It took me a long while to learn and develop these techniques, and they may prove useful for you, too. Hope these tips help.
First, use a tripod. If you are using a digital SLR, and it has an image stabilization feature, turn it off. Your tripod will stabilize the camera, and the camera's attempt to stabilize the immobile image sensor will just make it worse, introducing some unwanted fuzziness.
Lose the "haze filter" or any other protective glass in front of the lens. Use a lens shade. These things will help to ensure clarity and unwanted light reflection in the lens.
Use a cable release or set your camera to trigger with a 2-second delay. This absolutely minimizes camera shake from either your finger or the flip-up of the internal focusing mirror.
Forget automatic focusing. Look carefully through the viewfinder and focus manually; be sure the things you want to be sharp are indeed focused on.
Do NOT just look at the review image on the back of the camera to decide if the picture is exposed correctly. Your ambient light level will vary your perception of the image. Bring up the exposure histogram, and be sure all the peaks are within the two extreme limits, not cut off, and not way over to one side, unless a lot of your picture is either pure white or black.
Expose manually, controlling both the aperture and the length of exposure. Use a tight aperture; I use F/8 or better. F/8 is usually about right, giving you enough depth of field to be sure the entire gun is well in focus. Going down to F/12 or F/16 or even F/32 gains you nothing, and you may get chromatic aberration around the edges of what you are shooting. A high contrast background is no problem with manual exposure. Once you have the aperture setting, vary your length of exposure up or down until your histogram shows you have it right. With a digital camera, this costs you nothing, and you can delete any pictures that are not perfect. Select incremental settings of 1/3 stop, not 1/2. This gives you finer control when you are shooting for perfect instead of just good enough. Then take a number of exposures, varying only your aperture, to get photos that run from overexposed to too dark. Then make your selection on your computer. Your object should be in perfect focus, exposed enough to show detail in the dark areas, with no warning "blinkies" in the light or dark areas, indicating no detail in the pure white areas or pure black areas. Actually no detail in the background can be a good thing if you want it. With a white background, I like to select a picture that is slightly overexposed, and then, if a RAW file is used, correct the exposure for the subject in post-processing with suitable software. This gives nice contrast. Since you are using a tripod, longer exposure is possible with no downside at all. By the way, if you use completely manual exposure control, light cannot creep in through the viewfinder and alter the setting of either the aperture or shutter speed!
Select ISO 100 for absolute minimum "noise" or grain in the picture. Use the maximum picture size and quality possible with your camera.
As for lighting, you want soft shadows. You can achieve this easily by shooting in the shade, or on a cloudy day. This is diffused, not harsh lighting. My best shade is achieved in the morning or late afternoon when the sun is off to the side, casting longer shadows with the shading object (such as a tree or building) off to the side so there is lots of overhead light from the sky.
Pay careful attention to your white balance. You don't want a yellow or a bluish cast to your picture. Your camera should allow you to select a custom setting, or generic "shade" setting. Often this can be altered in post-processing on the computer with suitable software.
Use some sort of post-processing software to fine-tune exposure, level, sharpen if necessary, and crop your picture. Leave plenty of space around the object being photographed; don't crop too tightly. The object for me is to allow one to imagine enough space around the gun to pick it up; this makes it more realistic. I use Photodex's CompuPic, PhotoShop Elements 10, or both.
Here's a sample picture of a S&W Model 27. Notice that there are plenty of details in the light and dark areas, good focus, and no problem with the contrast of the white background. The shadows are soft from the diffused lighting, done in the shade outdoors.
This Mauser made for a good shot:
Here's a shot of a longer gun, an 1855 Rifle Musket, almost 60 inches in length; same techniques.
If you can shoot and process your pictures in the RAW format, by all means do so. The RAW files contain much information that is not imbedded in .JPG files, and that information can be very useful. RAW files give you great latitude to alter exposure, white balance, clarity, contrast, vibrance, saturation and other factors using suitable software. I use PhotoShop Elements 10 with a RAW processing add-in. If you don't like a picture as taken, you can change it into something a lot better. RAW files are much larger than .JPG files, and that's because it's like the difference between a gallon of soup and a cup of soup - you will have a lot more basic material to work from and choose from.
The white background material in all these shots is cheap white countertop board, purchased from Home Depot. I use a longer sheet for rifles, and a smaller one for handguns.
I write the "Classic Firearms" articles for Dillon's Blue Press catalog/magazine; they always use the photos I provide, which they think are as good or better than those they photograph in their studio. BTW, a subscription to that monthly is free, and can be ordered by calling 1-800-223-4570 and requesting it. You can also view past issues on line at dillonprecision.com and then clicking on "Read the Blue Press" in the upper right of the opening page. My articles can usually be found by going to page 44 of whatever month you select, if you can get past the pretty gals on the covers!
My popular book 101 Classic Firearms is illustrated with pictures made mostly by me. It's available at dillonprecision.com, or from Amazon. I have been using Pentax DSLRs for a long time and am currently using a Pentax K-3.
Good luck!
John
First, use a tripod. If you are using a digital SLR, and it has an image stabilization feature, turn it off. Your tripod will stabilize the camera, and the camera's attempt to stabilize the immobile image sensor will just make it worse, introducing some unwanted fuzziness.
Lose the "haze filter" or any other protective glass in front of the lens. Use a lens shade. These things will help to ensure clarity and unwanted light reflection in the lens.
Use a cable release or set your camera to trigger with a 2-second delay. This absolutely minimizes camera shake from either your finger or the flip-up of the internal focusing mirror.
Forget automatic focusing. Look carefully through the viewfinder and focus manually; be sure the things you want to be sharp are indeed focused on.
Do NOT just look at the review image on the back of the camera to decide if the picture is exposed correctly. Your ambient light level will vary your perception of the image. Bring up the exposure histogram, and be sure all the peaks are within the two extreme limits, not cut off, and not way over to one side, unless a lot of your picture is either pure white or black.
Expose manually, controlling both the aperture and the length of exposure. Use a tight aperture; I use F/8 or better. F/8 is usually about right, giving you enough depth of field to be sure the entire gun is well in focus. Going down to F/12 or F/16 or even F/32 gains you nothing, and you may get chromatic aberration around the edges of what you are shooting. A high contrast background is no problem with manual exposure. Once you have the aperture setting, vary your length of exposure up or down until your histogram shows you have it right. With a digital camera, this costs you nothing, and you can delete any pictures that are not perfect. Select incremental settings of 1/3 stop, not 1/2. This gives you finer control when you are shooting for perfect instead of just good enough. Then take a number of exposures, varying only your aperture, to get photos that run from overexposed to too dark. Then make your selection on your computer. Your object should be in perfect focus, exposed enough to show detail in the dark areas, with no warning "blinkies" in the light or dark areas, indicating no detail in the pure white areas or pure black areas. Actually no detail in the background can be a good thing if you want it. With a white background, I like to select a picture that is slightly overexposed, and then, if a RAW file is used, correct the exposure for the subject in post-processing with suitable software. This gives nice contrast. Since you are using a tripod, longer exposure is possible with no downside at all. By the way, if you use completely manual exposure control, light cannot creep in through the viewfinder and alter the setting of either the aperture or shutter speed!
Select ISO 100 for absolute minimum "noise" or grain in the picture. Use the maximum picture size and quality possible with your camera.
As for lighting, you want soft shadows. You can achieve this easily by shooting in the shade, or on a cloudy day. This is diffused, not harsh lighting. My best shade is achieved in the morning or late afternoon when the sun is off to the side, casting longer shadows with the shading object (such as a tree or building) off to the side so there is lots of overhead light from the sky.
Pay careful attention to your white balance. You don't want a yellow or a bluish cast to your picture. Your camera should allow you to select a custom setting, or generic "shade" setting. Often this can be altered in post-processing on the computer with suitable software.
Use some sort of post-processing software to fine-tune exposure, level, sharpen if necessary, and crop your picture. Leave plenty of space around the object being photographed; don't crop too tightly. The object for me is to allow one to imagine enough space around the gun to pick it up; this makes it more realistic. I use Photodex's CompuPic, PhotoShop Elements 10, or both.
Here's a sample picture of a S&W Model 27. Notice that there are plenty of details in the light and dark areas, good focus, and no problem with the contrast of the white background. The shadows are soft from the diffused lighting, done in the shade outdoors.
This Mauser made for a good shot:
Here's a shot of a longer gun, an 1855 Rifle Musket, almost 60 inches in length; same techniques.
If you can shoot and process your pictures in the RAW format, by all means do so. The RAW files contain much information that is not imbedded in .JPG files, and that information can be very useful. RAW files give you great latitude to alter exposure, white balance, clarity, contrast, vibrance, saturation and other factors using suitable software. I use PhotoShop Elements 10 with a RAW processing add-in. If you don't like a picture as taken, you can change it into something a lot better. RAW files are much larger than .JPG files, and that's because it's like the difference between a gallon of soup and a cup of soup - you will have a lot more basic material to work from and choose from.
The white background material in all these shots is cheap white countertop board, purchased from Home Depot. I use a longer sheet for rifles, and a smaller one for handguns.
I write the "Classic Firearms" articles for Dillon's Blue Press catalog/magazine; they always use the photos I provide, which they think are as good or better than those they photograph in their studio. BTW, a subscription to that monthly is free, and can be ordered by calling 1-800-223-4570 and requesting it. You can also view past issues on line at dillonprecision.com and then clicking on "Read the Blue Press" in the upper right of the opening page. My articles can usually be found by going to page 44 of whatever month you select, if you can get past the pretty gals on the covers!
My popular book 101 Classic Firearms is illustrated with pictures made mostly by me. It's available at dillonprecision.com, or from Amazon. I have been using Pentax DSLRs for a long time and am currently using a Pentax K-3.
Good luck!
John
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