I have been doing a little light blogging for awhile but I find that I am constantly let down by my lack of a decent camera. Ipotato pictures are starting to really irritate me.

Is there anyone in the Reno/sparks area who is set up to do somewhat decent looking firearms pics?

And for those of you who are curious about my work.

http://www.freedomfeens.com/blog/2014/05/15/how-to-build-an-ar-and-enrage-people-part-three-let-the-rage-flow/

With what you will pay someone, your break even point is not far away.

Hmm, good point. Probably well past time I just got a decent camera.

You need a decent camera.
Even then you still have to have skills and photoshop.

I write for RECOIL, Blade, SWAT, Concealed Carry and a few others but my pics will never be up to RECOIL's standards.
I shoot with a NIKON D5100 and that's probably the bare minimum. It works at the Boxing and MMA fights for action shots, which is the bulk of my photo work.

With guns I try to keep it simple




Knives are the most difficult things in the world to shoot properly

My photographer at RECOIL uses a Canon of some sort.

Let me know if I can help you out in any way.

That Smith is gorgeous!

No kidding.

I actually take photographs of guns for a living (when I am not busy slinging Mosin Nagants, or buying guns).

My setup at work is an actual photbooth with an overhead strobe, then a smaller strobe that reflects off a fancy piece of cardboard backed with white poster board up front.

The camera I use is a Nikon D80, and the flash is synced from the camera to the overhead strobes. Lighting is key, as long as you have good lighting, you can take good pictures.

Here is a picture I snagged tonight before I left.



Pretty hokey looking right?

Here is a sample of some of the pictures I have taken (just took them off the website).















Black guns are easy to shoot



Getting a good shot of wood grain take just the right angle.



Engraving can be a bit tricky.













And shiny guns are just plain a bitch.







So you can see what good lighting, and equipment will do. For my blog and website, I use my iPotato (which I just got a 6 and it takes good pictures), or I use my Olympus Stylus Tough set to Macro, and dick with the settings. Soon, I will be getting a good DSLR since I have been spoiled at work.

Some recommendations:

Take a shitload of pictures, under different lighting from different angles. I "Roll" as I take my pictures, so I will start at say, 12 o'clock as far as angles go, and end at about 2:30-3 o'clock. I take about 3 different pictures on a dull gun (like an AR or something with a bland finish), and up to 8 pictures of one particular part of a gun if it is either engraved or I am trying to get good pictures of the markings.

Mess with the settings on your camera. Now, if you are using an iPotato, obviously you are limited. If you have anything that allows you to mess with focus, exposure etc, mess with it. Just with trial and error you will get better.

Lighting lighting lighting. I cannot say enough how much lighting will help. More lighting is always better, you can always adjust the exposure and F stop to compensate.

EZ

I'm a wedding photographer during the summer and I can tell you that having the right gear makes a huge difference.  In my opinion the glass (lens) is much more important than the camera (IE I can make beautiful photos with a cheap entry DSLR and a decent 2.8 lens).  But a top of the line DSLR with cheap glass will give you crappy/fuzzy photos.  If your serious into photography PM or Email me and I'll gladly let you try my gear and show you a trick or 2 about light bouncing, angles,gear, etc.  LOL, I'll even show you how to make decent photos with your Iphone and a reflector.  Like others have stated: take a ton of photos and play around with light angles.