playing with my new makro lens ...

[wolfganggo]

for all of you interested in doing this kind of pictures.
i tried two years to picture my parabellum so, that it shows her best side.
sometimes you find good pictures in the net, sometimes there are tips and tricks attached.
using a summary of all these tips leads to my pictures.

first of all i had to learn, best background is white.
i tried velvetfabric, handtowels, wood, cotton fabric, blankets, etc. in different colors. always got poor results, the background looks unnatural and/or makes color reflections at the gun.

second i had to learn, you have to use the best light you can get.
artificial light has to be diffused, more than one light source is necessary to get acceptable results. now i use at least 2 spots with diffusing umbrellas and one spot directed to the room ceiling.
you need this to eliminate shadows and to get enough light to turn the aperture to a minimum to get the most possible depth of sharpness

third i learned use a computer program to control your camera,
a long shutter time shows you without mercy every little vibration. tripod for your camera is mandatory……
set ISO away from auto, to a little amount, lets try maximum ISO 200. the pictures are getting sharper, you will be able to zoom in without pixeling of your picture.

very important
lighten up you picture when shooting, i use about +2 1/3 LW. you will get better results, you will suddenly recognize much more details at you gun.
do an manual whitebalance, without this, you will ever get guns in a false color.

copy the pictures to you pc and finish them.
personally using ACDSee Pro 4 to correct color and exposure value (EV), brighten up dark corners at you gun and set an good looking of color and brightness. do not use it in excess, but use this tool, it’s nice to see suddenly details coming up from brigthend up shady parts of your gun
try to set all pictures of an set to approximately similar looking of the gunblueing – use one specialy good looking picture as master in an second window at your desktop to match following pictures.

last i take the picture and edit it with adobe photoshop.
i cut the gun out of the picture, using the path tool. do not try to cut it with the magic wand, the result will be unsatisfactory.
it takes me many hours to learn the usage of path tool, layers, cutting out and inserting into a new picture … photoshop is a very inscrutable tool for untrained users like me
shortforminstruction … open the picture, using the path tool, cut the gun, photoshop should do this in an new layer, cut all holes etc. (for example the open part inside the triggerguard) also with the path tool, gather all layers with cutouts and copy it to an new, empty picture.
now you should have the gun exclusive, without background. last step, to set your personal background …

I added some pictures within the next posts to show you the steps described above…..

regards wolfganggo .....

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[wolfganggo]

samples:

[wolfganggo]

samples:

[wolfganggo]

samples:
just after posting i have seen that i have forgotten to cut away a little part inside the triggerguard, sorry...

i saved the last one in correct manner, now correct cut....

wolfganggo ....

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