Photographing weapons - the details

[Rick]

Originally Posted by David

Nice Rick. Do we all have to kiss the ring now?
If i remember Fujis use a very good sensor, and in the world of digital that's really the heart of the matter.

No .... but maybe for you something else ...

Yes, the sensor is a good one .
The shot was hand held .
As for close up detail you can stand back a bit and let the file size do the work as in this case .

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

Nice pictures Miguel

Thanks Jens

Originally Posted by David

Yes Miguel, good pictures for a $100 camera and indeed the macro function seems to work quite well. I don't think it is a problem with your images because the weave of you matt is pretty tight, but it reminded me to suggest that when choosing a background, try to find one that is solid in color with a fairly nuetral texture so that it doesn't distract from the object you are photographing.

Thanks David

And not to be outdone by Rick's fantastic macro shot, my cheap camera photographs a coin at less than 1 inch from the lens (see uncropped shot below).

[BTW Rick, that's truly a great shot. I didn't know that Fuji's digicams are also outstanding in the sensor department. Thanks.]

Yes, come to think of it, that mat does compete with the subject.

On a related matter, if I were to digitally remove later on that solid background via Photoshop or whatever, what solid background color would you think would be preferable to begin with (e.g., black, or white, or blue, or another color)? Or perhaps it won't matter as Photoshop will digitally remove any color for so long as it's a solid color?

Thanks in advance!

[Jens Nordlunde]

David,
Thank you very much for your reply, it sounds like a good idea.
I find the detail pictures shown here are very good. Maybe Miguel's picture of the coin should have been a wee bit lighter, but it is remarkable to see the details.
Here is the silver hilt I was writing about.

[Jens Nordlunde]

One thing which may help is to crap ALU foil and straightend it again. Then put the light on the foil, and it will spread a lot, as all the facets will help spread the light.

[migueldiaz]

We may have seen these before, but just to compile in this thread the other tutorials available --

Photographing swords, a simple tutorial, and

Understanding sword photography (Cejunior).

[Jens Nordlunde]

A way of getting good reflections is, I have been told but never tried it myself, is to take some Alu-foil and crap it, then stretch it a bit, and point the light towards the foil. Due to all the facet’s you now have, the light will spread and not be direct.

[Jens Nordlunde]

A friend just sent me some pictures taken in a museum, and they were rather good. What he did was to place the camera lines on the glass and then focus on the object.