Gun Photography Help?

[JayFramer]

Gang I see some BEAUTIFUL gun pictures from members here. Extremely clear, colorful, and realistic. Look great.

When I do it on my dumb camera phone, they always turn out blurry and terrible. The color is off, etc. it's just a mess.

What is a GOOD camera for photographing guns? I'd like to keep the price under $500 if possible. Also what techniques do you guys use to get the best gun pics?

-Jay

 

[richardw]

After my 30yrs. In the Corps I spent 20myears doing freelance and news photography. I want to assure you that no camera o. It’s own is going to deliver the results you want. To make images for use in the Internet you do not need an expensive camera. I would suggest a compact camera made by Panasonic in its LUMIX product line. You need to be sure that the specs accommodate a minimum focus distance that will allow you to get work at about 3 to 4 feet. You will want a zoom lens so you can take closeups.

That said, the secret to to goof gun photos is lighting. You need auxiliary lighting that you can buy on eBay in the form of led lights for video. They are relatively inexpensive. Then you need a photo processing program to alter the color, exposure, contrast, and sharpness of the image. The camera is likely to have that included.

Like shooting good,photography requires skills that have to be learned. You Can take free lessons on several websites. Take the lessons before you invest any money.

 

[Onomea]

I used to take pretty good gun pics. I think among the tricks are use a tripod and natural, but not direct, sunlight. To avoid camera shake, use the timer. Use a plain color — I used T shirts — for background. Guns look better at an angle rather than straight on, so experiment with positioning.

I think most inexpensive cameras and smart phones are plenty good enough nowadays for great gun pictures.

 

[Bullseye 2620]

I used to take pretty good gun pics. I think among the tricks are use a tripod and natural, but not direct, sunlight. To avoid camera shake, use the timer. Use a plain color — I used T shirts — for background. Guns look better at an angle rather than straight on, so experiment with positioning.

I think most inexpensive cameras and smart phones are plenty good enough nowadays for great gun pictures.

I could not agree more. I use an obsolete Sony Cyber-shot 10.1 Megapixel point-and-shoot pocket camera and it does great work.

You need a good tripod that will let the camera remain steady when you take the photograph. This will also enable you to work in less light. Slik makes a good tripod with leg extensions and a fully adjustable head. Get one designed to stand on the floor; not a tabletop model. They are a lot less flexible.

I take my photos on a desk in the northwest corner of my house which has windows to the west and north. The room has off-white walls. I adjust the amount of light entering the room by adjusting the blinds over each window. In the afternoons I often end up closing the west window blind way down and opening the north window blind way up. This provides a sufficient amount of indirect light to get good exposures without "hot spots" that highlight scratches and other imperfections.

You can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on professional lighting, studio equipment, and cameras on which you can meddle with the white balance and what not, but why bother when with a little experimentation and patience you can produce photographs like this:

All of these photos were taken with that set-up: old Sony Cyber-shot, Slik tripod, indirect daylight only for illumination in a room with white walls that do not affect the color of the reflected light.

 

[wundudnee]

I also use an old cybershot Sony. I think the thing that helps me the most is the timer and a tripod. With digital you can experiment, take a hundred pictures and save the best five. good lighting is needed of course, but that can be set up with all kinds of jerry rigged combinations. It's mostly just practice and luck.

 

[Shark Bait]

I use a simple point and shoot digital camera made by Nikon. I sometimes adjust color and contrast with Photoshop Elements. For cropping and resizing I use MS Paint.

 

[bdGreen]

I used my Canon 70D on this shot. No major setup and just did some post image cropping.

enjoy,
bdGreen

 

[Absalom]

Most essentially, and I'm saying this based on almost 50 years experience with amateur photography, invest in your skills before you invest in equipment.

I've gotten lazy and do most of my illustrative pictures (when someone on the forum asks a question and I grab a gun to illustrate the answer) with my i-phone (at present a 7plus). With the image stabilizer function, the need for a tripod to prevent blurry pictures is history. You really have to work at producing a bad photo that's over-, underexposed, or out of focus.

I take lots of pictures of the same shot varying the angle and distance slightly. That's the beauty of digital. I may dump 10 pictures for every one I keep.

If you work with a smartphone, move away a bit and zoom slightly; they have wide-angle lenses, and zooming will prevent distortions. As others have mentioned, lighting is key; move the gun or the light sources, sometimes an inch can make the difference between a roll mark being unreadable or standing out in perfect contrast.

Once you feel competent at taking good pictures that show everything you want to show, you can start working on beautiful pictures. But in my experience too many people put the cart before the horse and think the equipment is the key. It isn't.

 

[two-bit cowboy]

I use a Nikon D60 with a standard lens on the macro setting, but you can get the same results with a lesser camera (this is just what I have) -- technique outweighs technology every time!

I heartily agree with Onomea about not shooting straight on -- works sometimes, but not as well. Trying different angles helps you learn how to highlight a particular feature: inscription on the barrel, S&W logo, etc.

I only shoot outdoors on my cabin's weathered, somewhat monochrome deck rails. I don't care for cluttered backgrounds -- I want to see the gun -- but everyone's taste is different. Sometimes I shoot to document the warts and all.

I prefer 100% overcast days (rare here) so I often shoot early in the morning before the sun hits the rails.

The BX at Nellis should offer a wide variety of options (if you can use it). Might even find photo classes at the Rec Center. Make it fun!

 

[NewToGuns17]

This was done with an off camera flash and a lamp on a wall. Dial back the flash, get your shutter speed the minimum you can hand gold to help with a lower ISO and try to go a few stops above wide open on your aperture. Indirect light will help highlight the engraving but on shiny surfaces find a good ANGLE of attack. And use an interesting background.

 

[forindooruseonly]

Taken with an older iPhone 5. As others said, it's knowledge about what works and what doesn't rather than equipment.

If you are interested in learning to use a fancy camera, digital cameras go obsolete so fast that you can find a super deal on older DSLRs like a Nikon D40 that will do anything you need it to do for computer display. It may not make awesome great huge prints, but on a 1920x1200 monitor it will look great. Here are a couple I took ten years ago with a D40. Looks fine. You can find something like a D40 with a lens for about $150, and then spend some time reading and learning about the fundamentals of photography, and you'll be ready for anything.

 

[Mahalo_.32]

Always enjoyed photography

 

[wood714]

I use a Nikon D300 with a Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 lens.


If I'm feeling lazy I'll photograph guns outside in the shade on a 100+ year old chestnut plank.

Other times I'll use a studio strobe in either a 30x60" softbox or a 21" beauty dish. Sometimes I'll use a tripod, but I can usually shoot at 1/60 hand held. ISO is always set at 200.

On the rifle I used a old backdrop clamped to 2 bar stools, and had the rifle hanging from a backdrop stand with fishing line. On the revolver I used a drill press vice clamped to a bar stoll, with a brass rod in it. Slipped the barrel over the rod, and photoshoped it out in post.

 

[JayFramer]

Gang, thank you so much for the help! It does make sense to educate myself before thinking about equipment. I think part of the problem is the lighting in my apartment is just awful. I'll work on that for sure.

Thank you for helping me to "learn pichers" as it were!

 

[8strings8rounds]

I'm no photographer. I did this with an LG android phone camera.
I took this for a contest- it also explains my forum name.

 

[NewToGuns17]

And just remember, you don't take photos, you make them.

 

[Shark Bait]

I have found that natural lighting often works best. I usually take my guns outdoors to photograph them. Bright sunlight can be too much, though.

This picture has a fair bit of reflection, but I still like it. Took it with my samsung smart phone.

Outdoors, natural light, levels adjusted in Photoshop Elements:

 

[JJEH]

My pictures are just mediocre but I use a Nikon D3100, with a 18-55mm and a 55-300mm lens. The equipment is fine, it's just my skills that need improving. For "studio" pictures I have extra lights and different umbrellas.

Some of my pictures can be seen here:

Jorge Estrada: Artist Website

And/or on facebook. My instagram pictures are 90% taken with my phone.

 

[Jebus35745]

Great topic, I take photos and the daylight causes a glare and the pics seem dark insted of showing details. Make sure you leave the settings you use. A friend in the city retired and took some sort of pics for the Cleveland clinic. Gonna ask him for help soon. Larry

 

[meaneyedcatz]

use a tripod.
use the timer or remote when snapping
use good light

very few pics will be great out of the camera. Use an editing program ( some are free online)
If you use a DSLR shoot in RAW and edit from there