I need some help on taking pictures of a mirror finish blade

Nathan House

Nathan House

Joined
Feb 14, 2000
Messages
1,204
Hi
I have finished my first knife and I am haveing a hard time getting some good pictures of it.I put a mirror finsh on it and I am useing a 35 mm and I am getting a bunch of glare on it,kinda makes the blade
look black is there any tricks or tips how a first timer can get some
good pix
Thanks
 
Might want to ask this over at KF or CKD in the Terril Hoffman areas. But I will give it a shot.

I use a light tent. It is basically nothing more than an old white sheet stretched over a couple chairs. You need it to drape all around the subject. The sheet acts as a light filter so you do not what any openings other than a small slit for your lense. Shine your lights or flash so that they hit the outside of the sheet. The sheet will defuse all the light so that you will not get hot spots. It also provides a nice even color for your blade to reflect.
 
Nathan,

I don't know if this is what your wanting, but I do nothing but mirror finished blades and I know my pictures aren't the best but this is all I do. you can look at the 2 posted under "fighters companion" here in shop talk and see how mine come out, another thing these were taken with a digital camera, and my 35 MM takes a lot nicer pics. but than I have to get the film developed. Anyway I just go outside on a cloudy day or in the shade on a bright sunny day and adjust your knives to where there is nothing over them to pick up reflection, like tree limbs,clouds or the camera. then set the camera on a tripod up over the top but like I said be sure you don't see your reflection in the blade through the view finder, just remember what you see in the blade through the veiw finder is what you'll get in your pic. You can change the angles of the blade for different light reflections and images. Another thing if your getting a bright refection from a light source it will make you blades show a glare or white, so just adjust the angle to eliminate the glare.

Hope this helps, I've tried light boxes and a couple other techniques
but just shooting like I said above seems to come out the best for me.
Mirror finishes are just hard to photograph.

Good luck
Bill
 
You need a tent. Mine is just clean white T-shirt streched over some frames made out of brazing rod. Make sure you get all the wrinkles out or they will show up as waves on your blade. I also use a polarized filter on my camera. Place your tent in bright sunlight and place your blade at a slight angle. I'm still learning. just like my knives, each picture comes out a little better than the last. You can see on my website how they have progressed from scans to what I am doing now. Still nowhere near professional but getting better.
 
Nathan,

Try a few shots where you purposefully have a reflection of something that's also in the picture. This will really show off the mirror finish.

Bob
TV Photographer .... I pretend to be a photographer, they pretend to pay me :D
 
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