Photographing Airsoft Equipment

ricka

Want to take good quality photos of Airsoft rifles and pistols.Anyone any thoughts on what kind of camera and money i should spend.:)

Inari

What kind of pictures are you looking to take?

If you're planning to just set up shots of devices against a standard backdrop, then any high quality digital camera will do nicely. Obviously using a dSLR will yield higher quality pictures, along with a choice of lenses...but I'd honestly say you'd get away with a normal digi-cam (as long as it's high enough quality in itself).

Puding

a digital slr is the tool to go with if you can afford one but a lot of the high end digital camera will offer excellent results these days, would advice along with a decent camera investing in some lights with soft boxes and good lighting is your friend

Hivemind187

If they are for commercial use I would get a pro in to do them. You might have the best camera on earth but if you havent the knowledge of how to use it - and how to present the products for photography - then you wont get the results you desire.

Give extremetaz a shout about it on here, he's a pro photographer who knows his stuff.

extremetaz

Puding is right - lighting is everything.

and Hivemind is also right - the best gear in the world is no use at all if you don't know how to use it.

Drop me a line (sean.ocallaghan@hivemind.ie) outlining exactly what you're trying to do and I'll be happy to advise.

Masada

Any half decent compact these days is more that capable of taking a good photo, the key is the light.
More often than not people use the on board flash when they take pics and its the worst thing to do. it overloads the photo with light and gives you that "bright in the middle" look.

The Lumix TZ7 is a really good compact camera for the beginner and experienced alike, used on a tripod with no flash you'll instantly see an improvement in your photo quality.

Dont be tempted to throw loads of money on a fancy DSLR if you cant tell the difference between your ISO and your aperture, knowing how to use it is more important than using great kit. so get a half decent tripod, a decent compact and experiment,

ricka

Thanks Guys.
I really just wanna liven up our shop thread with some reasonable images of the products we get in.Nothing to fancy, just so you dont have to squint to see what they are!
Points well made on lighting, but I also get where your coming from Masada.
I'll sleep on it and maybe I can come back to you with a couple of questions:)
Thanks Again

Masada

no bother man,

as a basic rule set,

-Get close,
-Loose flash,
-Stay still (tripod makes this handy)
-Take pics outdoors in shaded area if possible,

with all of the above you can usually get results like this,






Of course getting the angle (or composition to sound like a snobby bastid. lol) is entirely your own style, just look through the viewfinder, move around and snap what ya think l looks good.

extremetaz

Masada wrote: »

no bother man,

as a basic rule set,

-Get close,
-Loose flash,
-Stay still (tripod makes this handy)
-Take pics outdoors in shaded area if possible,

with all of the above you can usually get results like this,

Of course getting the angle (or composition to sound like a snobby bastid. lol) is entirely your own style, just look through the viewfinder, move around and snap what ya think l looks good.

lol - good advice on the whole, but no way in HELL those shots were taken with a compact! Prosumer range unit "maybe" but that second one looks like it was done with a tilt & shift! (either that or manipulated extensively in photoshop)

ED E

I'm a useless photographer. Albeit the Fuji S100 FS is a nice piece of hardware, but even I can get ok results:


With practice you could get some lovely shots. Much like Masada

PS: A photography bench is a handy thing to have if you're willing to splash. Fortunately for me we've had one in the house for years:p

Masada

extremetaz wrote: »

lol - good advice on the whole, but no way in HELL those shots were taken with a compact! Prosumer range unit "maybe" but that second one looks like it was done with a tilt & shift! (either that or manipulated extensively in photoshop)

I'll take that as a compliment so,

Im pretty sure it was a Lumix LX2 i used for the second one, the first one of the PPK was with a Nikon D80 DSLR, Have never used a tilt shift myself as i usually hate the effect from them and have never had access to one, and very little photoshop going on there either, bar stamping them with my name in the corner and maybe a tweak on the contrast.

extremetaz

Masada wrote: »

I'll take that as a compliment so,

You certainly should - that second one in particular is a great shot!

Masada wrote: »

Im pretty sure it was a Lumix LX2 i used for the second one, the first one of the PPK was with a Nikon D80 DSLR, Have never used a tilt shift myself as i usually hate the effect from them and have never had access to one, and very little photoshop going on there either, bar stamping them with my name in the corner and maybe a tweak on the contrast.

I'd have to guess that the second one was taken with the D80 as well so - there's no way you'd get that depth of field effect without a super wide aperature, probably f2.8 or very close to it.

The LX2 will hit that aperature (just checked the spec) but only at the back end (28mm) which doesn't look right either as that shot was either cropped dramatically or was taken at a higher zoom level. The focus line through the middle of the shot (giving that tilt & shift appearance) would be highly unlikely with that field of view at that focal length.

What lense is on the D80? Might make for a good setup for Ricka if it can deliver results like that.


PS: if you ever get the option to play with tilt & shift take it - be warned though, it's bloody addictive!!

ricka

extremetaz wrote: »

You certainly should - that second one in particular is a great shot!



I'd have to guess that the second one was taken with the D80 as well so - there's no way you'd get that depth of field effect without a super wide aperature, probably f2.8 or very close to it.

The LX2 will hit that aperature (just checked the spec) but only at the back end (28mm) which doesn't look right either as that shot was either cropped dramatically or was taken at a higher zoom level. The focus line through the middle of the shot (giving that tilt & shift appearance) would be highly unlikely with that field of view at that focal length.

What lense is on the D80? Might make for a good setup for Ricka if it can deliver results like that.


PS: if you ever get the option to play with tilt & shift take it - be warned though, it's bloody addictive!!

Yeah, think I'll go with the f2.8 with tilt and shift:o

flashinbluelite

ricka wrote: »

Want to take good quality photos of Airsoft rifles and pistols.Anyone any thoughts on what kind of camera and money i should spend.:)

why not agree a bb to photo swap limit with one of the "pros" ????

not a job or anything as im sure that would break some ruling on boards

when you receive your stock have a chat with someone who has all the gear/skill/knowledge and save time/money


ps:
Richie glad you followed rule of thirds and the diagonal rule, really draws my eye to the interesting part of the shot...
i do feel that the third picture suffers from slight under-exposure left to right, effectively drowning the barrel in dullness and lack of definition
whereas the second shot , albeit a fantastic shot bids the question did you measure the angles of the spent rounds a perfect 180 degree leading to 300 to 60 finishing with 30, very aesthetic!!!! and truly pleasing, thank you :cool::P:D;)

Masada

The kit lens is the most used really, its an 18-70VR lens, nothing fancy but does the job.

the second shot was taken with the camera almost upside down from about 3-4 feet away on a cheapo jessops tripod, no idea what settings used but its fully manual capable, loads of my decent pics have been taken with it.

I cant even get interested in tilt and shift really, i like how its done but much like HDR, i hate the results, dunno why., lol.


EDIT:
@ keith, I actually like the 3rd shot more than the others to be honest, lol i love the way its underexposed and leading out into the lighter area of the photo with a bit of a vignette thing going on,

Te second shot did take some time to get it the way i wanted it, i tried every which way of arranging the spent brass and in the end i got em the way i wanted them just by dropping them on the gun and letting them land randomly themselves. lol, the pic would be a lot better if the gun had of been a trade marked one i reckon though.

PS, its weird having a photo kinda convo with you keith, as opposed to the usual madness of your "i wanna kidnap your granny and sell er to a strip club" crazyness, haha

ricka

flashinbluelite wrote: »

why not agree a bb to photo swap limit with one of the "pros" ????

not a job or anything as im sure that would break some ruling on boards

when you receive your stock have a chat with someone who has all the gear/skill/knowledge and save time/money


ps:
Richie glad you followed rule of thirds and the diagonal rule, really draws my eye to the interesting part of the shot...
i do feel that the third picture suffers from slight under-exposure left to right, effectively drowning the barrel in dullness and lack of definition
whereas the second shot , albeit a fantastic shot bids the question did you measure the angles of the spent rounds a perfect 180 degree leading to 300 to 60 finishing with 30, very aesthetic!!!! and truly pleasing, thank you :cool::P:D;)

Yep, you may be right.Had a very informative email from extremetaz above and mulling over that at the moment.
Also should have a CMS package soon for our website which means we'll finally be able to update it without going back to the designer.With that in mind it might be advisable to bite the bullet and invest in a decent set up so we use it for both shop thread and website.

extremetaz

Masada wrote: »

The kit lens is the most used really, its an 18-70VR lens, nothing fancy but does the job.

hmm... that lense is a 3.5-4.5... not quite convinced it could have done that either.

Perhaps you really did just manage to hit the sweet spot with the Lumix. Whoda thunk it. Hell of a result.

flashinbluelite

Masada wrote: »

PS, its weird having a photo kinda convo with you keith, as opposed to the usual madness of your "i wanna kidnap your granny and sell er to a strip club" crazyness, haha

what you doing this weekend????


ill be mostly eating cabbage sandwiches while parachuting naked over western china singing our national anthem .....take a picture of that.....

keep us pro-tographers in the loop with any new site pics ricka , looking forward to nice high res photos of quality airsoft bits and pieces ...