight. Not having a Job is pretty cool sometime.
LongWire
10-29-2007, 20:40
Check this link..........Dude is Good!!!
http://www.kenrockwell.com/index.htm
This is one of mine from about a month ago, low light just after sunset, handheld.
dmgedgoods
10-29-2007, 21:29
I remember when I was first learning photographer, my mentor would only let me shoot in black & white for the first few months because it gives you a better sense of contrast, and is much easier to manipulate when developing the prints.
We spent a bit of time using colored filters to alter contrast, especially red and green. Red filters work beautifully to darken blue skies and add extreme depth to blue eyes. Green filters are amazing for adding contrast to skin tones, and bringing out details you wouldn't otherwise see. All of those amazing National Geographic photographs of old men, where you can see every wrinkle, pore, and whisker? Green filter.
That said... "Don't ever ever ever EVER EVER EVER EVER use a green filter when you are photographing a women. No matter how neat the shot turns out, she'll never want to speak to you again."
Back in highschool, I took photo for a few years. I learned a whole lot, but retained about nil. Black and white was a crucial medium for learning, as you put it. I must have taken thousands of black and white prints. My favorite style is still b&w. Ansel Adams did it best, IMHO.
That said, the info posed here about close up object shots is all new to me. Photography is an amazing art when it is done well.
Shawn
I also learned photography in high school, shooting only B&W. I spent a lot of time in the darkroom my senior year, developing B&W prints (Yes, I was a nerd. Actually, I still am, the only difference is, now I'm OK with it.:D). But I am new to digital photography. It really is a whole new ballgame, even though the basics are the same, and composition is still an art.
I'll just piggyback on the great advice here. Definitely get a tripod. Try to stay away from high ISO. Anything above 800 your pictures will start to look grainy (unless you have something like a high-end Canon dSLR or the new Nikon D3). Since you are posing the gear, you should have time to set up the proper lighting conditions. Avoid direct sunlight. When I take pics of stuff now, I go to a little corner of my backyard that is shaded. Looking at the area with the naked eye, it looks almost dark. Indoors, I bounce the flash, or set the camera on the tripod. White balance is important. I shoot a grey card first if I really want to nail it. Otherwise, I leave it on Auto. But since I shoot RAW, I can override the camera setting and tweak it on the computer. I like my pictures warmer, so even though I am shooting in bright daylight, oftentimes I will set the white balance to shade.
If you're interested, take a look at some of the photo editing software and learn some basic photo editing skills. A little tweaking with white balance and sharpening does wonders for pictures. It won't fix a bad exposure, but stuff that used to require time in the darkroom, you can now do on your computer.
Check out Dr. Ken Lunde's (http://lundestudio.com/firearms.html) page. Scroll down to the bottom, he offers some great tips.
Bill Harsey
10-30-2007, 14:35
vsvo,
Good job finding Dr. Ken Lundes website.
Since every rare once in a while we talk about knives here, can you find anything of interest in his on-line portfolio? :D
vsvo,
Good job finding Dr. Ken Lundes website.
Since every rare once in a while we talk about knives here, can you find anything of interest in his on-line portfolio? :D
Mr. Harsey, no excuse for my lapse of SA!:D
Dr. Lunde takes some great photos of some great knives (http://lundestudio.com/chrisreeve.html) in addition to guns.
Snaquebite
10-31-2007, 10:40
Some good advice and info here. Especially about the lighting when taking detailed pictures. Harsh light (flashes) will not necessarily get the detail you want. Reflected light or natural light will produce better images. If you are using a camera with a flash that can be angled, try reflecting the flash onto the subject matter. As far as composition goes use the "rule of thirds" as a general guide, but this rule is meant to be brken at times too depending on the subject matter and picture clutter.
militarymoron
11-04-2007, 00:37
all good advice here - i do the same thing - tripod etc. i also like the 'less is more' thing for knife photos, as seen below. yup, it really is all about shadows, and creating shadows to show the different contours of the blade. a well lit knife most likely won't show the more subtle angles of the blade, so a lot of experimentation is needed to get it just right. i use daylight-balanced fluorescent bulbs for studio lights which i hold at different angles and positions by hand, and a digital camera. that way, what i see is what i get - i don't have to guess (like with a flash). here are a few shots i've taken in my attempts to best show the blade's details, just to give you some ideas and inspiration (i hope).
also, photoshop is the photographer's best friend for adjusting just about anything in the photo.
frostfire
11-04-2007, 21:32
yup, it really is all about shadows, and creating shadows to show the different contours of the blade. a well lit knife most likely won't show the more subtle angles of the blade, so a lot of experimentation is needed to get it just right.
man, I'm learning a lot here.
Just an amateur here, but the use of contrast has always yielded good result. For example, in one of the picture above, the ripple/wrinkle of the background is contrasted with the smooth texture of the blade, accentuating the focus on the blade. Variety of contrasting technique has been used in great cinematography, too.