Tips for shooting, and posting, great photos

[banddr2]

If you have some suggestions about how to post photos on the forum, please add them here. The more information we can share, the easier it will be for everyone to tack on a picture or two ... because we all like to look at pictures. Thanks, banddr2, for kicking us off.

_ Searcher451



__________________


My method of posting pics on the forum:

I use www.photobucket.com, its free, register and upload your pictures.
Then when posting, go to your pic on photobucket and copy the address below the picture with the "[IMG]" in front of the address, and paste that directly to your post on the forum, and the pic should come up.

Here is my prize ppk using this method:

[searcher451]

What say we use this thread as a springboard for tips and suggestions and links and advice and whatnot on all things photographic: from taking great pictures to posting those great pictures on the forum?

Many of you are experts; many of you have a photographic background; many of you really know what you are doing. Please feel free to weigh in, to offer step-by-step advice, to make suggestions, to start from scratch so that those of us who aren't as adept at it can perhaps pick up the skills and become better contributors ... or even become initial contributors.

Once we get it going, we'll Stick the thread so that it'll be here for a long time to come.

We can start with this, a suggestion from forum member MLB in the form of a link to a site on how to take great gun photos:

http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/2...otography.html

Please keep them coming, guys. And thanks in advance.

[Parabellus]

http://lundestudio.com/firearms.html

If you can manage to scroll eventually to the bottom of this page you will read Ken's techniques for photographing great guns.

[dcw]

I took a regular cardboard box -- the one I had available was about 10 x 12 x 18 -- and cut the two short sides and one long side out of it. I left a one-inch perimeter around each cutout for stability. Then I taped white tissue paper over the openings. I had a piece of flexible white boardstock that I cut to a little less than 18 x 24 and pressed into the inside of the box. The top end is held in place by pressure. Binder clamps or large paper clips will hold the loose end tight against the bottom flap.

Illumination for the PPK/S pictures in the other thread was just the fluorescent light fixture over my bathroom sink. I propped the box up above counter level so the light was about 2-3 feet away from it. The camera rested on the floor of the box in front of the subject. Exposure was roughly one second at a small aperture. I called for one EV overxposure, which burned out the white background nicely.





Outside lighting cannot be too direct, or you will get shadows anyway. Maybe two or three layers of tissue paper would help with that. I bet thin sheets of translucent plexiglas would work too.

The camera I used is a Canon G9 -- not a pro SLR model by any means, but a pretty good high-end compact. I use a tripod or some other stable support and a short time-lapse before shutter release to avoid camera shake.

I have a little post-processing program that takes care of the barrel distortion you see in the photo of the box interior above. I just didn't bother to use it. When I am photographing long barrel guns like the revolvers that are my true love, I have to use it. Talk about barrel distortion if you don't!

David W.

[searcher451]

Exellent job, David. Thanks for the advice, and for taking the time to post.

Keep 'em coming, guys.

[MLB]

Another good article, this one on photographing rifling.

http://votefordavid.blogspot.com/200...ide-rifle.html

[photohause]

Photographed in the shadow of a tree, pop-up flash on camera, powered down 2 or 3 stops so it just opens up the shadow details. Simple.

[Davesrb]

I'm no expert, but find it much easier to take good pictures using natural lighting in the evening.A decent SLR helps also!

Sorry, no pictures of Walther's yet, so FAL's will have to do for now.




Davesrb

[searcher451]

Wow. Nice array there, Dave. I'll know where to head when the zombies get loose.

[jujonte]

That's quite an arsenal...never mind posting my P5 pic...good grief!!!
Seriously, I'm impressed!. You do take some decent photos. I like natural light myself, although that home made light box is idea by dcw is pretty interesting.
I used to take a lot of decent outside photos. I'll give firearms a shot again. I'v found photoing them to be a lot harder for detail.