doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shotgun photography and background color

No. 13 had a longer exposure, what I need to do now is try a few different colors with it but any of the muted grays seems to work best. All the colors in the world don't help if I don't take a good picture in the first place. What I'm finding out with this thread is that what I like may not be the best for others.

Here is the same exposure with a gray background.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/mjpetrov/color19.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/mjpetrov/color13.jpg

Mike, can you elaborate a bit on what you like and what you are finding from others ? I really like pictures that show all the detail of the engraving, so that the lettering etc can be seen easily. I wonder if multiple lighting sources make this more difficult, or can a "good" camera with the proper lenses usually do what I am talking about ?

No pain here, Michael. Your pics just give me pleasure. Keep it up.

I'm with Lowell on the composition stuff. I've always liked the stuff in DGJ because of it.

I've not always liked the "flat" lighting, most of the DGJ pics seem to have, for showing detail. But it sure makes the guns look good, maybe much better than in person. For Oooo and Ahhh stuff, flat lighting works well with most things. But for detail definition or color presentation, other lighting often is better.

One of the easiest ways to get soft "flat" lighting is with a bounce of a flash off of white walls or ceilings.

Daryl,
Well, I did not think anyone would like the bright colors but my sense of color is so bad I had to ask. I like the pictures a little more on the darker side where I think they show the wood better and maybe a darker background. Looks like what I need is more practice getting the wood and metal a little lighter and making sure the detail is there. For the close-up of the engraving I use a little background lighting and hand hold a defused light, normally under or over the engraving until it is sharp and clear in the viewfinder. The better the camera the less problems but proper position and lighting will help with any camera.

Michael, tell "Anonymous" that I absolutely hate him and ask him if he will put me in his will and then die soon... just kidding. What calibers are those beauties.


BTW, while I suck at this sort of photography, I do make a lot of public presentations, and of course, lectures. One thing I try to avoid are greens and reds since red-green color blindness is so common. It is not so easy to do as one might think at times, but anyway, consider that some X% of your target audience is likely to be at least partially color blind.

Brent

I would suspect that if you look at the colors the top end case makers use regulary,you will find the ones that display the best for wood, color and engraving, combined. But with photos of a specific area of a gun, that may change everything. Interesting topic!

CH

Well his will go the same way mine will, at auction, someday, just buy a catalog and get in line .

The long-range is .44-100 Ballard Everlasting the other .38-55.

Is anyone using a strobe for lighting? One well known gun photographer made the suggestion, however a good stobe(s) look like about $1,000.

I think hot lights (quartz lighting instruments) are easier to work with. With digital cameras adjusting for quartz color temperature without losing 2 stops to a filter is not a problem.

Michael,
The two pics I posted of the engraved Nitro on page 4 of this thread are both with a strobe. In the top one, I bounced it off the wall to the left. On the second pic, I shot it directly at the subject from the camera mounted flash.

Here is yet another flash picture with the light bounced off the wall to the right and at a low angle.




This pic is with the flash bounced off the white ceiling and making the light very flat.