Steel's Steel

[Man of Steel]

I'm working on setting up my own little backroom studio for knife photography, and I'm halfway there: I've got the lighting, the table and equipment, but my diffuser has yet to be built. I did, in the meantime, rig up something temporary, that you real photographers will probably laugh your heads off at. But I'll show you that in a minute. First, the lights. I'm using those clamp-on work-lights Wal-Mart sells for less than $10, with GE Daylight 6500K fluorescent bulbs. Three of these make up my lighting. My table is just a plain spare wooden kitchen table. My temporary diffuser consists of a broomstick, three pieces of paracord to suspend it from, and two white kitchen trash bags taped together and to the broom handle. The back of the trash bags are duct taped to the table. Words, however, simply don't do it justice, so... Looks mighty professional, doesn't it? Anyhow, down to the results, which I think turned out pretty well considering that I'm going on about two hours of sleep, and thus my creativity is next to nil. Here's what I managed to get out of it. I'm not terribly satisfied with it, but I think I did pretty well to be running on two hours' sleep for the day. The composition of the collage is lacking, I know, as is how I did the lower right inset, but I threw it together pretty quick in CS3 so I could get it posted. I'm definitely still a learner at Photoshop, and probably will never cease to learn new things in it. Photo collages like this are a bit outside my expertise. The main reason I used this format was so I wouldn't have to upload multiple images on my current dial-up connection. So this will be the place I'll be posting my knife photography, from now on. Expect to see a lot of wicked sharp blades in here in the near future. As always, comments and/or criticism welcome.

[Marvo]

You know, when I saw this thread, I was expecting something else. Anyway, I like those picture. Nice trick with the lighting modifications, it really looks good.

[Goldney]

What may have worked better is if you had a tripod and kept the camera in exactly the same place for each shot, then you could just move the knife around into weird and wacky positions and combine the images easily on photoshop. It would keep the continuity that way. Nice set-up, it looks very good.

[Man of Steel]

You know, when I saw this thread, I was expecting something else. Anyway, I like those picture. Nice trick with the lighting modifications, it really looks good. I don't even want to know what you expected... Thanks, though, I appreciate it. What may have worked better is if you had a tripod and kept the camera in exactly the same place for each shot, then you could just move the knife around into weird and wacky positions and combine the images easily on photoshop. It would keep the continuity that way. Nice set-up, it looks very good. No, I tried shooting with a tripod, I couldn't get the angles I wanted. Besides, in order to maintain the right lighting, I like to place the knife in one position, and turn the camera to get the angled shots. I've got a few more I'll post later, along with my updated setup.

[Abra]

That's some good steel, right there. I demand more pictures. NAO. Blackwood... That's one cool last name.

[Man of Steel]

Thanks! I have a bunch of shots I need to upload, actually, I just keep putting it off. And yeah, it is, isn't it? Scottish names rock.* Makes me want to be a pirate... *Hard. Rock hard.

[onehandclapping]

Very nice, I like the way you rigged things up there, very cool. I look forward to seeing more, Thanks!

[seeker28]

MoS, beautiful job. I think the homemade difuser looks great, lots better than what I was imagining when you described the garbage bags and broom handle. It looks like it works to prevent glare well, too! Love you, man.

[Soldier]

good job, i now know were your sig pic came from.

[Man of Steel]

Very nice, I like the way you rigged things up there, very cool. I look forward to seeing more, Thanks! Thanks! I'm going to upload more real soon, I promise! I hate not being able to use my main computer at home... MoS, beautiful job. I think the homemade difuser looks great, lots better than what I was imagining when you described the garbage bags and broom handle. It looks like it works to prevent glare well, too! Love you, man. Thanks, Seeker! Love you too, of course. My new setup looks a lot better, but I need to redo the diffuser material as it doesn't diffuse quite enough light. I'll get pics of it posted up soon. good job, i now know were your sig pic came from. Actually, I took my sig pic outside on a cloudy day, before I got this set up. same piece of burlap, though.