Thanks Tom, I messed around with the Av mode and that was my problem, all my pics were to dark even using the same light box and lights as yours and others. I still have to do some adjusting with the other settings. I have had the camera for a long time but the manual is just awful so I have always just left it in auto mode. It has steady shot, a great macro and 12 x optical zoom.

Anyway here is a a shot of my "new" model 60 no dash. It had rubber grips but I had these cheap Sile grips laying around so put them on. Looks better with some walnut.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Nice, the pinned barrel is a bonus.

What's a bit odd about this gun is you can see where the hammer pin is welded or whatever. on the outside of the frame. Just below the cylinder latch. Tiny little circle almost like one of those dreaded internal lock holes.

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Still Running Against the Wind

The gun and picture look great.....

Thanks for sharing..

Thanks for posting! Isn't it fun getting some good photos of your guns?!!!

Congratulations,

Tom

Picked this one up back in October. Timing was bad and I had to send it to S&W twice before they finally got it repaired correctly... Very happy with it now that all is well though.
Hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine

Attached Images

60.jpg (111.7 KB, 59 views)

Tracer, yours looks great. I need to get some "official" grips for mine.

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Still Running Against the Wind

You can get them through S&W, or Midway USA carries them.
The grips you have on it look pretty good, though.

Hi,

Your photos look really nice. I'm getting ready to take one step further on mine. I'm still having a little trouble when using white, then maroon backgrounds . . . since the different backgrounds can trick the Av setting's light meter.

So . . . since I've lost/mistplaced my "gray card," I'm going to break down and order another.

They are really cheap, and will allow me to put the camera on "Manual," set my aperture (AV) to 27 or so and then zoom on the lit "gray card" (to be placed where the guns would be).

Metering JUST the gray card area, the camera will tell me what shutter speed to use with an AV of 27 to get perfect exposure of the gray card.

Once the camera is manually set, the internal light meter can't be "tricked" again into "seeing" a mainly white background with a shiny gun on it . . . and think this is an "average" scene again . . . and thus "think" that white should be a mid-tone gray color of 18% gray.

You see, since light meters don't measure color, just brightness factors, and since cameras are basically set up to read an average scene of the full frame as being an overall tonally averaged shade equaling the "gray card's brightness of 18% gray," my camera will start giving me the right exposure under my light box lamp brightness.

I encourage you to consider spending ten bucks or so and doing the same. It will give you perfect exposure onto the gun's surface without your background of white tricking your meter too!

Hope this helps . . .

Tom


PS: I may have failed to mention that I'd tested my exposures of the white background, with a gun on it. before I shot my exposures for real . . . taking several shots where I added, then subtracted in steps up to two stops of exposure rates up and down from what my meter said was "perfect." I varied each shot in 1/2 step +/- from -2 through +2EV.

I'd have to go back and check, but I believe I ended up with my AV at 27, the camera in AV mode (where the camera's meter decides the correct shutter speed BUT . . . also with my correction which told the camera to overexpose by + 1.5 . . . which turned the white into white again and exposed the gun the best!

Without setting the overexposure rate, the pictures would have been underexposed in AV mode, since the camera would otherwise "read" the exposure on a white background wrong.


HOWEVER . . . GOING FULLY MANUAL WITH A GRAY CARD in the future . . .
In Manual mode, you have to set both the AV and shutter speeds manually. Don't let this scare you off, it is easy!

1. Place the gray card where your gun would be, facing your camera's lens.

2. Put the camera in "M" mode, then set the AV setting after zooming so you only see the gray card's surface.

3. Your camera will then tell you where to set your shutter speed to give perfect exposure!

4. Then set the shutter speed so the camera reads a perfect exposure amount!

Once on Manual, the camera cannot be tricked by the white to where it can monkey with your perfect settings. AND . . . you'll know where to set the camera for future gun photos on white backgrounds using the same light box and light set-up!

In my photography class the instructor told us that computer-controlled cameras are "programmed to make the same mistake, in certain situations, EVERY time! It is times like taking shots on white or very dark backgrounds that the cameras cannot "think" and know that the background is not an "average" scene . . . and a white background will trick your camera's meter every time!!!

Geez, I hope that makes sense.

Tom

PPS: I looks like you got your exposure rates correct in your photos! The bright areas are not "blown out" white on the gun, and the shadow areas don't look ill-defined either. Good job!

PPS: I looks like you got your exposure rates correct in your photos! The bright areas are not "blown out" white on the gun, and the shadow areas don't look ill-defined either. Good job!

Sheer LUCK! My Cybershot DSC-H12 has the worst destructions. It has so many auto settings and then it has all the manual settings and pre set settings. Going to manual you use jog dial (thumb wheel) and I have no idea whats being changed, The AV I think I figured out but then there is Shutter speed and both together for manual exposure.
I can save settings under camera one and camera two but if I change something it does not default back when the camera is shut off.

I need to work on it some more rather than just getting by with the auto settings.

Thanks for the help.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Yeah, I'm still a'learn' my new camera too. The instruction manual is over 200 pages . . . but there's lots of good stuff in there . . . I just have to go slow to digest it all.

BTW, I call it "toilet training," for I keep the manual there to peruse when a have a few "golden moments!"

Over time, with repetition, I'm getting to really know that manual and how it can benefit me.

NOTHING though, takes the place of trying to shoot a shiny piece of metal. It can be quite humbling. Oh well . . . digital "film" is shore a lot cheaper than the old fashioned stuff!!!

T.