Knife Photography

Which direction do you prefer,?

  • Total voters
    21
... still trying to do the math

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sf fanatic said:
As a Pulitzer Prize winner for photographic art and (retired) staff photographer for National Geographic Magazine you can see that I take great care in posting photos here on the Forum. I pay intense attention to the following: exposure, brilliance, highlights, shadows, contrast, saturation, sharpness and vignettes. Whew, that’s all my iPhone listed! I promise to keep the Porch informed about any upcoming exhibitions at the MOMA. 😜 Oh yeah, I called this one “Knife on a dirty carpet”.
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I tried my very best 🤣 🤣 🤣
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Unless thetes a compass in the pic how on earth would anyone which direction its facing? Also would this be opposite in the Southern hemisphere?
 
meako said:
Unless thetes a compass in the pic how on earth would anyone which direction its facing? Also would this be opposite in the Southern hemisphere?
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Plus, everyone has to figure in declination, which depends on where you live.
 
……ha.! Tbh, had never thought about compass orientation, only ever light orientation.

Most all my photos are taken inside with light coming from a window. The essence for me is turning the knife, or, moving the camera around, simply to achieve the best reflections off the knife to show off its best facets - be they blade and/or handle.

Of late, majority of mine are taken on a table in a bay window - however, now you come to mention it, they’re nearly all with the blade pointing SW - being in UK of course…
 
Chui said:
Most all my photos are taken inside with light coming from a window. The essence for me is turning the knife, or, moving the camera around, simply to achieve the best reflections off the knife to show off its best facets - be they blade and/or handle.
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That's my system also Paul. Maybe I should've used the hands on a clock instead of the compass orientation.
 
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The composition varies.
There are many excellent photographers here.

The most important part of any image is the 8 inches behind the viewfinder, etc.

I do like the tension that diagonals put into an image but don't try to adhere to any rule of thumb, maybe that is why my shots have no pizzaz.
 
I don't take many pictures indoors. Most of my knife pics are taken while on our daily walks. I get my knife out, lay it down on something, get my phone out & try to take a picture before the dog starts jerking on the leash.
 
mqqn said:
The composition varies.
There are many excellent photographers here.

The most important part of any image is the 8 inches behind the viewfinder, etc.

I do like the tension that diagonals put into an image but don't try to adhere to any rule of thumb, maybe that is why my shots have no pizzaz.
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Oh come now...thats not true...anyway perhaps you could do that thing that some women on tinder do to zhuszh their selfies up. ..add on an adorable koala nose or some cutesy wootsy pussy cat ears .....maybe the knife will appear younger and more vibrant....or maybe not🤮😏...
 
My photography sucks. I have a camera stand and 2 LED lights made for photography and a nice Canon camera with a macro lens on it. But I suck at photography and I can never seem to get the lighting right, I think. The blades aren't black, they are shiny! A lot of these photos look like they are taken in natural light which is probably the best. But my "den" is in a relatively dark room in our house. The picture I am including as an example are of red G-10 Case knives and it is my most recent picture of my failure.
 
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Happy Hippo said:
My photography sucks. I have a camera stand and 2 LED lights and a nice Canon camera with a macro lens on it. But I suck at photography and I can never seem to get the lighting right, I think. The blades aren't black, they are shiny! A lot of these photos look like they are taken in natural light which is probably the best. But my "den" is in a relatively dark room in our house. Yes, I know the picture I am including as an example are Case knives but it is my most recent picture of my failure.
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Move your lights around or try using a cheap bounce reflector and move that around to get the lighting you want.

Here is a quick little video showing my knife sitting in my window sill on an overcast day. It was one point of light coming from the window and then I'm just moving my bounce reflector around to illuminate different parts of the knife. This is really helpful for getting the blades to shine or to pump some light into the front shadow area of the knife.

The video starts off and ends with no reflector, that is just how the lighting is by itself. Then I move the reflector to try to get the blade to pop and get a little light on the frond shadow side of the knife. Then I move it around some more to see what other results I may get. If you watch the reflection in the bolster you can see me moving the reflector around.


Hope this helps! Oh, and the good thing is, those bounce reflectors are like $8 or something. You can also just try moving your lights around too but they can sometimes be a bit trickier because they're harsh, direct lighting whereas the reflector scatters the light better for softer lighting.

EDIT: I’d say the best lighting I got was around the 4 second mark. At that point I was holding the reflector almost above and angled down towards the knife so the light on the blade is the reflection of the bright reflector instead of the reflection of the dark ceiling in that room.
 
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