New acquisition 1906 Navy

[ithacaartist]

Jack, here's a suggestion for the pics. The gun is blurry and the base of the display stand is in sharp focus, so we need to work on focusing on the gun. This is a digital camera, right? Try making sure it's in macro mode, the flower as opposed to the group of people. You should be able to fill the entire frame of the pic with the top of the gun, all in focus. The automatic focus function of the camera may also be to blame. There are a few ways auto focus is done, averaged, center-weighted, and spot. It may be that the auto focus is picking up more background than gun, and focusing on that, in which case getting in closer will help.
But how, you say, do I prevent my shadow from interfering if I get in close? If you're using strong lights, have one on each side, each at 45 degrees from the object, and from the line between it and you. This also helps eliminate glare in that the strong light in this setup generally bounces over to the other side of a flat surface, instead of back at the camera. Rounded surfaces will have a highlight here and there, but you'll be able to move the lights around and adjust where this occurs. Set up so that what you want to see is visible, and you are comfortable, then move in the lights. I hope this helps!

D.