photo help, stripped infi inside!

G

ghostguy6

Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
485
I stripped my Game warden but now I cant get any decent pictures of it, its to shiny:eek: Its hand sanded to a 2000 grit mirror finish. Can someone help me with my camera settings? Im using a Canon Powershot SD1000
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I am not familiar with that camera, but try it without the flash, make sure there is plenty of light and set the camera down or on a tripod.
 
Like Randucci said, avoid the flash and set the camera on a tripod. Assuming you wait until you have natural (sun) light position the knife and camera around (in and out of the indirect light) until you see the image you like.

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I've got a PS SD550, same basic camera.

I don't use the flash, if it's not sunny, I got some bell lamps and use indirect lighting (I point the lights around, not at the knife. I also got a shear curtain that I can throw over a frame and shine the lights on to it. I bought an inexpensive tripod to steady the camera.

Then the problem was getting the 'white balance' correct. I'm still a hack but I'm learning.

There are some good links about knife photo's, I don't have them bookmarked, maybe someone else does.


The hardest Busse for me to shoot !

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I'm a camera buff - for the most part your problem was identified by Randucci. The easiest thing to do is put your camera in to spot metering mode (IIRC the SD1000 can do that), meter on the blade, turn the flash off, take the pic. Tripod and timer is the key, some soft natural light or a soft box will help considerably. Also, get closer to the knife. Knife shots look best when the subject matter fills the frame.
 
Thanks for the tips, Ill have to see if i can find something to use as a lighting source. I did have the flash off but I used a flourecent light .
 
ghostguy6 said:
Thanks for the tips, Ill have to see if i can find something to use as a lighting source. I did have the flash off but I used a flourecent light .
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You're going to want diffused light on such a reflective surface. Flourescent is fine but put paper over it. A cheap light box can be made out of a carboard box and printer paper with some halogen lights. Cut out squares on two sides, cover holes with paper, drape paper on the inside, shine halogens through paper sides, take picture. I know that's really simplified but I hope you get the point :D

Outdoor light is good too as long as it's not direct sunlight.
 
And since you're not using the flash, look at your composition (either on your LCD display or through the viewfinder) before you shoot to make sure you're not getting nasty glares in places you don't want it. You may need to move your camera and/or knife around to get an angle where the reflections aren't going to show up.
 
After doing some research, I found that you can't manually focus the SD1000 like you can on other powershot cameras. It does, however, have a focus lock option; it helps in taking pics of tang stamps and other things on a knife that are hard to focus on.
 
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