Would like to get some photo advice please...

[LouisianaJoe]

I changed the florescent bulbs on the ceiling to of my workshop 6500K. I changed the florescent bulb in a desk lamp to 6500K. I clamped a white poster board to my workbench and curved it up to the back wall to get the same kind of curved surface as Tom does.

Here is a 25-9 with the side plate off that I took at F11 on Aperture mode with the camera on a tripod. Notice that everything in the gun is in focus. Someone Hard Chromed the gun before I bought it. They even did the interior parts. CLick on the Photo to get a larger size.

 

[tom turner]

Nice image LouisianaJoe!

Yes, I'm glad you mentioned the seamless, curved background . . . for light catches and defines corners and that ain't good. And, as your shot so perfectly shows, a seamless and evenly lit white background will remain nearly perfectly 'white.'

White is my general background 'color' of preference. It can look so clean as a background for firearms.

Jorge, I'd add though, that a pure white background and a shiny 'white' revolver like this will appear to the camera as too 'light,' so the mindless camera will attempt to over-expose the entire image to turn the white to 10% gray.

The answer? Under-expose by a stop or so (ex: -1 or -1.5 on your Fuji camera's exposure comp setting and it will look white as it should!

BTW LousianaJoe, that's a cool .45 Long Colt!!!

 

[LouisianaJoe]

My camera is a Canon T1i. It has the ability to pick up a spot that is used to focus and set the exposure. To use the feature I point where I want to set it and depress the button half way down. then I can center the photo and take the shot. Here is an example of using that. I aimed above the bird to set the focus, then aimed at the bird. Had I not done that the focus would have been on the foreground.

The Fuji has the same feature. It can be handy if you want a particular object to be in focus.

 

[LL617]

Yours is a great questions that any camera afficionado has dealt with! I'm not familiar with your camera, but may I suggest:

If the camera allows you to control the aperture of your camera, get your instruction manual out and read about setting your camera to A or aperture control. You want to set it so that the so-called F stop is as high a number as you can set it for the lens on your camera. A high F stop number, like F 20, means that the actual iris opening on your camera is small, but your depth of field, that is the part of the picture that is in sharpest focus, is bigger than if the F stop number is small, like an F 4.

If your camera doesn't give you A control but has symbols like the shape of a flower or a person running, try shooting with your camera set on these various symbols. The person running should set your camera of a higher F stop number; the flower, a low F stop number.

The idea to shoot near a window so you have natural light is a good one. It is also good to add additional lights if you can so that the light shines from a 45 degree angle toward your subject from either side of the camera. The lights should be in front of your camera [but not so you see them through the camera--set them out to the sides wide] so that your shadow will not fall on the subject.

If your window is too bright, a light sheet hung over it can dim it a bit [or wait for a different time of day]. Wax paper is a good home aid to cover flashes that may be too bright also.

If you have a tripod, use it. If you don't, place a bag of beans--small beans work best--on a table top or a stack of books to prevent your camera from moving slightly as you shoot.

Try taking 2 pictures each at various F stops so that your area of sharpest focus changes. Then compare them. Also try rearranging your materials. In general, groupings of 3 are the most pleasing to the eye so try arranging your items in a more triangular arrangement. A slight overlap can make 2 items appear visually as one.

Finally, try changing the angle between your subject and the camera. Raise and lower your tripod or books. I sometimes shoot with a special stand so that I can shoot straight down, but you might be able to get a similar shot by hanging over the back of a wing back chair or sofa [be careful, don't tip over!].

Have fun and keep at it. The tips I've given you are ways that pro photographers deal with a still life composition, but the folks I know often take dozens of photos before they finally the one they really like.

 

[tom turner]

Jorge, great advice from LL617.

"Stopping down" to a very small aperture (high number) will give the maximum "depth of field" as measured from near to far spots on your image that are in focus. Heck, I've got an old medium format film camera with an f-stop (aperture) adjustment of a whopping 45!

This is extremely critical with doing close-up, table top and macro photography . . . because the in focus depth becomes very, very shallow indeed!

A NEW TWIST . . . (I'm trying to take do this in little chunks)

"THE RULE OF THIRDS" as it relates to maximizing accurate depth of field

In photography school they teach this concept, that for a given aperture setting, lens and distance from an object that a certain depth of field will be acceptably sharp (in focus).

Basically, the higher the f-stop (aperture) number, the greater the depth of field! Here's where the rule of thirds comes in . . .

Divide the distance that is acceptably sharp by three, then precisely focus your camera for a spot that's 1/3 of the way into that sharp zone. For instance, if the sharp depth of field is 9," focus 3" into the area you want to be razor sharp . . . and all 9" of that area will be sharp!

Yes, there are charts out there that can tell you the depth of field for all the aperture settings!

HOW IT CAN BENEFIT YOU SHOOTING GUNS . . .

The sharp range, using a very high number aperture to shoot a handgun is very, very limited . . . mere inches.

1. IF you were to focus on the front of the handgun itself, at its closest point to your lens, the in-focus area would start well in front of the object, yet get blurry on the furthest part of the gun.

2. So, measure the distance on the gun that must be kept sharp, divide the distance by three and focus 1/3rd of the way into that zone!

In this example, I desired to have the leading edge, back to about the front of the cylinder in focus, and I did NOT want the trailing away barrel to be sharp. So, I measured and determined to precisely focus on the S&W seal on the gun's wooden grip . . . and this accomplished exactly what I wanted.
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR A GREATER ENLARGEMENT . . .

3. IF the front edge of the gun is not sharp the depth of field at that range is not sufficient to keep the gun sharp from front to back. If this happens, focus further to the front of the object!

NO . . . they don't tell you this in manuals that come with most cameras . . . its a technique only important to photographers desiring to control what is sharp on the image and what becomes blurry.

BY THE SAME TOKEN, photographers intentionally use LARGE, wide-open aperture settings (low aperture number, i.e.: 2.8 or lower) sometimes to intentionally blur the background to highlight an object in the forefront.

Something like this . . . TOTALLY different aperture settings to achieve different results with varying amount of out-of-focus elements in the background that will highlight what I'm trying to accomplish!

or this . . .

Yep, I use "P" for Program on snapshots too . . . but when I have a little time to think, I'm taking control from the little computer in the camera that doesn't know what I'm trying to create. You can learn this too, Jorge!

Hope this helps . . .

 

[LouisianaJoe]

Here are a couple of useful links regarding depth of field.

Online Depth of Field Calculator

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

 

[Onomea]

Really great advice here!

I am not an accomplished photographer. I take dozens of pictures, from a variety of angles, from a variety of distances, on a variety of backgrounds (I use T-shirts) with timer and tripod, natural light, prop up the gun, and.... some come out okay. I also use the rotate and crop function in the computer software to manipulate the picture to the angle that looks best to me.

 

[JJEH]

You guys are killing me

Thanks for all the great advice. I will read through all this later and take my time. Also, after I got some supplies today I will take more pictures

I'll be back

 

[JJEH]

Can I give a kindly suggestion?

I'm always open minded to constructive criticism

UNFORTUNATELY, your gun isn't medium gray in luminosity at all . . . it is deep black, but the camera doesn't have a brain . . . so it OVEREXPOSES your image to make the black gun "properly" exposed as medium gray. NOT GOOD!

The Springfield 1911 is actually SS/BLK and therefore - I assume - little confusing to the camera.

While the batteies for the Fuji are still charging I was playing around with my Praktica luxmedia 7103 (7MP). Also I thought to start off with an easier task, since I chose a black gun.

After the batteries are fully charged I will play some more...

 

[JJEH]

More Fuji pix...

This one is a lil bit dark... don't know why honestly...

Here are 2 pix I like better...

 

[JJEH]

Well, I keep practicing...

 

[Pete99004]

This last one is a vast improvement IMHO. The back ground is an improvement and the lighting is much better.

Keep up the good work.



Pete

 

[JJEH]

Keep up the good work.

Thank you very much Sir!

 

[Straightshooter2]

Jorge, there is a book by Bryan Peterson called Understanding Exposure. For anyone wanting to improve their photos this book should be in their collection. I've been shooting film SLRs since 1970, digital SLRs since 2008 and occasionally shoot with a 645 medium format film camera. I still re-read it and consider it well worth the cost. (I just looked and it's $17.15 online.)

I always try to shoot manual mode with my digital cameras (depending on the situation) and then overexpose my shot by 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop. This seems to give a little more detail to objects when shooting closeups. It also helps when the subject being photographed is fooling the camera's meter. For instance, if you shoot a snowy scene, your camera meter, as was mentioned in an earlier post, is going to try to set the exposure so that everything is based on 18% gray. Therefore, white snow comes out gray. By overexposing, you get a truer white to the snow. Another trick is to bracket your exposure. What this means is to shoot what the meter tells you to shoot, then overexpose by one stop and underexpose by one stop. For instance, say the meter tells you to shoot 1/125th of a second at f/8. You shoot at f/8 but you also overexpose at f/5.6 and underexpose at f/11. Try it and you might be surprised at what you get. Also see if you can avoid using your camera's built in flash. There is a reason a lot of photography teachers call these "ugly light makers."

Also someone said use the timer to avoid shake. Some cameras, and I don't know about yours, allow you to set the camera so that the mirror will move up out of the way about 3 seconds before the shutter opens and closes. This helps avoid mirror slap when shooting on a tri-pod. Mirror slap can cause vibrations when the mirror pops up out of the way just as the shutter opens. By having the mirror move up out of the way 3 seconds before the picture is taken, those vibrations are minimized. Another great thing to have, if your camera is set up for it, is a remote shutter release. Using one of those, you don't have to even touch the camera to trip the shutter. These last tips don't help your exposure as far as lighter and darker go but they can help with a sharper photo.

Here's a trick for some of you more advanced photographers. Try setting your camera on the tungsten mode along with using yellow gel over your flash at full power and/or your other 6500k light sources. This is a technique Sports Illustrated photographers use a lot.

CW

 

[JJEH]

Thanks for all this advice guys. It's alot to me, had never ever so much interest in taking pictures. So everything is new to me and right now I have no idea what you guys are talking about

But I will consider your book advice Straightshooter2 and get it in the near future. Tomorrow I will read the manual again and take some new - exciting - pictures

Thanks again.

FYI: Please feel free to "abuse" this thread to show off all of your pictures

 

[JJEH]

M&P40

 

[JJEH]

Here I was playing with the software.

Not a Andy Warhol, but maybe another kind of pop art... ?

 

[JJEH]

I kinda like this one.

Also played with the software here a bit...

 

[Rule3]

M&P40

Still to dark, come out into the light, like a moth to the flame

 

[tom turner]

Another simple observation . . . and one that is surely known by any wedding photographer.

Light bounces off everything around what you are shooting, so be mindful of this when you process your digital image.

FOR INSTANCE . . .

The bride to be wants an outdoor shooting session in her pure white dress on a grassy hill.

PROBLEM #1 . . . the booked day turns out with bright sun and a clear blue sky.

PROBLEM #2 . . . the rich green grass reflects that sunlight well.

RESULT? Her pure white dress looks blueish white on top, changing into mint green on bottom rather than pure white!

BACK TO GUNS . . .
Your guns will "change" colors too . . . picking up the ambient light that reflects off your background . . . and also a blue sky if you shoot on a day that isn't totally overcast.

The camera "sees" differently than our eyes + brain do in real time.

- Our brain tells us we are seeing a pure white dress and our brain compensates to make this illusion seem real.

- Our camera simply records varying shades of colors and shades of bright/dark . . . and then it records a true image of what it picked up.


This is quite similar to the differences in how we "hear" something live, vs. hearing back the recording of that exact moment!
- Our brain will "turn off" the roar of a nearby air conditioner so we can enjoy the music BUT . . .

- In the recording the AC noise is BLENDED with the music, and it can't be separated later very well.

Thus, we must be mindful of these truths as we plan our camera shots . . . and consider what light will do when it bounces onto our subject to be shot.