Need help with photgraphing shotgun collection

[Johnny Stout]

Hi all. I've been lurking here for a while and and have learned a lot to improve my skills. I'm not a professional photographer, only shoot pictures of my own work, but have been commissioned to photograph a collection of custom shotguns, so I'm asking for some help.

These guns will have lots of engraving with gold inlay, and I'll be taking a full image shot of each side, plus close-ups of each side of the receiver.

I'm wondering what kind of backdrop/background to use? How to hold the guns, either on a stand of some kind, or just lying flat on a plain background? There are about 70 shotguns in the collection, so I expect this to be a pretty labor intensive project.

I have 4 strobes and am shooting with a Canon 30D with a 28-135mm lens. Do I need to consider different lenses?

Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Johnny Stout Handmade Knives
http://www.stoutknives.com
johnny@stoutknives.com
830-606-4067

[adirty1]

A couple large softboxes on black velvet would probably be your best bet. either that or on an old wood surface. If you set this set up right you could shoot everything fast with out changing the lighting for every shot. the key is going to be to get some very defused lighting. to really show the engraving you will want to skim the light across the receiver. You should be good with your lens.

only other thing i can think of is you will need some fill cards both black and white. the black cards used to put a nice black line on gold and silver and white cards to fill in.

One other way you can can do this is to make a large light tent but i think that would be a little to much work. If you need some help let me know.

Obtw you have some mighty fine blades on your site. I would hate to carry something so fine and destroy it. so i guess my old spyderco will have keep working.

[henryp]

Originally Posted by adirty1

One other way you can can do this is to make a large light tent but i think that would be a little to much work. If you need some help let me know.

I've seen this done effectively by building a frame out of 1x2 lumber, draping it with clean WHITE king-size bed sheets and shooting your lights through the sheets.

[robh1920]

Not sure how it would look but a large piece of leather or animal hide might work as a background.

[corazondedios]

a pile of bodies with the proud shotgun owner standing with one foot on top of the closest body, and the rest piled in the background out of focus, with the words: Homeland Security underneath -- that would catch attention.

(one of these days, someone is going to shoot me).

[Johnny Stout]

Thanks guys for all the tips. I expect that I'll be trying and experimenting all of them before the shoot. Having never shot much other than my knives, guns seem to be a much greater challenge, probably because of the size, as well as dealing with the various contours. I'll try to post some pictures if any turn out to be presentable.

Johnny Stout Handmade Knives
http://www.stoutknives.com
johnny@stoutknives.com
830-606-4067

[Dobick]

A black velvet background, and maybe a sand bag underneath to prop them up. Make sure you get far enough away from the actual backdrop to have it lose any detail, as well as drop to pure black if you are looking for that. As for the lighting, a big softbox for the main, and a grid spot from the side to bring out the detail of the engraving. if you get the softbox close enough, you could use a strip of cinefoil to give a black line on the gold, just line up the black line at an appropriate location on the shotgun, so that it looks natural and doesn't draw your attention away from the beauty and craftsmanship of the weapon.

Good luck, sounds like a fun project.

[Roy]

I think you have received some good advice. You should be having some fun with this assignment. I know I would. I tried a few on some of my shotguns but mostly I was doing it for insurance purposes then I started playing around. Here's a couple. If I did it again, I'd go to more trouble and set up a nice background. Beretta asked for permission to use the first one.

[L Stegall]

I'm guessing these are all (or at least mostly) over and unders or side by sides, so you should be able to get some really nice detail on the engraving on the receiver (like example 1 above - nice one, Roy). I like a black background (velvet would be good as it is pretty dark black). Not sure exactly how to light them, other than a soft, diffuse light source (big softbox) but I would think having a good macro lens will give you some really nice images of the engraving (like a 100 mm f/2.8 macro). Sounds like a fun project - I'm a former competitive skeet shooter myself. I just had the utilitarian version of my fancy gun - not the super engraved, gold inlay version.

[boomerd35]

Nice stuff Roy.

One thing I like to try with product shots is to get different angles that you wouldn't normally think of. Move up/down, zoom in/out, and tilt your camera too. You may be pleasantly surprised with the results.

[Johnny Stout]

Originally Posted by Roy

I think you have received some good advice. You should be having some fun with this assignment. I know I would. I tried a few on some of my shotguns but mostly I was doing it for insurance purposes then I started playing around. Here's a couple. If I did it again, I'd go to more trouble and set up a nice background. Beretta asked for permission to use the first one.

Roy, thanks for showing those pictures. They give me some good ideas!! Do you have any suggestions for holding, or positioning, the gun to take a full profile shot? I'm trying to think of a way to hold it so the I won't have to edit out the stand, or holding device, in every picture. Any suggestions for the correct lens for a full profile shot?

Thanks

Johnny Stout Handmade Knives
http://www.stoutknives.com
johnny@stoutknives.com
830-606-4067