How to make nice pics...

[sturgis]

I've been looking through some of the picture threads recently, and it struck me how some people really take nice pictures.

 

Almost like the ones you see in gunmagazines.

 

So how about making a thread where these photowizards share some of their secrets?

[Shao14]

0. Have the will to take good photos.

 

1. Get a decent camera (not necessarily a $1000 one, but at least one with good lens and some manual control settings)

 

2. Light is the key. Try to have as much light source as possible. Sun light usually works well with most auto settings on most cameras. When use flourescent lights, try to set your camera's setting accordingly.

 

3. If you must take photos under insufficient light (and that doesn't even mean darkness, a lot of what you may consider "well-lit" rooms are not really good enough for cameras.) Use a tripod or some stationary supporting thing. Adjust your shutter speed and aperture accordingly and use the timer or a remote on the camera to trigger the shutter.

 

4. Choose your angles. Just look at what others have done, and pay attention to what you like and not.

 

5. Always take multiples of the same scene if you are using digital camera, and pick the best (or apply more sophisticated image processing techniques).

[staticzero]

I'll quote myself from another thread a while back to start with:

 

For a camera, I usually use my Nikon CoolPix 5700, which is 5MP. Sometimes I use a Nikon D70 (6.1MP) or a Canon Digital Rebel XT (8MP), both digital SLRs (and both borrowed from work). I really like the Canon, it seems to just effortlessly take awesome pictures. I'm considering selling my Nikon and buying one.

 

For lighting, right now I use a couple of clamp lamps I picked up at the hardware store. They're pretty cheap and very handy to have around in gernal. I use GE Reveal 100w bulbs in them. You could use higher or lower wattage as needed. I like the reveal bulbs, their quality of light is really great for a regular light bulb.

 

What I need is a good way to diffuse the light sometimes, to try and eliminate the hot spots you'll get with direct light. I have a few ideas for this, but I haven't tried them yet.

 

One thing you can do to get more indirect light is to bounce it off a sheet of foam core, which you can buy at any craft shop or office supply store. It's cheap and you can cut it down to any size you need. It's also great for taking pictures on, if you just need a simple white background. You can set two of them up, one as the floor and one as the back to give you a pretty seamless white space.

 

I avoid using a flash whenever possible, it tends to adversely affect the color, and rarely gets the look I want. I prefer to use a tripod and a longer exposure with fixed lighting.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I'll add:

 

1. Yay, Photoshop.

2. For dramatic pics, contrast contrast contrast. Hard lighting with deep shadow and a tripod are your friend. Hotspots can even enhance the image if placed wisely.

3. Bracket like crazy (take lots of pics of the same thing and pick the best ones).

4. Take high res pics so you can crop as needed later. Even if you don't crop them or alter them at all, hihg res pics that are reduced to a smaller size end up looking sharper and cleaner. Also any sloppy edits you make may look better or more natural after the image is srunk.

5. Spend time on your set. Pay attention to background elements. Look out for unintentional hot spots and diffuses your lighting as needed.

6. Play with focus. With a lot of modern automatic cameras and most if not all digital ones you can hold down the shutter button part way to lock focus. You can then move your point of aim to a different spot. This is helpful if you want something further away to be in focus while something close is blurred.

7. Learn to use your macro setting for really close work.

8. If the shot you're taking is too dark to focus on, turn on another light, lock focus, and then turn the light off again.

9. If you want a clear shot of something, use a simple backdrop that's a contrasting color. Similarly, if you want to be able to cut out the subject for use in some other image (like when making a userbar or banner for example) take the shot on a consistent contrasting background, like a white sheet or paper. It will be much easier to 'magic wand' the object in PS later (instead of having to 'lasso' it).

10. Experiment!

Edited April 8, 2006 by staticzero

[Catman]

Staticzero does some great pics I was just looking at a thread with some of your pics in, thinking "wish my pictures looked that good...I'll PM him and ask him what camera he uses"

 

Anyway...

 

My camera is naff...I hate it and I hate the rubbish pictures it does (alas all my money seems to get spent on something that shoots plastic ball bearings).

 

However as naff as my pictures come out, photoshop is great for editing them - usually making them lighter so you can actually see what the photo is of

 

Photoshop appears quite complex and I suppose the learning curve for the basics is a little steep - but the time spent on it really pays off and once you've gotten used to it you'll wonder how you lived without it. Of course I won't mention how much it costs....

Edited April 8, 2006 by Catman

[Shao14]

I don't believe in photoshop, and I don't do anything besides resize my photos when they are too big for posting online and cut out extra parts when necessary.

 

But yea, I forgot to emphasize: NO FLASH.

[Trigger Happy10]

Yeah I would like to second everything Shao and Staticzero said. I have a 2mp camera (cant be bothered to borrow a nice one from work) and I can take decent pictures. Here is one that I did, just goes to show you what you can do with an obslete camera.

[Titleist]

I can't agree more with what Static said, the one thing I'd add is DEPTH OF FIELD, looking straight down on your guns is one of the most boring shots you can do. Do angles, do focus on certain parts of the gun and let others fall off focus, as Static said.

 

I've been guilty of a few straight down photos, and I can admit they are boring, but kids, do as I say, not as I do.

 

However, I disagree with Shao on a few things, in a friendly manner. Please use flashes, but don't use onboard camera flashes, if your camera supports a hot shoe flash then get a bounce flash, you can use it to fill in a lot of areas in your exposure. But built in flashhes are direct white light, this leads to nothing good. lol, jesus died for your exposures, errr...sins... Don't do it!

 

If you use a flash, use a difuser, or even a piece of white paper over the flash will help soften the lighting. As was stated TRIPOD! If you don't own one, then what are you thinking?!! I use a Bogen / Manfroto 3021 tripod, that feels like it can hold up a house. Honest to god, well not really, but I had a 200lb film camera on it a month ago, however a stable tripod can let you lean your camera over your subject, do lots of long exposures, and generally it's a good thing to have, do you need a 100 dollar tripod? no not really, but any tripod will dramatically help. One last thing, I tend to shoot my photos on overcast days, which naturally diffuses the light from the sun, harsh shadows blow.

 

Now as for Photoshop, sorry I disagree, kids. Learn it, I'm an interactive designer, so I use a wide variety of applications, you name it I use 'em, and Photoshop touches every single one of my projects. Here's the deal, unless you sit there with fill cards, diffusers, and all sorts of optical trickery, you will NEVER get a great photo right off the bat. Photoshop won't take a okay photo and make it better, however it will take a good photo and allow you to do things you couldn't normally do. i.e take a mid-tone exposure, apply an adjustment layer and paint in highlights or lift areas of detail. Can you do this without Photoshop? Sure, it's called burning and dodging, and it's a PAIN IN THE *albatross* in a developing studio, it's not fun, I used to have to do it a lot when I shot 35mm and medium format in college. ugh. My opinion is photoshop is easy to start learning, impossible to master. I've built comps in photoshop that have are a couple of hundred layers deep, yet I still know people who can do great photoshop work in such a way you'd never know it was even photoshoped. Frankly bad photoshop is images you know have been obviously jacked with.

 

Anyways, just my feelings and suggestions. My top suggestions; pick good angles, find good lighting, diffuse your flash or bounce it, get a friggin tripod.

[Xaccers]

If your camera can do it, shoot in RAW

Gives you a lot more to work with when adjusting levels etc

Photoshop is your friend. It's a clunky friend, but very powerful!

Get a subscription to a good digital photography magazine, such as http://www.photographymags.co.uk/

They give plenty of tutorials on how to take great photos.

Use as low an ISO as you can get away with.

Try not to centralise your subject, move it off to the left or right.

Use the rule of thirds, imagine a 3 by 3 grid through the viewfinder, and line up natural changes in the subject with the imaginary grid lines.

Cardboard covered in tin foil makes a cheap but practical reflector.

Jessops do flashes for under £20, go get one.

Edited April 8, 2006 by Xaccers

[Shao14]

Heh, seems there's always exceptions. And yes, if you can get hold of a fancy flash, be my guest. I was referring to the built-in flash on regular consumer-level cameras, which was also what Static meant in his post, I believe.

 

As for photoshops, it can certainly enhance a good picture, but it can't save a bad one. If one thinks that he'd always be able to photoshop whatever photos he takes, and becomes careless with the basic settings of light and focus and so on when taking the photos, he's not going to achieve greatness. (If one's really good, he can even generate a picture in computer without using cameras, but that's a different kind of skill and art.) The priority should be first photo taking skills, then photoshop skills. Start using photoshop only after you have mastered photo taking skills.

[Xaccers]

Photoshop gives you the ability to control contrast far greater than with lighting alone.

Try dodging or burning a specific area of your subject with lighting alone.

It's fantastic at converting to monochrome, giving you the ability to not just de-saturate but control exactly how you want the colour removed.

Correcting under or over exposed photos is a doddle too.

 

And of course you can use some CS2 magic and produce things like this:

 

 

and

 

[Guest]

I'll be like static and post what I posted a few days ago in another thread:

 

 

I assume that you're talking about Beauty shots right?  Because there's plenty of just utilitarian shots that just show the gun, or the new piece or whatever, but the photos themselves are not very interesting.

 

I'll just post some of ths shots that have inspired me, and hope the owners don't mind (Free Advertising man!)

 

Brutikus over at ASP:

 

Titleist:

http://www.lawndartdesign.com/guns/

 

StaticZero has some nice beauty shots, as well as great shots illustrating all of his reviews/upgrades:

http://photos.returners.org/gallery/ReturnersAirsoft

 

The man above me:

http://www.justpistols.co.uk

 

I know I'm missing a few others that I know take some awesome shots, but oh well, sorry guys.

 

I think it comes down to a few things:

 

1) FOCUS! For christ's sake people, if you're going to take a picture of your gun, at least get it in focus!  I don't care if you're using a cameraphone, you should be able to get a half decent shot of your gun.

2) Light.  This is a big part of #1.  Make sure you've got enough light to get it in focus, and interesting enough light to keep it from being boring.

3) Context.  If you're going to take a beauty shot, give the gun some context.  Put something interesting in the background, gear/mags/diamond plate, something to give some visual interest.  The only exception to this seems to be if you completely remove everything else from the scene and focus ONLY on the gun like many do with white backdrops, or on occasion wood floors.  That does not mean carpet, your bed, or something like that.  Those end up making your shot look cheesy.  Carpet, or a bedspread is just enough background to destract your eye from the gun, but not enough to keep it interesting.

4) Camera Angle.  If you want an interesting photo, don't put your gun on the ground and take a shot standing right above it.  Angle your camera down to look down the gun somewhat, it will vastly improve any shot you would take normally.

 

Yes, I know some of the above shots defied my guidelines, but usually it's because they've more than made up for it in the other areas.  For instance, Snowman usually takes shots straight on, on his carpet (admittedly this is mostly becasue he's running a review site and needs utilitarian pictures) but his lighting and focus are so sharp that the shots are still beautiful

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

As a followup, I agree Photoshop can be useful for touch ups, but you shouldn't rely on it to save your photography. You should be able to get a good shot straight out of your camera. Think of photoshop as frosting. Frosting on a good cake can make it better, but frosting on a crappy cake. . . and it's still a crappy cake.

[Scyxor]

I have the Cannon Digital Rebel SLR, and I'm trying to take good pictures. What setting should I use? the flower or tv? If I use tv, should I make it so the picture takes like 30 seconds to take? Or what should I do and use specifically for this camera?

 

I think this is my nicest so far....

 

big one

 

www.reviewairsoft.com/IMG_0624.jpg

 

 

small one

 

www.reviewairsoft.com/IMG_06242.jpg

 

it says "dynamic pages in the tags are not allowed" so I cant display them as a picture. What's wrong?

Edited June 15, 2006 by Scyxor

[clmwrx]

What is nice about that picture?

 

It is boring. Pictures of the other side might be better. Or is it I just like ejector ports?

[snowman]

Your light balance is off in that shot, which is why everything looks orange (Assuming you didn't aim for that look).

 

The link Tumerboy mentioned covered all this pretty well, but you either need loads of light or a tripod and a self timer or cable to release, to ensure you don't get camera shake.

 

I'd go for the flower (which is probably Macro setting), but get to know your camera, you should have dozens of useful options on a digital SLR.

 

Cheers.

[Scyxor]

What is nice about that picture?

 

It is boring. Pictures of the other side might be better. Or is it I just like ejector ports?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I said nicest, and you dont have to be an *albatross* about it. I

don't have all that light stuff, but are there any setting reccomendations what I should do other than macro?

Edited June 15, 2006 by Scyxor

[snowman]

It's the light balance you want to adjust - According to Canon's website it's adjustable on the Rebel.

 

Cheers.

[Scyxor]

could u give me the link to the site please?

 

 

 

is this better, I touched it up in photoshop.

Edited June 15, 2006 by Scyxor

[lightprocess]

This guy, by far, takes the most beautiful pictures of pistols I've ever seen: Ken Lunde's Pistol Wallpaper Pages

 

Also at the bottom are excellent tips for taking photos.

 

<3

[n00b3r]

Oh man, I love that guy's site, too bad he refuses to take pictures of 2011's (to quote "...because I only take pictures of the guns I own and I don't plan on getting a 2011's style pistol...")

Edited June 15, 2006 by n00b3r

[clmwrx]

I said nicest, and you dont have to be an *albatross* about it. I

don't have all that light stuff, but are there any setting reccomendations what I should do other than macro?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I am not being an *albatross* about it. I am giving you constructive criticism. Which in turn means work harder at it.

 

 

 

Also I have never been a fan of guns with no true background. This is all based on opinions anyways.

 

I have always thought to myself that the background is what makes the picture. Here are some examples of what I mean. Also none of my photos are edited in anyway except for size.

 

 

 

 

This has to be one of my greatest-

 

 

 

 

 

and my favorite of all of mine

 

 

Another example of background usage Or do I take pride in this picture because I have to climb off a small cliff to get to it

 

Edited June 15, 2006 by clmwrx

[SilentScope]

Not much more I can cover that Titleist et al already brought up. Except angle your gun so that the lighting bounces off it and highlights it. Very trendy effect that every gun photographer worth his weight should know. An example of mine:

 

 

Also composition is important. Consider the law of thirds, the golden ratio, logarithmic curves, etc. Above all, technical knowledge aint *beep* if your pictures dont have some sort of artistic merit.

[lightprocess]

Oh man, I love that guy's site, too bad he refuses to take pictures of 2011's (to quote "...because I only take pictures of the guns I own and I don't plan on getting a 2011's style pistol...")

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I just wish he would branch out a little more with his 1911's. I would kill for a few pictures of Kimbers, Springfields or *sob* GSRs.

[Scyxor]

I am not being an *albatross* about it. I am giving you constructive criticism. Which in turn means work harder at it.

Also I have never been a fan of guns with no true background. This is all based on opinions anyways.

 

I have always thought to myself that the background is what makes the picture. Here are some examples of what I mean. Also none of my photos are edited in anyway except for size.

 

 

 

 

This has to be one of my greatest-

 

 

 

 

 

and my favorite of all of mine

 

 

Another example of background usage Or do I take pride in this picture because I have to climb off a small cliff to get to it

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

youre pics arent that great, some are very blurry.

 

 

 

latest attempt with background.

Edited June 16, 2006 by Scyxor

[Titleist]

youre pics arent that great, some are very blurry.

latest attempt with background.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi Pot, kettle called, he said you were black. *Cough*

 

I don't know, the pics are alright.

[catfishsalesco]

When you want to make your photos "black and white" dont just use the Image-convert to grayscale option in photoshop, because it becomes realy obvious that you have just done that, mainly due to it looking fairly flat, muddy and lacking in tones.

Instead, if you have the full version of photoshop, try doing this instead.

http://www.designbyfire.com/000100.html

This method requires the full version, i.e. not elements ect, as you need to use the LAB colour channel.

If you have elements, you can try this method

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/b...-photoshop.html

which doesnt require the use of LAB colour.

 

It should be noted that neither of these methods are simply point and click ways to get contrasty, biting images, as you will have to work with the image to see what works. How the image is expose intially will also have an affect on the contrast, ect of the secne.