Smith and Wesson 625 for C&C

[Stradawhovious]

Well, my lovely bride to be bought me a "portable studio" for Christmas. It's the size of a briefcase, and comprised of a folding box with white cloth sides, a two sided "Backdrop" and two continuous lights that fit nicely in a pocket in the front. Granted, I'm sure the thing was about $25 on Amazon, but it was an extremely thoughtful gift from someone that wanted to get me something to further my hobby, but didn't want to ruin the surprise and ask what I wanted.

Here is the link. Amazon.com: Digital Concepts Ps-101 Portable Lighting Studio: Camera & Photo

At first glance, I thought it was really gimmicky, and it is...... but after looking at it for a while I decided to give it a whirl.

Total time from assembly to shutter was about 5 minutes, and I have to say that for a quick and dirty setup and snap, I'm pretty impressed! Other than blowing out the end of the barrel, I kind of like it!

Here is the photo after a few minutes in Adobe Elements.... Please feel free to tell me what you think, and how I can do it better.

Nikon D7000
f/8
1/2 sec
ISO 100
50mm

Also if you have any recommendations for the use of the "lighting kit" (other than lining the circular file) I'm all ears. I hate to see a gift not used, and I think that this has the potential to be useful.

 

[marmots]

could use a little more contrast

other than that it looks good

 

[JDRoth]

Its good for product photography, but unremarkable in my opinion. However, I still love it because you use a bullet to prop up the gun. Great idea!

 

[Stradawhovious]

Its good for product photography, but unremarkable in my opinion.

When you're right, you're right. I'm certain there is a lot I could do to make it pop.... and I look forward to experimenting with it the future. Thanks for the input!

could use a little more contrast

other than that it looks good

Is this one a little better? I nudged the contrast, and dropped the brightness a little too. The combination seemed to help with the blownoutedness (yes, its a word.... look it up.) of end of the barrel.

 

[rateeg]

for my preference, i would have used a black background to highlight the silver gun.

 

[JDRoth]

for my preference, i would have used a black background to highlight the silver gun.

I agree.

 

[Stradawhovious]

for my preference, i would have used a black background to highlight the silver gun.

My aim in this was to use only the materials supplied in the kit that I received as a gift, so I was limited to Grey and Neon blue...........

I agree, black would have been a winner.

 

[bluetibby1]

That was nice of her to help you further something you love. Mine told me to buy a d90 and give her my d3000, haha and bought me a 50mm 1.8. But anyways on the photo the second edit does look better and helps with the blownoutness of the barrel, but it maybe just me (I'm on the iPhone) but the bullets look a little OOF. Nice job none the less.
Blue

 

[Josh66]

The foreground ammo is too far out of focus... And the end of the barrel is borderline blown out.

The 12 ga. shell, while a nice way to prop the gun up, doesn't really fit and doesn't really add anything to it, IMO...

I checked the exif, and it says ISO 100... The background does look pretty noisy for 100 though...


Sorry to be the party pooper, but it's not really blowing me away...

 

[Stradawhovious]

The foreground ammo is too far out of focus... And the end of the barrel is borderline blown out.

The 12 ga. shell, while a nice way to prop the gun up, doesn't really fit and doesn't really add anything to it, IMO...

I checked the exif, and it says ISO 100... The background does look pretty noisy for 100 though...


Sorry to be the party pooper, but it's not really blowing me away...

Meh, say whatever you want about it. I know it's not publishing material, Hell..... the whole proces took less than 5 minutes..... and I'm talking the WHOLE process start to finish. To be honest, I appreciate the negative feedback more than the positive. (although the positive is nice, and leaves a warm fuzzy.) Nobody ever got better by having the whole world say "Wow, that's neat." So far I have gotten some great feedback, and will use it all in the future to make a fantastic image.

Some day. :blushing:

As far as the image quality, I though it looked noisy too, at first. It turns out its just a ****ty back drop. Here is a crop blown up to 100%. The texture in the backdrop looks just like noise at a smaller size adn as it passes out of the DOF.

 

[Trever1t]

adjusting the light to remove the shadow behind the cylinder would help too.

 

[Josh66]

The texture in the backdrop looks just like noise at a smaller size

Weird... What kind of material is it?

 

[Stradawhovious]

Weird... What kind of material is it?

No idea. Some sort of nylon or rayon garbage that I'm sure some third-world child gets paid a dollar a year to weave.