Gun photography

[T-shooter]

I'd be interested in seeing your bare bulb rig. I have plans for a 5 bulb rig I was wanting to build for shooting portraits of large groups, but those images are casting really clean shadows with excellent light quality.

I've been thinking about taking an LED continuous light I have and using a diffusing panel to make a small scale bank for hand guns and detail shots. Fortunately I work in the plastics industry and have lighting white materials with specific various % transmissions available to me, so I can get a really nice clean color temp.

I haven't tried this for any photography but I bought a Worx worklight. It doesn't put out light like you would think. It's a very wide pattern with zero rings or hot spots. Not an extremely bright like some lights. You could use it up close and still read a white piece of paper without being blinded. I need to use a tripod and see what it does up close with no other source of lighting.

 

[T-shooter]

I still have a 40D. Not getting rid of it since it has taken some nice photos over the years. Going mirrorless but waiting for a upgrade to the EOS R. In the meantime I picked up an M5 APSC mirrorless to play with. The 24-105 has been my go to lens for a long time.

I plan to upgrade to Canon 90D. I really don't want to make the jump to mirrorless right now. Canon puts the same sensor in a mirrorless but you have to add a viewfinder and a lens adapter if you use regular EF lenses. I still have an old superzoom Panasonic FZ40 which functions like a mirrorless but the small sensor limits dynamic range and picture quality suffers in anything but perfect lighting. I use it a lot for pictures than don't have to be the best.

 

[DngBat7]

I haven't tried this for any photography but I bought a Worx worklight. It doesn't put out light like you would think. It's a very wide pattern with zero rings or hot spots. Not an extremely bright like some lights. You could use it up close and still read a white piece of paper without being blinded. I need to use a tripod and see what it does up close with no other source of lighting.
View attachment 1153978

This will work, just be aware it may have a funky color temp. They can vary light to light. But they will work. Especially if you like to shoot B&W color temp does not matter. You may want to pick up rosco cinefoil, have used it in the studio a lot. Kind of like tin foil, but black and made for hot lighting. Can be wrapped around the light and bent to create the shape of the light

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/44690-REG/Rosco_RS100113_Matte_Black_Cinefoil.html

You can use it to shape your light without buying expensive modifiers which you cannot for those lights. Between cinefoil and thin white fabric for diffusion, You could create some nice effects.

 

[T-shooter]

This will work, just be aware it may have a funky color temp. They can vary light to light. But they will work. Especially if you like to shoot B&W, color temp does not matter
You may want to pick up rosco cinefoil, have used it in the studio a lot. Kind of like tin foil, but black and made for hot lighting. Can be wrapped around the light and bent to create the shape of the light

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/44690-REG/Rosco_RS100113_Matte_Black_Cinefoil.html

You can use it to shape your light without buying expensive modifiers which you cannot for those lights. Between cinefoil and thin white fabric for diffusion, You could create some nice effects.

I'll try the light in a day or so and post a picture. It may or may not work right.

 

[Fast14riot]

I haven't tried this for any photography but I bought a Worx worklight. It doesn't put out light like you would think. It's a very wide pattern with zero rings or hot spots. Not an extremely bright like some lights. You could use it up close and still read a white piece of paper without being blinded. I need to use a tripod and see what it does up close with no other source of lighting.
View attachment 1153978

I recently saw a video on YouTube of someone making barn doors for work lights using self closing hinges and sheet aluminum painted with BBQ paint.

 

[T-shooter]

I did a quick setup with the Worx work light. It didn't seem to change the color much if any. These are just a couple test shots on a piece of posterboard, not meant to be good photography, but to test the light. I had the work light about 5' to the right and the camera was less that 3' back on a tripod. I also forgot to turn off the work light when I used the flash. I'll have to try this again when I have more time. Anyway ...

With the work light in a fairly dark room with no other light.

And the same using the camera flash which is suppose to meter itself. The shadows are much more harsh.

 

[Fast14riot]

Harsher shadows is due to the flash being much closer than the work light, its known as the inverse square law. 2x the distance = 4x less light. You can also use this to black out a background. My B&W photo the the revolver earlier in the thread was shot this way, I put a really powerful light about 12" from the gun and it was just my dining room behind it, no backdrop or anything. The camera metered for the light on the subject which made the background extremely underexposed, which is black.

Also, if you have white ceilings, try pointing your flash straight up, this will turn your whole ceiling effectively into a light source.

 

[T-shooter]

Harsher shadows is due to the flash being much closer than the work light, its known as the inverse square law. 2x the distance = 4x less light. You can also use this to black out a background. My B&W photo the the revolver earlier in the thread was shot this way, I put a really powerful light about 12" from the gun and it was just my dining room behind it, no backdrop or anything. The camera metered for the light on the subject which made the background extremely underexposed, which is black.

Also, if you have white ceilings, try pointing your flash straight up, this will turn your whole ceiling effectively into a light source.

I was in my tiny 8'x9' reloading room so not much room to set up. And I wanted to see if there was any color change. I'll try this again sometime.

 

[Joseph Batel]

Shot this with my i-Phone

 

[ebb]

Joseph how do you get a scope that shiny?

 

[ronsatspokane]

I plan to upgrade to Canon 90D. I really don't want to make the jump to mirrorless right now. Canon puts the same sensor in a mirrorless but you have to add a viewfinder and a lens adapter if you use regular EF lenses. I still have an old superzoom Panasonic FZ40 which functions like a mirrorless but the small sensor limits dynamic range and picture quality suffers in anything but perfect lighting. I use it a lot for pictures than don't have to be the best.

The M5 mirrorless has the same dual pixel APSC CMOS sensor as the 80D. It also has the viewfinder built in. It's like a mini DLSR. And can be found in the 450 bucks range. A friend who is semi pro turned me on to it as an interum solution. You do need the adapter for the EF lenses.

 

[T-shooter]

I was in my tiny 8'x9' reloading room so not much room to set up. And I wanted to see if there was any color change. I'll try this again sometime.

The light looks like this to me on a flat white surface like the ceiling. Not as bright as an LED flashlight but the light spreads out evenly
View attachment 1154307
Other lights look like this.
View attachment 1154308

The M5 mirrorless has the same dual pixel APSC CMOS sensor as the 80D. It also has the viewfinder built in. It's like a mini DLSR. And can be found in the 450 bucks range. A friend who is semi pro turned me on to it as an interum solution. You do need the adapter for the EF lenses.

Thanks. I was looking at the 90D, 32.5 M/P APS-C sensor. They also make a new mirrorless camera with the same sensor, the Canon EOS M6 Mark II. It doesn't come with a viewfinder but one can be added on the flash plug-in. One feature I like on the 90D that I have now is the tilt/swivel LCD screen. That's nice taking pictures overhead or taking moon or planet photos because sometimes the camera is pointed almost straight up. Something that works well for longer distance outdoor shots is a red-dot scope. Try to find Jupiter with a 600mm lens and you may never to it. With the red-dot, it takes 1-2 seconds to get it framed.

 

[Fast14riot]

The light looks like this to me on a flat white surface like the ceiling. Not as bright as an LED flashlight but the light spreads out evenly
View attachment 1154307
Other lights look like this.
View attachment 1154308

Thanks. I was looking at the 90D, 32.5 M/P APS-C sensor. They also make a new mirrorless camera with the same sensor, the Canon EOS M6 Mark II. It doesn't come with a viewfinder but one can be added on the flash plug-in. One feature I like on the 90D that I have now is the tilt/swivel LCD screen. That's nice taking pictures overhead or taking moon or planet photos because sometimes the camera is pointed almost straight up. Something that works well for longer distance outdoor shots is a red-dot scope. Try to find Jupiter with a 600mm lens and you may never to it. With the red-dot, it takes 1-2 seconds to get it framed.
View attachment 1154353

The first two attachments dont work, so I cant see what you're describing.

 

[Fast14riot]

Shot this with my i-Phone

Excellent lighting, although the crop is way too tight, imo. Lighting is far more important than the camera!

 

[ronsatspokane]

Thanks. I was looking at the 90D, 32.5 M/P APS-C sensor. They also make a new mirrorless camera with the same sensor, the Canon EOS M6 Mark II. It doesn't come with a viewfinder but one can be added on the flash plug-in. One feature I like on the 90D that I have now is the tilt/swivel LCD screen. That's nice taking pictures overhead or taking moon or planet photos because sometimes the camera is pointed almost straight up. Something that works well for longer distance outdoor shots is a red-dot scope. Try to find Jupiter with a 600mm lens and you may never to it. With the red-dot, it takes 1-2 seconds to get it framed.
View attachment 1154353

Love the red dot idea. Wound have never considered that. That would be very good for astro photography. Kind of reminds me of something I had mounted on a DOB scope years ago. I was trying to find Orion at medium power the other night to test this M5 as a semi-astrograph. Took me a while to get it framed. A red dot would have made it much easier. Yeah, the M6 is another option. I passed on that due to the lack of controls and the lack of a view finder. The M5 is a previous version but it is not far behind albeit with the features you'd expect on a DLSR.

 

[T-shooter]

Love the red dot idea. Wound have never considered that. That would be very good for astro photography. Kind of reminds me of something I had mounted on a DOB scope years ago. I was trying to find Orion at medium power the other night to test this M5 as a semi-astrograph. Took me a while to get it framed. A red dot would have made it much easier. Yeah, the M6 is another option. I passed on that due to the lack of controls and the lack of a view finder. The M5 is a previous version but it is not far behind albeit with the features you'd expect on a DLSR.

Here is a link to get one. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JL11474/?tag=accuratescom-20

Get a small 1/1 red dot, set up on a tripod and dial the camera and red-dot in on a distant object. I hold the camera out a foot or so in front of my face, both eyes open, and snap a picture when the dot is over the target, or use it to get your tripod dialed in to something in the sky.

Try this through a viewfinder. I got 10 separate shots of a dragonfly all in the center 1/3 of the frame. This was with an old FZ18 zoom camera with a red dot. The top 2 are full resolution and the bottom is a full frame.

 

[dryhumor]

hey, what's the story? in detail, sir. like 2 full paragraphs. this is history...

Not so much history. It was a true to records recreation of a Vietnam battle held at USMC base Quantico.

Fire positions are arranged to have intersecting lanes of fire; final protective fire if they actually occur, mean you are between a rock and a hard place as you are actually being overrun by the enemy. It was very impressive and didn’t last long at all. Less than 1 minute or so if I recall.

I had no idea what I had until I got the film developed. It was my first time shooting that ISO film, and was kind of worried about F stop and lens selection. If you look closely you can see ghost images of Marines through the tracers. The last two in the series are pretty impressive.

 

[Fast14riot]

Getting my bank light going, turns out I bought the wrong size bulbs, so need to exchange those. Also, for some nostalgia, my better half ordered some SX-70 film for my birthday, will be fun to shoot with a polaroid for a change.

 

[brokeasajoke]

Tried this today. I thought the blued would turn out better than it did. This was just inside a barn with overcast day light just entering in the right. Any thoughts? Maybe some leather or ammo?

 

[Fast14riot]

I would put some sort of white reflector opposite the light source to help brighten it up. Paper, foam, whatever, just white.

Ammo, holsters, etc always make good additions.