Knife Photography

[tongueriver]

ABS Master Smith John White, deceased, Gentlemens Bowie, Paul Long sheaths

All very nice- the presentation, the knife, the sheaths, the hammer, the ivory

[slimtrap48]

Montanaman, that's an impressive progressive session!

[Ivoryman]

Case 055

[BWT]

Great photo IM, but really like your knife!!!

[jmh58]

Kool pic of one of my favorite patterns the Iman!! Nice indeed!! John

[Rookie]

Wonderful photos!

[woodwalker]

Case 055

Nice 055! One of my favorite patterns as well!! Great condition!

[Ivoryman]

Case 055

Nice 055! One of my favorite patterns as well!! Great condition!

Agreed, great pattern, great size, great era and everything. I love them.

[slimtrap48]

[Tony_Wood]

Great photos fellas.
Here’s a moss covered rock ledge that I found recently that, amazingly, had a knife perched on it.

[jmh58]

KOOL pic there TW!!! YEP!!! John

[Montanaman]

Thanks for kind words, folks, great pics! John was one of the best and is missed by many.

Boker Leo IV - Markus Balbach Leopard damascus, 600 layer 4 steels. Sterling silver guard and pins, corm of rosewood handles, assembled by Patrick Teyke, top shelf German knife maker and friend of Markus Balbach. Pretty rare and well made,

[Sasquach]

That's a beautiful knife Montanaman!

Here are a couple of photos I shot for the cane thread.

[jmh58]

How about some more CASE 055 luv??!! John

[Sasquach]

Great knife and outstanding backdrop! Nice photos John!

[jmh58]

Great knife and outstanding backdrop! Nice photos John!

Thank You Charlie!! And your pics are always real nice too!! John

[doglegg]

Don't know where you are jmh but I wish I was there. Great knife to accompany you.

[jmh58]

Don't know where you are jmh but I wish I was there. Great knife to accompany you.

Floyd.. Those pics were taken at Letchworth SP in New York.. And yes.. That place is GREAT!! And Thank You!! John

[bestgear]

HELP! I have a knife studio setup with a completely white light box cube that is 24" x 24" x 24" and 2 45W 5000K daylight compact fluorescent standard spiral bulbs that bounce off the top of the cube. While I can take a decent photo with little or no glare on a shiny blade, the pictures aren't as bright as I'd like them to be. In some instances I've used Photoscape to enhance the pictures but that's an additional step that I'd like to avoid if at all possible.

The lights are in a top quality 10" aluminum reflector that is capable of holding a bulb up to 65W. My question is,will upgrading from my current 45W CFL to a 65W CFL give me the pictures I'm looking for?

FYI - I use a Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm lens and a UV filter. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

[Montanaman]

Tom, maybe a BR style bulb might work better, like a BR30 or 40, and switch to a LED, CFL's are really outdated. I almost always edit with a simple program, even with a great shot. Hope that helps.

[RalphAlsip]

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Tom, I hope my suggestions equate to assistance .

You will need to be willing to use a tripod and put your camera into Manual mode and fiddle with settings such as ISO, F-Stop, shutter speed in order to get the most from your camera. My camera intimidated me, but once I mustered the determination and made the effort to try some things it turned out that my sense of dread was misplaced.

The link below contains useful information (IMO) about setting up a camera and lighting to showcase "products" like pocket knives. It takes about 15 minutes to read through the information.

https://www.shopify.com/blog/12206313-t ... hotography

The approximately 5 minute video below is pretty basic, but help explain how settings for ISO, Shutter Speed, and F-Stop affect the resulting images produced by a camera.

https://vimeo.com/70501344

[bestgear]

Thanks Jerry - I'll take a peek at your suggestions. Thanks!

[LongBlade]

HELP! I have a knife studio setup with a completely white light box cube that is 24" x 24" x 24" and 2 45W 5000K daylight compact fluorescent standard spiral bulbs that bounce off the top of the cube. While I can take a decent photo with little or no glare on a shiny blade, the pictures aren't as bright as I'd like them to be. In some instances I've used Photoscape to enhance the pictures but that's an additional step that I'd like to avoid if at all possible.

The lights are in a top quality 10" aluminum reflector that is capable of holding a bulb up to 65W. My question is,will upgrading from my current 45W CFL to a 65W CFL give me the pictures I'm looking for?

FYI - I use a Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm lens and a UV filter. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Tom - I use 2 150 watt bulbs in a flood light fixture on either side of the light box and like you bounce the light off the ceiling of the box to obtain dispersed light... Despite what appears to be lots of light using 2 150 watt bulbs I still need to shoot at slow shutter speeds (1/8 or 1/15 sec - sometimes 1/4 sec for tang stamps) and a tripod is an absolute must at those shutter speeds. I also bracket the exposures (+/- 0.3) at least on my camera so every 3 photos have a slightly different exposure. I shoot using a macro setting on my Nikon (and that is why the knife fills the frame in my photos). Your 18-55mm lens is fine but if you decide to go the macro route for your camera you will need to screw on a macro lens (like the UV filter screws on your 18-55mm) or buy a separate macro to switch out with the 18-55mm. Also importantly every camera is somewhat different, especially now in the digital age, so you need to experiment and as I have heard & you probably have as well "know your camera"... I truly am not a professional photographer and not sure how those knife photographers that often have photos in Knife Magazine, for example, do their magic as their work is superb but I do know lighting and the light box is key. Once I used the light box I never went back but still do like indirect later light outside when weather cooperates. Anyway hope this helps abit...

[bestgear]

Thanks Kris and Lee - looks like some experimentation is in order along with some lighting upgrades. I'll report back when I've come up with a better mousetrap.

[QTCut5]

Don't know where you are jmh but I wish I was there. Great knife to accompany you.

Floyd.. Those pics were taken at Letchworth SP in New York.. And yes.. That place is GREAT!! And Thank You!! John

John,
When I lived in Upstate NY (Rochester) many years ago, my friends and I used to go to Letchworth SP all the time, hiking/camping in the summer, cross-country skiing in the winter...beautiful place. Your photos brought back some wonderful memories.

~Q~