No Frills Lighting

Thanks Coop. I found it at a art supply store. I went in there looking for large tracing paper to try as a diffuser and the Mylar is what they came up with. It comes in pieces about 2'by 3' for about 4 bucks. I have been looking for something like Mylar for quite a while. I have used large clear plastic containers with a hole or 2 cut in them for diffusers but they tend to leave tints of red or other colors depending on the semi-clear plastic manufacturer. .I don't need to edit much unwanted color out of the image using the Mylar. I am using the clear Phillips Duramax light incandescent light bulbs. They give off a nice clear light. The clamp on shiny metal lamps work best. I still have a ways to go for the better setup tho.
Greg
 
The question was asked by Nitin (Neetones) about composition. These photos are not K.I.S.S. but I wish to clarify my points.

All of our images are in the form of a rectangle. 99% of the time setting the knife on a diagonal within that rectangle will create a line of vision that is complementary and opposing (if there can be such a thing ;)) from the parallel outlines of the square. Also it is the most efficient use of space.

That said, there are four positions an open knife can take to fill in those diagonals. 90% of the time the maker's mark and the 'presentation' side are the LH side of the knife. This is the 'obverse side'. (Which, it should be noted, the term comes from is the principal side of display of a coin or medal, and it also applies to knives.) The obverse side may also be the RH side, such as D'Holder's work and Gaeton Beauchamp among others, but these are exceptions. Here is one:

orig.jpg


There is a tendency, (myself included) to display the knife pointing down from the RH upper corner to the LH corner. Look around and most are done this way. This has a slight tendency to embellish the blade length and shape as it places it in the forefront.

orig.jpg


In the case of an extra long blade, there might be an advantage to directing the blade away from the viewer, as the handle will have been lost proportionately being the farthest away, relatively. Did you follow that? ;) :confused:

orig.jpg


There are no hard rules, and it always impresses me to find an example that doesn't abide, but for K.I.S.S. reasons this can be a basic guide.

Backgrounds: Generally the busier the knife, the simpler the background. You can get away with more texture of patterns as the piece is simpler. Again, a generality. My least favorite cheapo background is a rug. Wood is simple and warm and effective and plentiful. But so is wallpaper or artists paper. I suggest going to the Home Improvement store in your area and lying about your pregnant wife not being able to make a selection of patterns for your wallpapering choice, so if they could be so kind to allow you to cut a few samples to take home to the gentle woman, it would be very upstanding of them. (Believe me, it works like a charm! :D) Muted patterns can't fail.

There is a lot of 'drama' captured in a shot of a knife looking down the blade at a low angle. I love those shots. But for my line of work where I must capture the largest essence of a knife within a single rectangle as a portfolio shot, I usually don't have that liberty. So the long sideview is what you will see from me as a core image. I make sure my insets get into the nitty-gritty anyway. :cool: I am dead certain my images have a ho-hum effect on some because of that, and I accept it. That's what works for me and PAYS for me! :) That said, experiment and see what comes up. I especially liked this shot I took just for the hell of it of a Sal Manaro knife:

orig.jpg


(If you are attempting this type of shot, having a LOT of light and a small f-stop will help give you the depth of field necessary.)

On the subject of props or other items in the photo, ask yourself if it is visually enhancing or simply distracting the eye from the knife, or rather, the main subject. I am as guilty as the next guy of allowing stuff in an image that may have looked better left out. Including my reknowned insets.

Composition is something I wish I knew MUCH more about, but I follow some simple rules and it works most of the time.

Coop
 
Thanks Greg, for your diffuser/mylar answer. That is also what I use, stretched over a PVC frame. This should help many!

Coop
 
Coop, that info helps more than you know. When I find some time, I'll try to put your suggestions into practice and post some more pics.

Nitin
 
mckgreg--only thing I see as a bit of a problem is that you are getting more than one color of light on the image. The two blades are not the same. This could be because of the light source or multiple sources due to other lights on when taking the exposure other than the lights used to make the exposure.

did not notice the thread had advance but the comments are in regard to the 2:25 post of the folder image
 
You're right Murray. With 3 bulbs behind the Mylar and needing as much light as I can get, I still get hotspots that show up. With the lights being adjustable, which are on dimmmer switches also, I can usually set them at different angles to avoid this. I try to shoot from a distance and then crop the image later.
I have been trying to create a larger area to shoot in without taking up too much space. In the smaller light tents the blades would show up as white in color. Or whatever color the inside of the box was. Trial and error.
Greg

Kinda got away from simple setups. ooops
 
let me once again suggest using the Daylight Flourescent 6500 K bulbs. Quantity of light is not always required to be large. I use 4 bulbs for 200 W and this thru the diffusion material yields 100 ISO 1/8 sec @ f 3.5 approximately. sometime 1/4 sec and wider f stop. I'm a real KISS principle guy and this is about as simple as it gets. I set the darn camera on Auto and Macro and selftimer using a tripod and take photos.

standard


is just one of many examples of this technique.
 
SharpByCoop said:
I am as guilty as the next guy of allowing stuff in an image that may have looked better left out. Including my reknowned insets.
Apparently I'm not alone. Right, Murray??! :eek: :D :cool:

;)

Coop
 
Greg,
I'd love to see more pictures of your Fowler knives. (especially the bowie I saw in a picture posted about a year ago.)
Thanks,
David
 
Well, Coop, I'm not so sure. Let us examine the photo in question. First the overall knife shows the item as a whole and actually, the one thing I did neglect was an image with the incredible sheath.

In the upper left circle the knarliness of the burl is shown better as are some of the other subtleties of the construction. The square inset shows more of the same on a flat plane and perhaps could be removed and an image of the sheath be place there.

At the bottom, the larger image shows the shoulders of the false edge as well as the inlaid would of top area of the handle between the mammoth slabs.

The rectangled area of the handle shows the carving of the butt plus more of the carved bevels of the slabs and the bottom wood area of the handle.

The inset with the makers mark also shows the damascus pattern and the plunge line of the blades grind.

All a items that describe the knife fully so that any viewer/purchaser (NFS) would know that the knife image is what the knife actually looks like.

Actually, doing an exhaustive approach like this to the sheath would be required to fully appreciate the workmanship of Roger Bergh when he creates a sheath for one of his creations.

When a piece has only a small story, use only a few images but as the story increases in interest and creativity, expand the canvas and give the viewer all you can so he appreciates the work of art before the camera.
 
Hey Murray,

I think this is arguably the case where two images with two inserts each is better than one image with 5 inserts. The latter does certainly give comprehensive coverage, but unless you absolutle HAD to show all of the worthy details of this knife is one frame, the former would be easier on the eyes.

I've played with that one guys - it's a heck of a blade!

Roger
 
Hey Murray--keep your chin up and chill with a dash of humility. You are one of the very best bringing fine subjects to our attention and helping to teach. I know it, you do it, and many appreciate it. :) That knife has a gazillion fine details. How do we show it all? OK, let's talk about flow...

That said, we are in a thread about Keeping It Super Simple. There is NO ONE that would look at that knife photo and think it was simple in terms of composition. Isn't that what I was chiding myself with in my own post? :( :footinmou :p

Let me say this: There is an art in itself to making an already-good-looking-knife look even better through an image. Artists are aware of 'flow' and the patterns of flow that the eye travels through. There is no reason that we shouldn't learn from this concept and embrace it in our work. Simply tossing in a bunch of details in a haphazard fashion (sorry, but that is what I see ;) ) regardless of the interest in the individual components, does not make for an attractive image and actually does a disservice to the piece. You could do better with less. Remember, I am only talking about composition and flow in the context of an artistic image. If you *must* include all of this to show the details for sale purposes, there is an overall compromise. For viewer purposes, maybe more than one photo, as Roger suggests, may be best.

That said, now I have limited 99% of my montages with only two insets aside from the core image. I ascribe to this principle. It's all about beauty in an image as well as the knife. Like I said, I am learning too, and I try to know when I've gone astray. My customers remind me often. (Can you say re-edit?? :eek: :D :rolleyes: )

Murray, I don't like to be critical, but this is an area that I have interest and knowledge in. I feel I can comment where appropriate. Your post back to McKreg has critiques that are fine tuning his good work. I'm fine tuning yours... :D Keep it up.

Coop
 
One of the major drawbacks to photographing knives is that they 'point' out of the picture. A well designed knife will lead your eye back onto it, making it point less.
Flow is keeping your eye in the image area while your eye roves around.
One thing that is often overlooked is rythm in design.
Your eyes want to flow, but if there is no rythm they just bump around.
A great example of rythm in design is Walter Brends sub-hilt.
Point (tap), long sweeping recurve (pause), guard, index finger cutout, subhilt, handle and start again.
Tap, pause, tap, tap, tap, pause
Tap, pause, tap, tap, tap, pause
Around and around.

One way to create rythm is to follow Roman's Rule (one of my former bosses and IMHO one of the best graphic designers out there)
"Everything has to line up with something else!"

For example and ad with a 2 line headline, body copy and logo.
The body copy would be the width of the shorter headline. The logo and address would be the width of the of the longer headline.
Your eye will work around the page in a pleasing/comfortable manner and therefore spend more time there.
This is one of the reasons that newspapers are printed with the columns justified (left and right aligned). It is much easier to read than if the copy was centered. Or heaven forbid, flush right...the text aligned on the right and the line breaks on the left. The complete opposite of the way we write, which is flush left...just like this post.

Granted this is oversimplified, but keep Roman's Rule in mind...I bet it helps :D

Edited to include:
Murry's 5 inset shot could work better if all of the insets were the same shape and prolly the same size. Maybe all circles, one in each corner and the last one balancing out the blade in the middle of the right side. Or 5 of the same boxes across the bottom of the frame. That would simplify the design, your eye wouldn't work so hard and it'll have......rythm!
I'd also put a rule around the boxes so they'd separate from the background better.
 
Ok guys. I shot this Fowler Bowie in a plastic container with a hole drilled out in it for my camera to look thru. Cast some of the incandescant light from the metal lamps on it and came up with this photo. Camera is a Sony F717 set to auto. I took 4 shots from different angles to come up with this with next to zero editing.
Greg
 
First of all my compliments to Greg on a beautiful photograh of the Ruple...Bravo...simply beautiful. You've captured the essence of that knife with one image.

Murray, I don't know if I could match the quality of your photos with...200watts....Bravo!
My comments on your last posted composition is, I wish you would just photograph the knife with the sheath and loose the inserts. I've read your rationalization for each insert, but it's drawing attention away from the full knife. Which would stand on it's own nicely.

Coop & Wally, thanks for the information on composition. I think I learned something, but I think we each inside of us has a natural sense of balance and composition.

Pick up any three year olds crayon drawing and look how their simple lines and squiggels take up full use of their drawing area. And how the smoke from the house will balance with the tree.It's in us all. We know what looks right and inbalance to us. We know it when we see it, sometimes we don't spend enough time studying our own compositions. Or being too lazy to try different angles or cropping.

My knife compositions are for my own enjoyment. Sharing them are my pleasure. Sharing information is my goal.

I need to see more new folks posting pics.


GREG!!! I just saw your Fowler pic...that is just lucious. :eek:
 
Thanks a heap Phil. I have one last one for you guys. I have been trying to capture the grain structure in this knife since I got it. Tonight, I managed to do it. I just turned the plastic container diffuser on it's side with the open face toward my camera and changed the direction of the light a little and I nailed it. I got goose bumps out of it ! Great thread here fellas.
Greg
 
Greg,

I'm also impressed with the Fowler knife. That last shot is amazing in showing that hard-to-capture detail.

I have found that subtle angle changes in lighting, camera, or subject can really have a pronounced effect on what we wish to highlight. There is a little bit of voodoo in all the science. :) You just discovered that, too!

Coop
 
Beautiful Greg: all I need to know is what is a 'plastic container diffuser? I could count 9 transition zones in your photo, you may need to try photography as a sideline.
 
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