The “how to make reasonable CRK pictures” thread – please post questions & experience

[416isToronto]

For posting to instagram & forums, i have had decent results with a cell phone...
The LG G4 allows for manual settings, giving you some flexibility with ISO & shutter speed...
The most important thing is the light..i prefer a west facing window late in the day...
Although i do have a couple of decent cameras, it is just quick & easy with the phone..

Some samples from a LG G4:

 

[James Longstreet]

The 2nd picture is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing. How do you maintain to keep the LG4 away from shaking? Just by placing your elbows somewhere to rest, while taking the picture?

 

[416isToronto]

The 2nd picture is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing. How do you maintain to keep the LG4 away from shaking? Just by placing your elbows somewhere to rest, while taking the picture?

Have not had much issues with shake on it, seems to have good stabilization...if necessary, one can just increase the iso & decrease shutter speed right in the standard camera app on it...

Here is a shot i attempted to take with a iPhone 6 vs LG G4, they were taken a few minutes apart, with the standard camera apps (images cropped a little, no other edits):

iPhone 6: standard auto mode

LG G4: Exposure at 1/30 and ISO 100

Later today will post a couple samples. taken with a Canon T5i with a 50mm prime, and a Sony A7ii with kit 28-70mm.
I mostly rely on natural light with those too...however my pics are no where near the quality of yours! 👍

 

[ice_man]

Have not had much issues with shake on it, seems to have good stabilization...if necessary, one can just increase the iso & decrease shutter speed right in the standard camera app on it...

Here is a shot i attempted to take with a iPhone 6 vs LG G4, they were taken a few minutes apart, with the standard camera apps (images cropped a little, no other edits):

iPhone 6: standard auto mode

LG G4: Exposure at 1/30 and ISO 100

Later today will post a couple samples. taken with a Canon T5i with a 50mm prime, and a Sony A7ii with kit 28-70mm.
I mostly rely on natural light with those too...however my pics are no where near the quality of yours! 👍

Thanks for posting this difference between the LG and the iPhone buddy! I too am guilty of using iPhones for most of my gear photos. It's just convenient for me that way. And I post a lot on IG too, so that is probably the number 1 reason why I prefer to use phones.

However, in the near future, I would still probably like to do a set-up for my CRK collection. Although not anytime soon due to crazy work schedules....

 

[kidcongo]

Great thread. Thanks Stefan!

 

[James Longstreet]

Well. For the overview shots of a knife it is maybe not that necessary. For me it is, also for my overview shots as I am using black background foil and there you see all kinds of dust spots flying arround. When it comes to the detailed shots or macro's (even crops) then lots of dust/dirt becomes visible, which we usually do not even notice with our eyes. Of course, before starting to shot pictures I am always cleaning my knives with the famous blue CRK cloth. I love those because they are just perfect for cleaning knives. But nevertheless there will be remaining dust visible at the close up shots.

You may object that 1st it is a knife and not a piece of art and 2nd that some people out there watching those pics at small handheld devices and they won't even notice. Yep. Fine with me. But if you have a certain quality claim against your pictures and you want to enjoy them at large computer screens, you may want to consider cleaning your pictures with photo editing software. I leave that up to you. I am using Photoshop Elements from Adobe, which is kind of a consumer version of the professional Photoshop software. I am shooting my pics in general in RAW format and develop them afterwards on my computer. So cleaning the pics from dust is just one job during the whole developing and finishing process.

This is an example to show the same picture without any cleaning and fully cleaned. Look not only at the dirty section near the blade between the slabs, but also at the surface of the bolster.

Uncleaned


Cleaned