I would like to call on the expertise of this forum to help some of us who are not so handy with a camera. Some of the photography I have seen on this site is nothing shy of professional. There seems to be a good number of forum members who really know what they are doing with a camera. I on the other hand do not, but would like to be able to post picture qualities that are on par with what Doc44, and 29-1 (just to name a couple) seem to do on a regular basis. I am hoping some forum members can offer advice in photography techniques, and suggest what cameras work best for them.

Dr. Ken Lunde takes the best gun photos that I've ever seen. Check them out here. His advice on photographing guns is at the bottom of the page.

I just take mine outside on an overcast day and shoot (no pun intended). The diffuse lighting seems to work OK. Direct lighting and especially flash will usually produce highlights and screw up your photos.

Hope this helps.

- Jim

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Festina lente - A. Caesar

+1 on the no flash comment. It also helps to have a contrasting backgound. White for blued and darker colors for stainless and nickel. Also, even with experience, your photos are only going to be as good as the subject and camera!

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Misty

Even if I do say so myself, this one doesn't totally suck.



Plopped that Woodsman on a red blanket and pushed the button. . .

Linda (digishots) where are you?

(She can give Ken Lunde some serious competition.)

- Jim

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Festina lente - A. Caesar

Jim, that's a good shot of the Woodsman!

Sometimes it's just trial and error... lots of pics.. and sometimes you get lucky!

Jim, here's a couple of Glock pics just for you:





and a few other "smokin" pics...









Outdoors in a shady area or under an overcast sky is great.
Here's a pic of a basic S&W model 15, photographed on a mirror with any overcast grey sky:

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Linda
SWCA #1965, SWHF #245

i have better luck outside, but not great?

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WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

Nice, but I hear second-hand smoke can be bad for you!

Great site Jim. Dr. Lunde's photos are exceptional. Does he photograph revolvers too?

Natural light or defused lighting in a light box.

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

There is a section of "assorted revolvers."

I take pictures outside at dusk or early morning. Cheap little camera with a MIC setting.

My bad photo skills hide the flaws in my beat-up guns!

GF

This helped me the most but have a "long" way to go!

Light Box / Light Tent Photo Gallery by Bill Huber at pbase.com

Hell, I don't know! Ask fyimo He's got it down to a science!

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RIP Shipmate

The trick is not to get them posing....for natural photographs, leave you gun out a few hours and ignore it...then quickly snap a pic when it least it least suspects....

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Yeah but when I try that, it always has it's ejector rod exposed.

I am so sorry.

GF

Outside, light at your back, use a tripod and auto timer.

DHart was the first great gun photographer I remember.

This as good as a can do with a point and shoot camera. Overcast day with periodic rain.

I find out door lighting works best for me. Also, very important is depth of field.

This was taken in a light tent(same as a box) they are not very expensive and available in sizes from those for jewelry up to ones for cars.
Guns are fairly large, I usually don’t use my Macro Lenses, a zoom is good for framing, a tripod is a must, with tripod you do not need bright lights. NO FLASH.
If you want to “float” the object you will need light behind it.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

You have to ask your self a basic question, do you want a really good photo of a gun (think Doc44) or do you want composition and background, in other words an art component as in some of the photos above.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

How do you get the smoke to work with the gun pics?

Jay5oh I agree that both are desirable at least more interesting. I think that SLT223 has to decide what he wants. If it is to take a good clear photo of a firearm he can learn fairly fast. If it is to have an artistic component that will take longer and require more input then he can get in a few posts.

The lighting for the strictly informational photograph is fairly simple and easily controlled. Art is something else.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

I agree.

And if it's to say "hey look what I just bought" just about anything will work.

Re: bouncing light from the ceiling...I used to do that with 3 or 4 strobes but then put together a light set and let me tell you, it is nice...

Re: the smoke pics....awesome! Even my non-photo-enthusiast wife commented on how cool and different it was...good job!

One other thought, take a minute to wipe off the lint, cat/dog hair, dust etc. It will ruin a otherwise nice image..and cloning it out sucks when you have 100 images to process.

Last thought for now... try to get the best image you can out of the camera, use post processing for "touching up" and minor adjustments. Not only does it increase your workflow but you will be a better photographer if you know how to use the camera.

Cocked & Locked takes some of the best pics I've ever seen.

I love the way he adds other related accessories like vintage ammo boxes and various leather gear.

So far, out of all the pics I've seen here on this forum, these two (or three ) are my favorites.





Here's a cool pic from our ol' buddy Keith44spl.

I like to call it "Tools of the trade."



And this, guys and gals, is probably my very favorite pic of ALL the pics I ever saw here at the S&W forum.

I like to call it "Grandpa's hammer and nails."

My Kimber 1911

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Scott

I am new to the forum. Can someone please tell how to post a photo ? Walking Dead

Here you go...

http://smith-wessonforum.com/forum-o...tos-forum.html

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RIP Shipmate

What do you do when your camera options are an iPod Touch and iPad?

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Livin’ Life From The Blindside

You'd be surprised how easy it actually is to take decent or even professional looking pictures with minimal work.
I am in no way a professional, but with a few tricks I take some pretty good photos. Heck, I don't even have a good camera. I use an Android phone camera. the trick in in the filters.
If you want to see some more of my work (I'll leave one of my pictures on this thread) Then go to my page Here and check out some of those pictures. (Any pictures that do not say "Cred to (page name)" are mine. Also, Message me if you have questions about anything, I'd be happy to share!

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I work for a firearms dealership and do all the in house photography. I've been in photography most of my life but shooting stills is a bit different. I've found white LED light seems the most effective and popular. Two to three lamps in a low wattage (I have Promaster VL-380's) keeps you from over exposing most metals. Then into Photoshop for color adjustment.
Also another employee suggested a simple way to stand up or angle guns using Legos. I bought a basic box for about 20 bucks and it's amazing what you can do. Of course you have to remove them in Photoshop. If they are under the gun you can adjust the angle many ways. I've included a shot using legos both before and after.

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Nice first post Tom and welcome from NY!

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paws for friendship

It's all about good diffuse light and a steady hand

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Buy American
Vote Responsibly

You don't have to go to any great expense to take great pictures...

Just plop that baby next to a plate of food.Most of the guys here wont know what's making them drool...The food or the firearm!

Here's my setup; a cheap copy stand and a couple of goosneck office lamps. The pigtail bulbs are as close to the color of outdoor lighting as I can get. The ceiling is white, and the table is where I fold my laundry. I put some sort of cloth, sometimes a towel, on the copy stand for color or for a contrast. Sometime if there's too much light coming in the window, I have to hang a towel over it.

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I almost always use indirect outdoor lighting, preferably on an overcast day.

I also think a tripod or solid mount is a must. The clarity of detail is SO much better using a tripod and remote shutter release.

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- Change it back -

Good pictures start with..........

Good lighting
and get better with............
timed exposures, bouncing flash off of walls or ceilings, colored lenses, tripods, mechanical shutter releases and even the angle of the surface areas to the lens.

I really miss my old 35mm that was king in the day but the digital cameras are now the thing, for better or worse.
Will there ever be a B&W picture, ever again ??

"Say Cheese...."

Thanx to all of you for posting - great info - in my case much needed info. I just started taking pics of guns (and knives) and these hints will be a big help. Hope to have something worthy of posting some time soon. Thanx again.

We have many excellent photographers posting on this site. An indoor setup gives you great control, but I don't have one and just use an outdoor setting. The angle I like to see is with the rear of the open cylinder reflecting off of that nice finish, whether blue or nickel. I call it the "money shot".
Here's a Model 25-5 in nickel.

this

My Zebra Finches had babies a couple weeks ago. Not a great pic but it's fairly detailed. They like to sit in this dish together, probably in the same positions they resided in while in the nest. Dish is about 5" across. 5 little beaks 10 beady eyes.



I'm not very good. I like taking pics to describe problems. Take them at high megropixils, then blow them up and cut problem area out of pic. This was how I felt FN compacts were wreaking mag followers. The verdict is still out.

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SOS USA

allows this

I'm cheap, just use a light-colored towell//for rifles/and an original WWII German machine gun troops recruiting poster, and for handguns, light colored cloth with skillfully tossed ammo all over it. Sorry no pix, my tablet refuses me to post em.

Here's an inexpensive light box, made from materials found at most big-box hardware stores.

The frame is a wheeled off-brand Metro kitchen unit, lights are $4 clamp-lights filled with 5000k led bulbs. Notice that they are almost the same color as the light streaming in from outdoors.
A dollar-store extension cord and a Goodwill twin sheet sewn as a cover/diffuser finishes off the kit.

Use your imagination for backgrounds, and binder clips to hold them in-place.

A word of warning - if you have cats, they will think you are making them a house/cave/play pad.

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- Post No Bills -

dang........

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be safe,enjoylife,journey well

I'm too lazy to much setup. I just take about 10 pics of the same guns, pick out the best one and screw around with paint shop till it at least looks acceptable.

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SOS USA