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

Stan,
Yes, in the shade on a sunny day is a good place. The shade will flatten the light.

Ian,
We've got some really good amateur and professional photogs here. Maybe they'll chime in. I was a wannabe since I was about 11 yrs old but never made the leap.

The instant feed back of digital is great and you don't need things like Polaroids. Having a modeling light will give you the results you want much faster. Shooting outdoors with high overcast will give even light but it is not nearly as predictable as being able to do your shoots when you want such as evenings during the winter.
When you do shoot under cloudy conditions make sure you adjust the white balance show the color show off properly.

Stan,what I do (since my digital is a point and shoot) is to use the light coming in from a north facing window. Turn off the flash (since it cannot be directed) and use a tripod. I have used a number of different backgrounds and this works quite well. I too was bothered by the glare until I started using this method.

Regards - Ian Forrester

I have had some good results taking my pics in the early morning or late afternoon to early evening. The light is softer then. I have also put a strip of masking tape over the auto flash on my digital camera. This has had mixed results but it works sometimes.

Ian,
I bought a Nikon D50, Nikon flash SB800, and a remote cord that allows me to shut off the built-in camera flash and position the SB800 flash. This setup uses the lightmeter in the camera to control the flash so you can point the flash any direction and even bounce the flash off of walls and ceilings to soften the light. The flash can also be positioned to cast the light from the side/top/back or wherever to emphasize details.

With the newer D80 (10 mpxl)coming out soon, the D50 (6 mpxl) is already dropping in price. Unfortunately, the Nikon lenses are staying up there. I have a 60mm Macro-Nikkor for the close stuff and a variety of other lenses for the general work. I also have two point-n-shoots that I sometimes use for quick pics to post.

Thanks for info Chuck.
Just spent a bit south of 1K for a gee-whiz Olympus digital camera with two lenses for SWMBO. I didn't really pay much attention to the fine points - just wanted to get her a nice gift for our vacation. SWMBO loves it, and my dropping several multiples of 1K recently on two new (to me) "go-bang-items" didn't raise an eyelash.
Seems I'll have to spend some time in her instruction book to appreciate the Olympus' potential. SWMBO is an artist and woodworker, but I couldn't get her into stock work, nor engraving, maybe I'll get her into firearms photography.
Who knows..it may even lead to more SxSs to photograph.

I agree with all comments regarding lighting. I use outdoors when I can but it just isn't convenient for me 99% of the time. Indoors, I'm sure a remote flash as Chuck uses would be ideal, but I'll lkely never have one. My onboard flash is worse than useless. I get by with a half-dozen tungsten lights with clamps and some Home Depot 500W work lights that I can move around (and use for working on my car,too!). Can't completely eliminate reflections, but I can control them.

One suggestion I haven't seen made is to include a gray card in the scene where it can be cropped out. My guns all wear pretty wood and reproducing the colors is pretty much a one-click operation in Kodak Easyshare editing.

These were done with no flash, only available light.

I will typically meter the light for a neutral part of the item I want to shoot, then take a few images in the exposure range I think I'll need for the shot.

A tripod is essential to clear, crisp images shot in available light.

--Tinker

These gents are right as far as being in the shade on a sunny day. I almost always take mine under a tree or under the roof of my deck. It ususally works out better than indoors with a flash. Plus it gives you a better feeling or environment for a picture that the outdoors is the topic to begin with. Best wishes.

Lots of good tips, particularly outdoor/overcast.

Coin finish with engraving gave me probs with specular reflections, and Ken Hurst solved them fast: Mix copier toner into a Rig-rag, then wipe on/into engraving.

If you start with absolutely flat lighting (equal wherever you point your incident meter), you can then add highlights and shadows as desired. A 1.5 or 2:1 ratio is a good place to start (higher for greater drama or impact.) Tinker's look like around 3:1, perhaps higher in the bottom one.

You can create flat, reproducible lighting indoors the way Oscar did: Four equal photofloods or flash units at the top corners of a cube, with the subject at the cube's geometric center. Diffusers are helpful. Individual light's distances can be varied from selected corners to create departures from perfectly flat lighting. A PVC pipe cube frame works well.

Includint a neutral grey card (and it doesn't have to be a very big piece) for color balance is a great suggestion. Metering the exposure off a full sized card is most pro's starting point.