Hi Jon,
Thanks for noting this. The hardest photos are usually the ones in which the client wants to help...
They are also the ones that are the most gratifying when they succeed. :thumbup:
It's
ALWAYS about the lighting. Camera quality plays a far distant role. That said, I use (2) lights and an array of bouncing mirrors for 90% of my shots (I have a frontal softbox I will use when the mirrors aren't up to the job.)
A great knife photograph shows the blade AND the handle in good lighting. The positioning of my lights is
always different for both of these areas.
At this point, I understand the geometry of bounced lighting, and I make small corrections to the lights or the positioning of the knives until I have achieved the 'look' I want. That look
appears easy and natural, but as you alluded to, I may have thrown out 20 shots of the same exact pose until I finally got it correct. The bad ones are all on the
editing room floor, so to speak.
Let's look at some examples:
I showed these next two shots to
Dr. Fred Carter (An expert photographer in his own right) and he immediately understood how complex and worthwhile it was to show blued handles well. Not easy.
Showing the clouds and highlights in pearl? A photographer's challenge at all times:
(These get a dose of help in Photoshop to replicate the way the human eye will view them. I have to darken the pearl in relation to the rest of the photo. The camera's processor is not 1/1000 as good as the human eye.)
You want to show
good grinds well? An inch or two either way with the lights makes all the difference.
Lastly, when I am doing
website dealer work, and need to show the vital aspects all in
one plausible rectangle, I work hard at visualizing a format that allows all the components to reside comfortably.
(In this case, open, closed, LH side, RH side, well fitment, included pouch, a portion of the backspine, and enlarged detail.)
Thanks for asking.
(Most knives in this post courtesy of Walter Hoffman)