Gun Porn - Part Deux

[Ktulu]

I broke out the digital camera the other day to have a second go at some gun porn. The photos turned out much better then the first time I tried to photograph guns.

Here's a picture of my makeshift studio in the corner of the basement.

Lighting is still a challenge and several of the pictures (not seen here) had serious depth of field problems. The digital camera I have has much to be desired (there are no provisions for manual settings only bracketed exposures), but there in still much I can do before I need to buy a new one. I have several 35mm cameras and I might try that route next time.

Any suggestions from the real photographers?

 

[fslflint]

very nice pics!!! I really dig the twin kimbers.

 

[k8ysv]

More of an amateur photog here, but just wanted to say thet the shots look good! Proper lighting is the key, especially with complex-textured dark objects such as guns..

Anyway, I would make one suggestion and that would be to get a smooth, monochromatic background. The texture of the carpeting tends to draw the eye away from the subject. The eye is drawn to movement and lacking that, detail.

Oleg will forgive me

 

[P95Carry]

Ktulu ........ looks like you definitely are making some progress ... and having a tripod certainly is more than desirable.

Your biggest prob right now is ... as you have identified .... lack of manual control. Indeed .. use of 35mm and then scan later would give you more camera control.

May I suggest tho also ... try using a ''light tent'' .. a white sheet between light sources and subject matter. It will diffuse and soften shadows ... and two light sources are needed .. even three.

If you can control things like white balance, shutter speed and aperture it'll make things easier for you. I often shoot at f11 with a shutter speed of something like .5 sec .. gives me depth of field and tripod takes care of camera shake.

One other thing .. you need if possible to be able to edit a pic in a suitable application after shooting .... so as to adjust things like gamma, color balance ... and crop to best content. It's very small here but I have cropped out your 625 and ''lifted it'' somewhat ... the cardboard background is not too bad .. but the coarse carpet is not useful for you. Go get a coupla yards of fleece or some other fabric from WalMart ... and set it out .. no pattern.

In case you didn't take a peek .. go to Library link on top right of THR page . and then go look at my ''Image Matters'' mini site .. may be some more things there might be of help.

 

[spacemanspiff]

am i the only one who thinks those twin kimbers should have a hot-oil wrestling match?



















what? why are you all looking at me like that?

 

[laynlow]

Who are you using to host your photos? It looks like someone's compression software is distorting the photos.

I use village photos, and I have to remember to turn their compression off. If I don't my pictures look horrible.

I played with the digital camera this weekend taking some pictures of a new AR. Have a look:




and a black & white



I enjoyed your photos. It looks like you are off to a good start!

 

[rhedley]

Ktulu

You are doing well. I like the details, and they are tough on a shiney gun..

 

[Nick1911]

Very nice pictures... What kind of digital camera do you use? I find it frustrating that most digital cameras don't seem to have a way to use manual settings. I should try shooting gun photos, havent done that yet...

Nick

(edit: that darn spelling thing again)

 

[FedGunner]

Great pictures!!

 

[Plinkerton]

That Walther p22 is a great lookin' gun. I can't believe it's only a .22.

 

[rhedley]

Nick1911
If you were asking me about my camera, it's a Sony DSC-S50, 2.1 meg's, now discontinued....

 

[Nick1911]

If you were asking me about my camera, it's a Sony DSC-S50, 2.1 meg's, now discontinued....

Awesome, my mother bought a DSC-P51, and I bought a DSC-P52 recently. They are good cameras.

BTW, nice worklights!

Nick

 

[strambo]

rhedley,

Nice snub! (great pics too) Before I clicked on this thread...I thought I didn't like engraving, but I'd be proud to wear that S&W to a BBQ.

 

[4v50 Gary]

rhedley - purty gun. Did you commission it yourself?

 

[rhedley]

4v50 Gary

Thanks, And yes, I did commission the gun. Also has a letter, stating that.

 

[Ktulu]

Thanks everyone for the kind words and suggestions.

P95Carry, double thanks for the help. I tried bouncing the work light off the ceiling tiles but multiple light sources are on the docket for my next "shoot." I was also thinking about getting some poster board to use as reflectors. White and maybe grey. What are some good artificial light sources I might have around the house? I'm not going to be buying studio lighting anytime soon. Are regular lamps ok or is one kind of bulb better then the other?

I do have Photoshop but I wanted to post the pictures as they were taken. I did quickly resize them so people wouldn't be pulling their hair out trying to download them and that explains some of the jagged edges.

fslflint and spacemanspiff, they're not twins at least not identical twins. One is a Stainless Target II 9mm and the other a Stainless Gold Match I .45 ACP.

laynlow and rhedley, awesome pictures.

 

[Moonclips]

Another tip... if your camera has a macro focus setting, use that when taking closeups. It will increase the depth of field.

That's a nice setup you got there with the lights.

 

[laynlow]

Ktulu,

My setup would make any good photographer cringe. For handguns and the like I normally use a flat-top folding table made for eating TV dinners. I drape my background fabric over the table and then a chair.

Lighting is accomplished using those cheap clamp lamp holders with the aluminum reflectors. I use the GE Reveal light bulbs.

I have two digital cameras. The first is a Canon powershot A40. This camera has no manual focus or white balance. It has a tough time trying to focus on guns. One it does, there is usually a color cast to the picture due to an improper white balance, but you can get good pictures out of a cheap camera if you have patience.

Here is a picture from the A40 that demonstrates the backdrop too:



It's dark, but I wanted it that way. The muzzle was the focus point. If you look carefully, you can see the backdrop behind the gun that I draped on the chair. I think this gives pictures more dimension than the lay-the-gun-on-the-bed pictures.

The camera I am using the now is a Canon Digital Rebel. This camera allows me to use all of my 35 mm lenses, set a custom white balance, focus manually, use a remote shutter release, use shutter and aperture priority modes and more. I haven't taken a lot of gun pictures with it, but the two pictures posted above came from that camera.

I hope this helps some...

 

[rhedley]

A couple more..

 

[Ktulu]

Great idea with the clamp lamps. A couple of those are going on the list for the next Home Depot trip.

 

[P95Carry]

Ktulu ... yeah those clamp lamps are well cheap and also quite adequate .. one or two also of the cheapo table lamps can help.

I use the 90W or even 150W internally reflectored lamps - sorta things you'd use outside ... they run hot but don't over heat the fitting .. so it works ... plus, they are not on for lengthy periods ..... just as needed.

Key to light source choice is .... being able to set up white balance. I am lucky in that my mix of fluorescent high diffuse ... and tungsten clip mounted sources ... all get shone onto a white card ... and then camera is used to read that and gives me a white balance I can store in memory.

I use a Minolta DiMAGE A1 ... spoiled myself .. but wanted max manual control . it has to be way to go if you can eventually. Only thing that irks me is that the so called ''Industrial Standard'' now is 72 DPI (actually PPI to be precise) .... whereas my other older cameras are 150 or more PPI ... that allows for pic reduction with less ''jagging'' of pixels on non horizontal straight lines.

Do experiment too if you can with a white sheet ... $3 or so will get you a 2yds or so length of thin stuff from WalMart ... and also get something for background use too.

My comments earlier BTW seemed on re-reading a tad critical .. hope you took them as meant to be - constructive and not destructive .... you are doing well with what you've done ... very well. Just that I know with small changes you'll be turning out some great stuff!!

Good luck .... and feel free to ask later if you have any probs.

 

[Ktulu]

P95Carry, no I didn't take your comments as being overly critical. Critical, to some degree, is what I want. I can't learn anything if everyone just says, "great pics." Your input, and everyone else's, is much appreciated.

My wife is gonna think I've lost me marbles when she says she wants to go the fabric store and I say, "GREAT! Lets go!"

 

[Strings]

Ok... my wife had a question. If it's gun porn, shouldn't the actions be open?

 

[P95Carry]

If it's gun porn, shouldn't the actions be open?

Probably Hunter but .......... on THR we have to keep things ''softcore'' ya know!! One open breech too many and .. well ..... could be trouble!

I guess to go along with ''safer shooting'' .. we could show rubbers over the muzzles!