Add a Comment

Comment by Rusty R Halsey on January 8, 2012 at 19:27

Boredom led to more experimenting today.  I hid a led flashlight behind a block off to the side in my light box and shone it on objects behind the knife.  I think this could produce some exciting effects if a person took the time to play with it.

Comment by Rusty R Halsey on October 1, 2011 at 18:50

An Experiment:  I picked up a "new" old knife today and wanted a photo that showed off the blade etch, the tang stamp and the jigging in the dark bone handle.  I used the same setup and method throughout, changing only the background.  I use a light tent (made from a shower curtain) with overhead fluorescent lights, a Canon A1200 Power Shot ($108 point & shoot) on a tripod.  I have 3 choices of exposure method - over all scene, center of scene and what is in the little box.  I chose to use what the box was on.  I took 3 or 4 shots with each background moving the box around a little and kept the best picture for each backgroung.  The box usually had about 1/3 full of dark handle, a little of the shiny bolster and the rest was the blade tang.  My first attempt with the white background was disappointing, so I threw some black lace over the white felt and used a large dark marble for a prop.  These turned out better.  Then I tried a smaller clear marble for a prop, with just a little difference in the pics.  The lace pictures gave the better exposure for both blade etch and handle jigging, but the lace itself is a little distracting.  Maybe some grey felt would work as well?

Comment by Gus Marsh on September 1, 2011 at 10:09

I loaned out my Nikon Cool Pix S610 to my foreign exchange students from China. They used it for about 2 weeks and now it will not focus when I press the start up button. Does anyone know a reliable camera store in Southern California that can fix this camera.

Comment by Gus Marsh on August 12, 2011 at 0:30

I use a Nikon Cool Pix S610 as a carry along camera. For serious work I use a  Nikon D-90. Both cameras have positive and negative aspects.

Comment by Terry Waldele on May 18, 2010 at 0:23

Dale S.,
Sounds like that would be within my budget. I'll give it a try. THANKS!

Comment by Terry Waldele on May 17, 2010 at 22:19

Mick, all I have to work with is a point-and-shoot digital camera with built in-flash, so I have no way of using a remote strobe light. That being the case, is there a way I can simulate strobe lighting with two or three 200-watt incandescent light bulbs?

Comment by michael cassani on May 17, 2010 at 20:54

Don't use direct light with a flash, it's too harsh, as you have found out. You have to "diffuse" the light coming from a strobe by modifying it in a number of ways. Professional light boxes are one way and the most expensive however, there are a number of other methods that can be used such as: plain old paper towels, tracing paper, translucent mylar, etc. etc. If you have access to a product known as "foamcore" , that works quite well too. Use only direct strobe light as an accent light to bring out some detail as needed. Hope some of this makes sense. ---mick--->

Comment by Terry Waldele on May 17, 2010 at 19:38

Hi Bob,
I cnn relate to your comment about lighting your photograph sobjects, I have noticed other comments on this subject in this Group, and several advocate using your flash or setting up strobe lights. I've tried using my flash, and the glare from highly polished metal surfaces is just TOO MUCH! I have had much more success with two 100-watt spotlights set at varying angles and distances from the subject (about 4 feet away and at 30 to 45 degrees from the vertical. I'm a novice myself, so I would really like to know how experienced photographers eliminate reflected glare when they use their flash or strobe lights.

Comment by Bob Andrews on May 17, 2010 at 16:49

I'm new here iKC and I'm glad I found it! One thing I really need to do is learn how to get good photographs of my knives. I have a website for selling knives and stores on a couple other sites. I bought a big expensive camera and know JACK about how to use it! My main problem is lighting. So in the coming days and weeks I'll be reading through everything on this group page trying learn what I need to. Keep Posting!

Comment by Trent Rock on March 2, 2010 at 0:52

How's everything going in here?
Any suggestions as to how to make the group better?
Seems to be going good?

We got 37 members!! w00t!!!

Keep up the good work, pics, tips!!!!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• Next ›
• Page