Anyone else into firearm photography?

[drstrangelove]

My two favorite shotguns, the Benelli UL and the Browning A5, both 20ga. I do like putting in a background or foreground... dead pheasants work very well.

 

[mkwerx]

Amatuer for sure, but yep!

 

[Joe Link]

Very cool guys, thanks for all the tips. Looking forward to giving this a shot.

 

[edslhead]

When I shot pics of hotwheels i used a white garbage can with the front cut out. I'd place the lighting on top and around the sides. Worked good for indirect lighting. Some times I'd put a large picture of something behind the cars for an interesting background.

Flashlight pic.

 

[WasrNwarpaint]

Nice work! Just found out the girlfriend has a Nikon D40 which she rarely uses. She also has a couple of lenses (this and this) and an external flash. Any tips for those of us with zero experience?

as a professional photographer my advice is lighting, lighting, lighting..........
try not to rely on the flash as your lighting source...look into existing light photography you create the lighting and mood

 

[11Charlie]

Dang it you guys just keep costing me money! Now I want a camera

Amazing pictures guys and some even more amazing fire arms.

 

[etrain16]

Dang it you guys just keep costing me money! Now I want a camera

Amazing pictures guys and some even more amazing fire arms.

Honestly, you don't need an expensive camera. I have a Canon DSLR with various lenses, but often times I use a Canon pocket camera or even my iPhone. Run those through a decent post processing program, mixed with good techniques/composition and lighting, and you can do a lot with just a little bit of camera. That said, the DSLR route does offer more options in lenses and exposure control.

Oh, other bonus of a DSLR is a much larger image sensor, which means better low light performance and more pixels, so higher quality/resolution. And the biggest bonus, if you have the software to work with them, is to work with RAW files. The ability to do lossless/uncompressed edits makes for the highest quality images. For most folks though, working with JPEG's is good enough - honestly it's good enough for most of what I do. If I do portraits, etc., I stick with working with RAW files.

 

[RicInOR]

A lot of the examples in this thread are beauty shots.

What do you do different for the For Sale shots?

 

[etrain16]

A lot of the examples in this thread are beauty shots.

What do you do different for the For Sale shots?

If you look at my shots in Post #12 - only the M1A and the GP100 are beauty shots - the others are sale shots. It all depends on time for me - for a more expensive gun, I'll spend the time to take better shots. Either way, I try to get at least decent, in focus and properly exposed shots for a for sale gun, showing several different angles.

I recently sold a Kel Tek Sub2K - here are some of the 'for sale' shots I did of that one. I spent maybe 5 minutes taking these photos, another 5 minutes in editing software to clean them up. I like folks to get a good look at a gun before we meet.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

A lot of terrific photos and firearms! Great job, folks!

 

[rdb241]

I'm a fan! Been a professional sports photographer for years, been getting in to shooting firearms recently, as my collection has been growing

View attachment 282507_MAX3682 by Max Jacobsen, on Flickr

View attachment 282508_MAX3186 by Max Jacobsen, on Flickr

View attachment 282509_MAX4224 by Max Jacobsen, on Flickr

View attachment 282510MAX_0332 by Max Jacobsen, on Flickr

View attachment 282511_MAX3766 by Max Jacobsen, on Flickr

Don't mean gun porn?

 

[thorborg]

I am no professional but can add one important admonition, Clean. Meticulously clean your gun before taking pictures. Fingerprints aside, every tiny bit of lint will end up looking like yard debris in the finished product.

 

[nammac]

I am no professional but can add one important admonition, Clean. Meticulously clean your gun before taking pictures. Fingerprints aside, every tiny bit of lint will end up looking like yard debris in the finished product.

Compressed air goes a long way in keeping the dust bunnies and other specks at bay...

 

[mjbskwim]

Now you done it.....I think I do more shooting with the camera than actual trigger pullin.
This could go on for days......

View attachment 327154

View attachment 327142

View attachment 327143

View attachment 327144

View attachment 327145

View attachment 327146

View attachment 327162

View attachment 327140

OK everyone interested in firearm photography,
These are the kinds of guns you need for subjects
Much better than them black rifles and clocks...blocks....glocks!

FALs are better than just any black rifle

 

[UserNameInUse]

Honestly, you don't need an expensive camera.

+1

Lighting and reflection control is much more important than an fancy camera.

I'm using two clamp lights like this with compact florescent bulbs from the sides aimed at the ceiling. This helps avoid harsh shadows. The clamp lights should be less than $10 at Home Depot type places.


It is recommended to use CFLs of 5500K color temperature to imitate sunlight. Then you can leave your camera set for daylight color balance.

Once you have everything in place you just move things around, camera, lights, subject, until you like what you see.

 

[edslhead]

Cant beat outside on a nice day

 

[Oryguner]

Cant beat outside on a nice day

I get my best results outside but full sun can be too much of a good thing. Sometimes I'll hang a sheet of translucent plastic so I get "defused" sunlight on my subject matter that cuts the harsh shadows and reduces reflections.

OK everyone interested in firearm photography,
These are the kinds of guns you need for subjects
Much better than them black rifles and clocks...blocks....glocks!

FALs are better than just any black rifle

I have a soft spot for FAL's but M1A's are nice too, and Garands, and lever guns, and non-black...black rifles, and single shot pistols, and shotguns, and.......like I said.....I could go on for days. You can probably tell from these pics that I like to Cerakote stuff.

 

[Otter]

Most important part of the camera equation is the lens...just like a riflescope. It really become obvious when you start to blow things up. Although it is quite impressive what camera phones are doing these days.

Lighting and framing are the keys beyond that. Bright sunlight is not great though in my opinion. Early or late in the day, or a thin cloud cover give the best natural outdoor light.

 

[Max713]

 

[ZigZagZeke]

This guy is, sorta

The Yankee Marshal (@theyankeemarshal) • Instagram photos and videos

@Joe Link
He's also made some videos, including a couple on retouching your gun photos.

example:

He is @PlayboyPenguin here on NWFA. Look up his thread on gun photography.