doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gun photography question

I tried tonight taking some photos of my two big Foxes to see if they would be suitable for posting or e-mailing. They downloaded and came up clear and sharp enough, but every one has a glare on the gun which is from the lighting. I took them under a fluorescent overhead fixture and with a small lamp positioned just out of the picture for enhancement. But, it didn't work. Which fixture would you think caused the glare, the overhead fluorescent or the small lamp off to one side?

Many of you post very nice photos that you take yourself at home. How do you get the proper lighting, without fancy equipment, to prevent the glare on the gun?

Any tips appreciated. Stan

I used to take guns out to the backyard on a bright day with sun behind clouds and the pictures were more than acceptable.
-Jani

No hassle, no setup presentable digitals with no glare, reflection, shadows available outdoors on overcast day. Sometimes wild strawberries, Black-eyed-Susans, trees, fence posts distract less than blue packing blankets and white garage doors. Guess some feathered protein would be even better. (This is a cheap expedient which looses it's appeal in winter.)

jack

Stan,
I've been using bouce flash lately for many of my pics. Also a large diffuser on my flash helps. There are many lighting techniques to do the job. If these things sound foreign to you, stop by your local camera store and look thru their books for one on lighting, there's always one or two in all camera stores. Expensive lighting is not necessary if you improvise. You can make your own photo lighting from common hardware store lighting. Closeups require close, intense lighting. Try a halogen reading lamp or workshop lamp. Remember that glares bounce like billiard shots and try to keep surfaces/lights at angles that don't reflect directly back at the camera.

As mentioned, the best lighting is outdoors on a cloudy day , avoid a white or very light background as it will fool your sensor and give you a dark
image,and the use of a large white sheet of cardboard flat/horizontal below the gun, but out of the picture, will bouce light up and eliminate a lot of shadow and can be used to highlight engraving on closeups.

You can do just fine indoors if you use indirect lighting and bounce flash like Chuck mentioned.

The difficult part of flash photography is that you normally can't see the result of the flash prior to the exposure. You can overcome this by taping a small flashlight like a mini mag on the flash. This will give the same reflections and shadows as the flash.
If you have a solid tripod the light source doesn't need to be extremely bright since the subject isn't going to have any movement. This will allow you to get by with indirect room lighting and reflectors to produce shadow and glare free images.

I have found that taking pictures outdoors is a lot easier. But I also learned that if I use a flash indoors, that if I don't take them from a 90* angle, I don't get the flash coming back at the camera. Try taking them from more of an angle. It might help.

Birdawg,
The really cool part about digital photog is that you can take lighting test shots and see them right away. I've taken many shots on occasion while adjusting the lighting.

Thanks, fellas. All very good ideas, it sounds like, and all in agreement with one another. That's even better!

I'll giv'er another "shot" this weekend and try the suggestions you mentioned.

Would taking the photo outside on a sunny day, but in complete shade, work similiar to an overcast day?

Stan

I take lotsa digital pics and eventually get one or two good ones fit for keeping. By trial and (lotsa) error, I too finally twigged onto taking the pics outdoors on an overcast day for best results - but the snow background Dec-March is a bummer. Digital cameras and gun marking close-ups are made for each other.
I WOULD REALLY like to see (and really NEED) an article in Double Gun Journal or Shooting Sportsman on features/selection of digital cameras and taking better digital pictures. There might be enough "meat" for a two part series.
"Better Digital Pictures For Dummies" - for insurance purposes, advertising, personal gun records or e-mail sharing.