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

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.

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!

I've used the lightbox that rags24 mentioned with great results.

Here's a Model 41 with a Burris Fastfire.

Take a fine finished revolver and toss it on some rocks....
Doesn't matter if the pic comes out good or bad, you'll get a reaction from the viewer...

giz

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Non gratum anus rodentum

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

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

When I'm in the mood I prefer a few props and an appropriate background. Usually I'm too lazy and shoot the most basic documentary pics.

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

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

Both

In my opinion it depends on if you want to create a atmosphere or a standard "product" type photo for commercial or historical documentation purposes. Ofcourse, it completely depends on what the client is looking for.

One key to firearm photography is light. Taking a picture on the floor of your house with a pop up flash will make a image. But taking the picture with good light, proper technique and camera control will make a better image.

Don't sneak up on the gun and take it's picture while it is in the shower (this also applies to wives as well )

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Forum consigliere

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

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."

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

As a student of gun photography I'll add a few thoughts

Lighting needs to be diffused / indirect. Harsh reflections are ugly! I use a home made light box, sometimes adding light "bounced" off the ceiling. Occasionally I use natural light from a window and very rarely do I shoot outdoors as the bright sun is too intense. Over exposed areas in a digital photo loose all detail and appear as pure white, those areas are "blown out" and the details are just not there in the file. Conversely, areas that appear too dark can often be saved in post processing and the details made visible. So, if anything underexpose a bit - there is a lot of detail hiding in the shadows!

Mount your camera on a tripod and use a remote release to eliminate vibration. This will accomplish a few things that make your photos better. First, shoot at your camera's base (lowest) ISO setting - virtually all digital cameras will capture a "cleaner" image than at higher ISO settings. Second, shoot at a smaller (higher number) f stop. f8 to f11 is good with most DSLR cameras. This will provide a greater depth of field (the depth of the area in sharp focus). For example, if you shoot an N frame revolver from the side, at f2.8 the close edge of the cylinder might be in perfect focus while the frame & barrel are blurry. At f11, all of the gun will be likely to be in focus. This too can be overdone, set your aperture (f stop) too small and the entire image may loose sharpness due to defraction - keep it around f8-f11 with a DSLR. Speaking of focus, autofocus used skillfully will do; manual is better if your camera (an your eyes!) allow it. Shooting from a tripod allows the resulting slow shutter speed (often 2 or more seconds) without picture ruining motion blur.

Set your camera to shoot the largest JPG images it can, or even better RAW files if available. Capture all the detail and information that you can with your camera. Then, use it by getting to know your post processing software - Photoshop, etc. It can provide a multitude of options for making you images look great, and the better the images and more data that you provide, the better the final product will be.

Hope that helps without being too confusing

Here are a couple recent images taken with my D300 and a 30+ year old manual focus lens:

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Bill

It took quite a bit of time for that series of pics... I probably took a good 75 shots just to get 1 good one.

It worked best with semi-autos with the magazines removed. The smoke is real, I used 12" incense sticks and 1/2" copper tubing in the magazine well. Smoke naturally rises and with no air circulation you just sit back and start shooting til you think you got the shot you want.
I "fanned" the smoke a few times to create the swirls.

The background is black tarpaper (also fireproof! ). I used 2 small photo lights to light both the gun and the smoke.

It was fun and interesting ... I had to air the room out for a day or so afterwards to get rid of the aroma!

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Linda
SWCA #1965, SWHF #245

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.

Ron I am like you in pefereing to add a few props to my pictures when I feel like messing with them.
This is really a great picture you have posted here
Thanks for shareing

Thank you sir!

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

This photo was made by accident. The reason it is an accident I could never make a photo this good on purpose. This is just the best I have done others put me to shame. I took this photo when I won the "Shoo Boy" hammer he gave away. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

I love it when a shoot goes well..."CUT!"

Attachment 107934

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

too bad you didn't win sheets too...

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Here you go...

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

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RIP Shipmate

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Sure you did

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 -