EXCITING WORKSHOP PHOTOGRAPHY using SLOW SHUTTER SPEEDS

[ddd]

The recent AKI 2011 Show took place in a beautiful setting at the
San Diego Sheraton. The large show room was facing the Marina and
all that separated them were large glass windows. The knifemakers had
their tables set against the windows, facing the showroom.

This arrangement was quite problematic for straightforward photography
because of the overpowering light streaming in from the outside - from
behind the knifemakers, silhouetting them against a bright, overexposed
window.

Using a fill-in-flash could somewhat correct this but the result would be
an artificial looking compromise, which I really hate.

Here is the original picture as taken:

As mentioned before on this Thread, underexposed sections of
a digital picture are easy to correct in Photoshop, especially if
shot in RAW, but much can be done on a regular jpg file,
as you can see here, in the final result of the above picture.

Apart from dealing with the dark areas I did two more things to
the picture to achieve the final image I was planning on:

1. I corrected the distortion created by the wide angle lens, as one
can see in Dr. Fred Carter's image.

2. I also shot an additional image exposing the picture for the view
of the Marina seen in the windows. This outdoors view was then carefully
"pasted" into the blank-white-overexposed sections of the large windows
to display what our eyes could see...

I named the final image "Moment of Truth" as it shows Dr. Fred Carter
randomly picking the winning ticket for one of his knives...

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

 

[Marcel54]

Great example of what is possible. David, my daughter is very interested in this thread. That's because she's a budding photographer herself.

Marcel

 

[ddd]

.............. my daughter is very interested in this thread. That's because she's a budding photographer herself.

Marcel

I liked that, Marcel. Photography is a very useful and enjoyable talent/craft,
whatever profession one decides to pursue in life....

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

 

[ddd]

Workshop processes are usually displayed as separate pictures
laid out in a sequence.

It is also much more informative if the various stages are shot separately,
making sure to photograph all of them from the same viewing angle.

Such planning can later allow the photographer/designer to display several
stages on one illustration by combining the various stages, in running
order, into one picture!

Here is one such three-stage sequence, I made into one illustration
in Dellana's process of making the locking mechanism for her
lockback folder:

Here are the two facing pages that display this sequence
in Van & Dellana's book:

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

 

[peterinct]

I hadn't viewed this thread in a while. NICE additions David.

Thanks for sharing some of your wealth of knowledge and perspectives of photography.

Peter

 

[ddd]

I hadn't viewed this thread in a while. NICE additions David.

Thanks for sharing some of your wealth of knowledge and perspectives of photography.

Peter

Thanks, Peter.
I really enjoy presenting these instructive demonstrations in the hope
that some of the knifemakers might read and look at them - and then,
maybe, apply these simple techniques to their WIP photography...

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

 

[ddd]

Here is another example of bringing together several stages
in the making of a knife.

Each stage in the grinding of Dellana's Damascus blade (for
the lockback folder that she was making) was photographed separately.

The blade-in-the-making was photographed lying on the table,
shooting it every time from the same angle.
The blade images were then removed from their background
and arranged in order on a new background, as seen here.

Below is the final facing-page layout as it appeared in the
book I made on the art knives of Van & Dellana.

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

 

[shostak.antoxa]

Thank's a lot David! Great job!

 

[Berno]

A picture made in France, Henri Viallon and a twist..With little light....

 

[ddd]

Lucky for you, Berno, that the too dark and underexposed picture
was photographed with a tripod or using a high-speed setting.

I suppose it was a high speed setting on the camera that caused
the underexposure... Or were you trying to capture the action
and the flash failed?

Now, as I showed earlier, underexposing in digital photography
is relatively easy to correct.... See below.

Thanks for posting this picture!!


All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

 

[Berno]

I do not like using the flash, too much light.

I am not a professional of the photo, I found a regulation on my 580 EX to have less light.

An image closer to the reality...

Here no movement, but I like this photo.



Thiers France, Henri Viallon & Raphaël Durand...

 

[Berno]

I like these "alive" images..



Samuel Lurquin, whistle stop to Thiers...

 

[Gevonovich]

David ...I will give some of your techniques a try! Thanks for sharing your experience and I for one...really appreciate the teacher in you. Love your work.

 

[ddd]

David ...I will give some of your techniques a try! Thanks for sharing your experience and I for one...really appreciate the teacher in you. Love your work.

Thanks!!

All my life I have been teaching others what I learned through
years of experience, and enjoy doing so... If, as in this case, I can
contribute even a little to help make knifemakers try to improve
the photographic documentation of their work I shall be happy!

I shall soon post some more examples and additional tips
related to improving workshop photography.

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

 

[ddd]

The light quality of open shade is soft and complementing,
especially because all harsh shadows are replaced with lighter
and softer shades and dramatic highlights are hued down to
give a nice continuous tone.

Open shade areas (on sunny days) are great for human portraits
and for what interests us here - for photographing shiny knives...

The only drawback is that the color of light in shaded areas is tends
to be blueish relative to sunlight.

In modern digital cameras the Automatic White Balance feature
will partly compensate for these ugly blue hues, but not completely!

Using the Auto Color feature in Photoshop solves the problem quite well:
Image Menu -- Adjustments -- Auto color
or Image menu -- Auto color

Outlining the steel parts of the knife and Desaturating their color
does it even better, as seen in the example below!
Done in Photoshop by: Image Menu -- Adjustments -- Desaturate

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

The blueish hues of steel resulting from photographing in the shade
are corrected in Photoshop by "DESATURATING" the color of all steel
parts of the knife.

 

[ddd]

Here is one good example of how a badly underexposed digital picture
RETAINS ALL THE INFORMATION IN THE DARK AREAS.

In my book The Art of Modern Custom Knifemaking (2007) I got 100
knifemakers and artists in the arts related to knifemaking (Damascus,
Scrimshaw, Engraving, Carving and Sheath making) to photograph a
WIP of their art for the book.
The book ended up, including 100 detailed Work In Progress processes
displayed through 1,600 photographs - ALL OF THEM MADE BY THE ARTISTS.

After guiding them by phone and email on how to take the pictures I received
some good but many (MANY!!) underexposed pictures. These, with a lot of
patience (1200 hours) were made to look really amazing.

Here is one notable example from Mardi Meshejian's (USA) section
where he displays his making of a Titanium Damascus San-Mai knife.

In this picture Mardi is heat-coloring the copper guard and pommel
with an oxygen propane torch.

Here are the "before and after" pictures...

Just to give some idea about the magnitude of the project
that I took upon myself (and completed in 1 year), here is Mardi's 2 page WIP...
One of one hundred...

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

 

[peterinct]

Due to the diversity, number of artists and images, "The Art of Custom Knifemaking" is one of my most favorite of your books David.

That is a stunning example of digital editing!

Peter

 

[ddd]

Due to the diversity, number of artists and images, "The Art of Custom Knifemaking" is one of my most favorite of your books David.

That is a stunning example of digital editing!

Peter

Thanks Peter,

My wife says that 2005 was an an amazing year to watch me
working on the book - after at least 8 hours at the University....

I would come home at about 4 PM have a late lunch and disappear
into my study till I went to bed at about 4 AM. Up again at 08:00,
a good strong cup of tea and off to the University.

That was five days a week. On the weekends it was about 18 hours
a day at the computer or on the phone with someone somewhere in
the world....
Lucky for us, this lasted for only one year.

It was worth every exciting minute!! Creating something truly original
all by myself while sitting at home. And for me, a non stop learning curve
with every picture and description that I received...

I think that this book, "The Art of Modern Custom Knifemaking", is a MUST
for every knifemaker as well as every collector.
It gives a well documented insight into most aspects of this art with about
1600 original WIP photographs and their detailed descriptions.

I hope that I still have some of the original "Before" pictures that I can share
here with their "After", final result, that was used in book.

All the best,
David

 

[ddd]

Here, Peter, is one more dramatic example. It is one of quite a few
pictures from Tom Ferry's 4 page section where he is displaying
the making of a Complex Damascus Blade.
if you look again at this section you will now see how many exciting
hours I put into setting it up....

In this case, it is both color correcting as well as
a complete image reconstruction....

Here are Tom Ferry's 4 pages from the book.

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)