Different light and background photo setup

[ZENGHOST]

Thanks, Murray--it's not as good as I'd have liked, but about what I expected. At least it seems to have enough potential to give me a little hope.

Thanks for the info on the bulbs--I may be giving your setup a try if I can find the time to get to the store.

 

[SharpByCoop]

Originally posted by ZENGHOST
Hey, Coop--looking at the picture of your setup, are the lights on the stand halogen? I saw a setup like that at Home Depot but I remember you said that it was giving a yellowish cast to your pics. I've been trying to find a fluorescent setup like yours, but I kinda don't have a place to hang it from, and I can't seem to find the right fixture.

I used those overhead halogens for a good while. They are cheap at $30 for the set, and give off 1000 watts. But you have to spend MUCH too much time fussing with the color balance comparatively. (I'm a masochist and continued anyway.... )

If I was to start all over, I'd go for the tent setup. Murray's tip on the bulbs is good also. Thank you! I like the overhead flourescents for overall brightness, and the light is clean. I am going to try to incorporate some backlighting to add some shadowing for depth and visualization. For a simple display pic shadows aren't as necessary, though.

Great pic Zeng. You done good. Quickly you found that a lighter background will do you good for white pearl.

Where's Mitch?

Coop

 

[rbslaughter]

Nice picture Zenghost. I felt exactly the same way as you when I looked at my first pictures.. I knew I had seen far better photo's, but they were good enough to realize I could do much better with practice and learning how to arrange my lights, etc. Your first post is a better picture than I see on many retail knife sites and that's the truth. Thanks for showing it...Rich Slaughter

 

[Murray White]

this is not up to Coops level but is actually quite simplistically done and probably not done exactly as it should be but the result is not too bad even though I decided not to use the same background throughout.

This dagger is made by Dennis Friedly whose work I have always wanted and finally got this fine example from the PO today. Spoke to Dennis and he is not sure if it is 440C or ATS 34. It has damascus fittings and the Bull Elephant scrimshaw is done by Linda Karst.

The way I did this and it probably is not the right way as the image of the scrim is not as large as I wanted was to crop the insets and then resize them so they'd fit into the space and once the signature had been added, merge the files and then resize the whole image for the net.

 

[Murray White]

here is another concept that I have done with two knives and the elephant theme. One is a Harvey McBurnette folder and the other is the Friedly dagger.

 

[SPryor Knives]

I kinda like the way that one's put together Murray.

 

[SharpByCoop]

...but I *had* to play!

Your pic quality and the super shots demanded more spotlighting!

This is totally inspired by Murray's layout. I just wanted more! Thanks Murray--I had fun!

Coop

 

[Murray White]

gee, I hardly know how I put my photo together and Coop can take it apart and create another one which I could not create from the begining. An other galaxy from where I live.

It looks great Coop.

I'm still awaiting more images from others. Need more of the CKD photo guys coming into this thread too.

 

[RogerP]

Hi Guys,

I was over at Murray's yesterday taking some pics of my new Massey bowie and experimented with some different backgrounds. The first you will recognize as Murray's signature background:

The other two were lighter in colour - a tan / beige background:

And one in pale blue:

I have a clear favorite, but what do you think?

Cheers,

Roger

PS - photgraphing a big knife like this one was a real challenge (translation: pain in the a%$) - trying to keep all 10" of blade free of glare and hot spots.

 

[Murray White]

and we still did not get enough fill into the handle. I was afraid that the tip was not quite right in those shots but long blades are tough. I can see where it would be nice to use PS with its ability to adjust via the histogram, the brightness or particular areas of the image.

For those that don't have PS and want a image editing suite that is a free d/l and use, you might consider The Gimp. I believe the web also has some tutorials relating to it and there is at least one book on the market "Sams Teach yourself Gimp in 24 hours" that also has a CD ROM but was published in '99 so there might be a more up to date version and other published books.

 

[rbslaughter]

I have sent a few pictures here and there and wanted to say thanks to all who have taken time to write me back with tips and suggestions. I try to use them. Also, you guys usually send your responses back with pictures of your own knives so it's a double plus..

I thought I'd post one that Murray W. sent back cropped a little, and I liked the results. It's a Centofante with real nice engraving by Dan Wilkerson. The background picture I was using had a spot that contained several horizontal lines as you will see. I like this picture, but the lines are a bit of a distraction, especially so before it was cut down a little. I have noticed also that if you have vertical lines and position the camera at any other angle than straight down, these lines will "bend" towards the top of your picture. I just thought I like to share the knife, and show you the redone photo..Thanks again...Rich....Picture will be in the next post...

 

[rbslaughter]

Hi-Here's the Centofante..any tips or comments are appreciated as always...Rich

 

[Murray White]

and where is the recropped one?

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Just thought I would bring this back to the top because is quite a bit of interesting stuff about taking good photographs in this thread.

 

[mete]

As far as color ,it might be better to have all the lights the same. My camera ,Sony P72 has 4 light settings ; sunlight, cloudy, incandescent, flourescent. One type of light would be simpler the camera will handle it better and it might eliminate dealing with things like photoshop, keep it simple. Second I prefer diffused light more than reflected but you should learn to handle both. I use translucent white polyethylene , either storage boxes, readily available or sheets of the material available from Mcmaster-Carr at very little cost. I use 60-100 watt light bulbs in reflectors with clamps, never more than 4 lights. Tripod for the camera and tripods or some cobbled up stands for the lights. Backgrounds should never interfer with the knife though you can be creative.Try to eliminate shadows too. It's not expensive or difficult to get a nice set up. Remember that a website today is a major marketing tool, you can't afford to have poor photos.

 

[SharpByCoop]

Hi Mete, and you bring up good points. Can you post some pics sometime of your setup and some sample pics? You would help many along with all the others in this post with your good tips. You can do it on a shoestring budget!

On a side note, I am now utilizing (2) tungsten flash units in my work. It has really helped me gather plenty of light, and really allows me to be dynamic and shoot many pics by hand from different angles with a high shutter speed and a small aperture (for better depth of field). I can't make it work quickly with a tripod. But for most, that's NOT a concern.

Coop

 

[Murray White]

agree about all the lights being the same. That is why I use Daylight Flourescents bulbs (6700K) and thus the auto setting on my Nikon 995 handles the exposure even better than daylight as it is consistent no matter the time of day whereas Daylight fluctuates throughout the day.

Coop--I still don't know how you took the one shot apart and reassembled it. I'm getting how to do the oval & circles but still don't know what you did to do the borders.

I'm trying to learn Photoshop Elements 2. Got the program but sure an having a hard time finding time to read tutorials and the book and the help file.

My problem is that I have so much email etc that I tend to go back to what I know that is quick and easy as I like to get the knives done and up. have a couple more incoming that will need photos.

Got a program that will allow me to create a photo album for uploading the web space on my ISP so I may try that and see if I like it better than my Epson site. With it, I have been hearing from some that they can't open the pix from the thumbnails. Not all but some folks. Not sure what might be the problem.

I also have switched to a different background for many of the shots.

it is the same basic exposure for the background as my original background so I don't have to make any exposure corrections. Just have to play with the color some though. With PSE2, I hope to be able to do more with the histogram plus other tools to obtain more shadow detail.

BTW--Keith, good that you brought the topic back up as I see various times that folks want photography info.