"Critique my firearm picture" thread

[militarymoron]

I'm having a real issue on how to take pictures of guns with very rich bluing that seems to reflect every color in the room. I was wearing an orange shirt that day I took this one and I can tell as well as you can see reflections of the room in it. I also need to oil the surface and wear cotton gloves when I take pictures of guns with high polish blue. What are your tips when taking pictures of high polish blue guns?

Really nice pics, Mongo. And good comments, Stick. I have a very primitive set up at home (I'm just using two light sources with a tracing paper diffuser I made myself), and sometimes have the same issue with reflections. I take my photos at night (or close the blinds) so the room is dark, and try to wear a black t-shirt if I'm shooting something reflective. Looks like you need a big lightbox, lol. I'm not as picky because I'm taking photos more for illustrative purposes than artistic ones usually.

A good friend just gave me this pistol for my 10-year old son, so I snapped some pics of it because it's so pretty. However, it posed some challenges for me because of the deep black parts and gold plated ones. The challenge was to show the black details without blowing out the gold ones. I took about 10 pics and this is the only one that came out satisfactorily (I'd have liked a bit more light on the back of the wood grip and the bottom of the ejector, and a darker hammer so the all the gold parts are more of the same colour). A light box might have worked better, but I don't have one. Polished bluing or stainless suck to photograph. Tips and critique are welcomed, Stick.

[wingspar]

One last photo. This one I kind of like. Thoughts?

[JC5188]

Model 411

[JC5188]

Bit of a S&W slut myself....

[mkmckinley]

Can anyone suggest a technique or filter I can use to get rid of the "I took a picture of this on the kitchen cutting board" effect.

[TriggerFish]

[Stickman]

Really nice pics, Mongo. And good comments, Stick. I have a very primitive set up at home (I'm just using two light sources with a tracing paper diffuser I made myself), and sometimes have the same issue with reflections. I take my photos at night (or close the blinds) so the room is dark, and try to wear a black t-shirt if I'm shooting something reflective. Looks like you need a big lightbox, lol. I'm not as picky because I'm taking photos more for illustrative purposes than artistic ones usually.

A good friend just gave me this pistol for my 10-year old son, so I snapped some pics of it because it's so pretty. However, it posed some challenges for me because of the deep black parts and gold plated ones. The challenge was to show the black details without blowing out the gold ones. I took about 10 pics and this is the only one that came out satisfactorily (I'd have liked a bit more light on the back of the wood grip and the bottom of the ejector, and a darker hammer so the all the gold parts are more of the same colour). A light box might have worked better, but I don't have one. Polished bluing or stainless suck to photograph. Tips and critique are welcomed, Stick.

The image is quite good, like you said, it isn't an easy item to shoot pics of. Personally, I would have applied a bit more light from the rear of the handle to give it a bit of rim light, but it is still very good.

[Stickman]

One last photo. This one I kind of like. Thoughts?

The image is clean and clear, but for some reason it still falls a bit short of spectacular. I might have gone with a larger crop if it were me.

[Stickman]

Model 411

Maybe with the right white balance, but in general it isn't doing it for me. I think the picture would have been much better had the lighting been behind it, instead of off to the right.

[Stickman]

Bit of a S&W slut myself....

You are a bad man for making my eyes bleed. Throwing a pattern on a bath towel isn't covered by by a crappy filter. Daddy, make the bad man stop....