How do you guys get such good pictures? I always get bad light, reflections and such. I know the camera helps but I am lost. Thanks. I got a new Model 29 but pics suck.

See if this helps.


Bullseye


How to Make Good Gun Photos With No Special Equipment

Lighting is key, I have found that outside on a cloudy day is one of the best and easiest ways to get good pictures. For indoors you need multiple light sources and a way to diffuse them. Light boxes work great for this but are generally small and don't do well with rifles. I basically made my own 6" long light box on a section of my workbench buy using an old white bed sheet as a diffuser and a bunch of different lights but my best shots still come on a cloudy day outside.

__________________
Regards,
Guy-Harold Smith II

I have been using a couple of incandescent lights on arms at my workbench for a lot of shots. To be honest tho, photography has been a hobby for many years.

Here's my "set-up" - tried the light box but thought it was too confining and time consuming if you want more than one "good" shot:



Result (after some Photoshop):

__________________
Lou

Lighting, angle and a lot of patience. It is very hard to take pictures of firearms because of so many angled parts that give off reflections from all over. If you're using a digital camera then good. That means you can do trial and error.

Indoor shot. The light source on this one are the living room windows. Adjustments on the aperture to darken the subject a bit to add some drama.


Outdoor. Since your light source is the sun, what I do is I move the gun around where there is the least reflections. After that I move around that area I have selected and further find the right angle with the least reflections. Anything I can't solve after that I use Photoshop.


Just try to take as many pictures as you can and analyze the results. Good luck.

Jun

Natural outdoor lighting makes for good shots. But not in direct sunlight. A cheap lightbox does wonders too.
Lou, would you have the "pre-photoshop" pic that you could post? I don't have photoshop, but am thinking about getting it. I'd be interested in seeing the difference it made with that beautiful 27 of yours!

__________________
Misty

I built a light box that can be dis-assembled and stored away.





Here are a few shots:

__________________
Dom

What improvements did you make with photoshop? I have never used it before.

__________________
Miss My Buddy crsides!!

Here's the "before" Photoshop - actually I used PS Elements for these (although I do have PS).





I have found that I can go through the photos more quickly with Elements - it does 95% of what PS does. I don't think you need the full photoshop unless you are a pro and selling your pics.

Anyway, there are many advantages to doing some "post processing" on gun pictures (or almost any picture IMO). If you post "out of camera" pics you are just accepting a lot of averaging of the many variables that can make a good picture even better:

1. Color balance - you can vary the color "tint" of the shot - I made the original slightly warmer. I shot the original under incandescent bulbs - about 2700 deg K (sunlight is around 5200 or so - much more blue, shade is 6000 or so - even bluer.) All this can be adjusted.

1a. Along this line, you can establish a baseline that you know is correct. If your pic has something in it that you know is really white (or black), you can "click" on it (say a white background) then PS will adjust the color of everything in the pic relative to the true white background. Of course, you can adjust that to your liking (say by applying a "warming" filter.)

2. Cropping & straightening (or rotating to make an angled shot for variety.)

3. Dodging (lightening) small areas - say the wood figure in the grips is too dark - you can selectively "brighten up" that part of the shot without affecting the rest.

4. Burning in (darkening) small areas that are too bright (maybe the highlight is too bright - say on a barrel etc.)

5. Sharpening - either the entire picture or just selectively (say the engraving/roll marks to make them pop.) There are several ways to sharpen - it's easy to overdo it so you have to experiment a little.

6. Resizing for web presentation - if you downsize your pics without adjusting the sharpening you are losing some detail. It is better to resize the original to web size (say 800x600) and then adjust the sharpening, save the resized pic and use that to post your picture.

7. Of course, you can add text which is a nice touch.

This may sound like a lot of work, but in reality it takes just a minute or two per picture once you get into it.

Hope that helps - it takes a little time to learn to use PS Elements, but I think it's pretty intuitive and fun - at around $60 or so, it's a good investment in showing off your iron - or even selling it when/if the time comes.

__________________
Lou

Very informative, thanks for sharing. It does make quite a difference.

__________________
Miss My Buddy crsides!!