MEMBER ITEMS FOR SALE
Custom Knives | Other Knives | General Items
-------------------------------------------
New Posts | New PhotosAll Photos



Go Back   The Knife Network Forums : Knife Making Discussions > Community Discussion Boards > Knife Photography Discussion

Knife Photography Discussion Share and improve your techniques on knife photography. Web and print imaging discussions welcome. Come on in ...

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-30-2010, 01:58 PM
Mike Turner's Avatar
Mike Turner Mike Turner is offline
Skilled
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SW Oregon
Posts: 672
Experimental lighting knife photography

Hi all,

Just goofing around here with some lighting. This is a technique a friend of ours uses to do product photography for Harry and David.

We were shooting this with the studio lights and it was all set up anyway so I got to work. You all may know my wife Barbara does all my knife photos but I really wanted to do this one, she did do the post processing for me and it still has some processing to go but I really wanted to get some opinions on this.

So let them rip,




__________________
Mike Turner


www.turnerknives.com
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 11-01-2010, 05:00 PM
Bear_Blade's Avatar
Bear_Blade Bear_Blade is offline
Steel Addict
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Alberta, Canada
Posts: 225
The presentation works for sure, nice arrangment. It almost looks like you are useing two small floods or spotlights. The image is quite clear, and the surface shadow does a good job of accenting detail, but over all I find myself trying to look into the shadow to see what else is there. I like the idea, but find the overall effect to dark, I think a lot of the true color has been lost to "the dark side".

I am not a photographer, and hope my descriptions make sense. I think a little more ambient light would not go astray.


__________________
Please feel free to visit my website
www.rodrigueknives.com
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 11-01-2010, 07:30 PM
Mike Turner's Avatar
Mike Turner Mike Turner is offline
Skilled
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SW Oregon
Posts: 672
Pierre thanks for taking the time to comment.

Let me shine some light on how the picture was taken. This was taken in complete darkness no ambient light at all. This was 8 photos lighted with a flashlight and manually blended to bring out the highlights I wanted to bring out. I had taken about 20 pictures and still have more to add.

Maybe I can get around to it later tonight and post another picture.


__________________
Mike Turner


www.turnerknives.com
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 11-01-2010, 07:52 PM
Bear_Blade's Avatar
Bear_Blade Bear_Blade is offline
Steel Addict
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Alberta, Canada
Posts: 225
Hmmm, thats why the shadow's fooled me! There is a bold, dark shadow on the left side of the sheath, above the blade, but is missing below the blade. That is indeed a different approach, look forward to seeing further pics.

Pierre


__________________
Please feel free to visit my website
www.rodrigueknives.com
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 11-02-2010, 11:56 PM
Buddy Thomason's Avatar
Buddy Thomason Buddy Thomason is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Colorado
Posts: 2,206
Nice!
'Painting with light' is one way people describe this and similar techniques. It's got other advantages - like stacking images taken in low light where digital noise is gonna be a problem, tends to actually reduce the visible noise in the final image. Mainly you have great local lighting control.

As Pierre suggests, the array of highlights and shadows should generally match up (infinite variations possible) or the viewer's brain will be distracted from following the flow of the image. All glitches of that sort tend to reduce the amount of 'face time' with the viewer who, if unable to quickly make sense of the scene, moves on.

It would be nice to set the white balance in your camera to match the flashlight which is very warm - 2800K or less I would imagine. Fiddle with it to reduce some of the excessive yellow cast. That way the various materials appear more natural.

I would reduce somewhat the strong light reflections in the guard area and try to continue that effect along the edge bevel - a cool trick when you can get it to work. Plus linking and blending highlights emphasizes depth and greatly refines a knife image. You might try strategically shining the light through a bit of window screen as a diffuser - a great way to keep highlights under control that Eric Eggly/PointSeven shared with me a while back.

None of this is meant as criticism - just sharing info. I like the 'experimental' effects one can bring to photographing knives, especially as regards creative lighting.


__________________

Avatar ~ custom crank case cover from 1969 Harley shovelhead chopper
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 11-05-2010, 09:39 PM
Mike Turner's Avatar
Mike Turner Mike Turner is offline
Skilled
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SW Oregon
Posts: 672
Pierre,

Yes I missed the shadow and will have it corrected in the final picture as also with a hot spot on the front of the bolster that Buddy pointed out.


Thanks Buddy,

Was hoping you and Coop would show up to the party.

Unfortunately I have not had time to get back to this. I shot somewhere around 25 photos and this was only 8 of them. It was actually a practice shot just to get my feet wet so to speak. I will try and finish this, this weekend.

Noise was not an issue as I used a Canon 5D markII set at ISO 100.

I agree with what you and Pierre saying about the highlights and shadows with the given picture and hope the final picture will correct this.

We usually don't bother with changing the white balance in the camera as we adjust it in post processing. We did mess with it and when we went down around 2800 it was way to blue and the other way it got way to yellow. We ended up in the low 4000 area and the color is fairly close to actual. There is a yellow cast in the stag.

I agree that highlight is a bit much and will make sure it is toned down in the final picture. The emphasis on the depth using the highlights and shadows is what I was really trying to show.

Buddy thanks for the tip on the window screen I will have to give that a shot and don't worry I have broad shoulders and can take criticism well and the sharing info is why I really enjoy reading what you, Coop and others have to share. Makes us all better photographers .

Just for fun here is the pic I did for our local camera club, this was 18 photos manually blended and I placed second with it in our monthly competition.



__________________
Mike Turner


www.turnerknives.com

Last edited by Mike Turner; 11-05-2010 at 09:42 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 11-07-2010, 01:08 AM
Buddy Thomason's Avatar
Buddy Thomason Buddy Thomason is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Colorado
Posts: 2,206
That's cool Mike!


__________________

Avatar ~ custom crank case cover from 1969 Harley shovelhead chopper
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 11-08-2010, 11:42 PM
Mike Turner's Avatar
Mike Turner Mike Turner is offline
Skilled
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SW Oregon
Posts: 672
Thanks Buddy


__________________
Mike Turner


www.turnerknives.com
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 11-11-2010, 08:54 PM
Txcwboy's Avatar
Txcwboy Txcwboy is offline
Master
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Melissa TX
Posts: 796
Send a message via ICQ to Txcwboy
Its kinda a HDR image then. HDR might be fun to try also. I think its a great shot !

Dave
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 11-12-2010, 12:34 AM
Mike Turner's Avatar
Mike Turner Mike Turner is offline
Skilled
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SW Oregon
Posts: 672
Dave
Thanks you for the reply.

This is not a HDR this is a stacked image manually blended and is shot all at the same exposure and setting using a flash light to light the subject. Here are a couple of sample pictures from the anvil shot the knife was photographed the exact same way.






A HDR is comprised of 3 or more photos shot under exposed and over exposed and blended.


__________________
Mike Turner


www.turnerknives.com

Last edited by Mike Turner; 11-12-2010 at 12:51 AM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
2017, blade, damascus, digital, guard, image, knife, knives, lights, photography, post, sheath, technology


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
'Basic Knife Photography' article in Knife World SharpByCoop Knife Photography Discussion 0 12-01-2006 10:50 AM
More knife photography experiments Buddy Thomason Knife Photography Discussion 10 08-09-2005 05:07 PM
Experimental Kitchen knife - need help ... Jason Cutter The Display Case 0 10-04-2003 03:16 PM
Photography at knife shows? Mike Routen Knife Making Discussions 9 04-14-2003 07:25 AM
new knife background and lighting murrphy Knife Photography Discussion 3 11-23-2002 04:54 PM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:16 AM.




KNIFENETWORK.COM
Copyright © 2000
? CKK Industries, Inc. ? All Rights Reserved
Powered by ...

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
The Knife Network : All Rights Reserved