What is the best way to take pictures of you daggers and swords?

[SwordFish]

The best way to take pictures of you swords/daggers?? With a camera
On a serious not, Rob you have an excellent collection of some very rare and wonderful pieces. My point, it that you could really take some nice ones to showcase your stuff. Contact JR- he seems to be one of the best at dagger photography. Also, some of our friends at GD are quite good as well.

I've seen alot of your stuff and you do a good job as it is with photos. Sure, there are tricks to photograpy, 1 being the light box. I've found what works best for me. Since my house only uses energy efficient bulbs, taking photos inside at night is very challenging. I typically use either a white or black background. I'll open a bling, set up my blade near the sunlight, but not directly in it. The ambient light from the sun will work very well to contrast the object with the background. Macro functions add a degree of difficulty to the photography. Be sure to buy 2 tripods. ONe that is only a few inches tall for photing maker marks, and other fine detail. Then also buy a bigger tripod for photoing bigger objects.

I've attached a photo of a MM on an imperial EK2. This was very difficult to campture as my camera is fair at best. I used a white piece of paper as the background, used the macro function on the camera, and the very short tripod, near a window not directly in the sunlight. I used the ambient light. It takes quite awhile to find what best works for you. Trial and error. Once you find out what works best, then you'll be golden.

[SwordFish]

A hsf using a black background. Taking advantage of partial shadows can help as well, like illustrated by this HSF. I use a very mediocre camera from about 5 years ago. It's not the best, but I played with it for many years finding what seems to work best. The tripod and the timer function are hugely helpful.

[SwordFish]

Sword, black background for contrast. The object itself determines how and what type of light and background you should use. Color of object effects the photo. Really, trial and error is the best.

Good luck and just play with the camera until you find what works. Some of us are better than others at photography. A good camera and the fancy lights will certainly help, but still a degree of natural talent really helps.

Tom

[Anthony N]

Thanks Sam & Tom
I have a light tent & Natural Light bulbs in my 2 lights. I will try the same picture using different light settings on the camera & see how it compares to the outside shots.
Ant.

[jancz3rt]

Heh

Very good tips guys. Me and my dad played around with some settings (white balance, exposure time etc.) and got this:



We used a tripod to take the shot and the exposure time was 15 seconds with a professional Nikon camera. The light was provided by a standard tube light.

JAN

[Nakida]

Excellent Jan, very nice indeed!

Sam,

[Anthony N]

Great result Jan
I like the exposure time trick & I have a very small tripod to use.
Will see what i can do next week.
Ant.

[rob NL]

Thanks Tom ,
and I also agree that the pics posted by JR are allways super.
Pat's also .
Rob.

[patrice]

Thank you Sam for the nice compliment and kind words, but I must admit that your pictures are just as nice, if not nicer than mine.
Sam is right when he is saying that even if you have the best possible lighting system, you also need a good camera and lens.
I'm also using a Nikon D40, just like Sam, and I'm also very satisfied with it.