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Basic Photography
Making Do With What You Have
Sometimes you don't have a photography studio, or special umbrellas that allow diffused flashes from different angles, etc. Still, very reasonable shots can be attained if you use a little creativity and make do with what you have. I will use my visit to Mike MacLeod who had recently purchased a Celtic Leaf-Bladed Sword from Al Massey of Canada.
Situation: the sun was beginning to set, so we had little time. We needed a wide flat surface. Unfortunately I had no dark bedsheets or anything, but this turned out to be a blessing. Sometimes if the light is too strong and the backgorund is too dark, the contrast is too much for the camera to handle, depending on your camera.
Outside Mike's apartment was a pool (he doesn't own the pool - it belongs to the apartment complex). So let's see what we can do with this.
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First, composition is important. Notice that I am trying to capture the sword at an angle on the X and Y axis. The sword will appear in the photograph with the hilt at 10 o'clock and the blade tip at 5 o'clock. Because of this diagonal shot, I can get the whole sword into the picture. Shots that are purely horizontal or vertical are visually boring and not professional looking.
The ground on which I lay the sword was cement with all kinds of little pebbles, each of them a kind of brown in color. The nearby leaves were brown. I was about to clear the leaves away when I noticed that the hilt of the sword was brown wood. That coupled with copper on the throat of the scabbard as well as the golden light from the setting sun basically created a sense of color reinforcement. The shot would mostly be golden-brown in hue.
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The yellow arrow shows the direction from which the sun is striking. The sun was about to set over the nearby trees, so time was of the essence. Notice how I am standing in relation to the sword, and how the entire sword is reasonably at focus. If I crouched low, the difference in distance of the hilt and the tip of the sword in relation to the camera would be too great; one would be out of focus, and one would be in focus. Further, this distorts the dimensions of the sword and does not give a clear picture of the proportions of the sword. In other words, you don't want the blade to look short and stubby, with the tip being big and the handle being small.
Thus it is important to control "Birds Eye View" perspectives. Stand on top of the sword as much as possible, but angle back to give it just a little bit of perspective. Observe the sword in relation to the blue grid that gives you a sense of the perspective.
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Also position yourself to give the best possible refelction in the blade. If the blade has a beveled spine or a fuller, it would be best to stand in such a way that the camera can pick up these details. In this particular case, unfortunately, the reflection is so bright that you can't make out the spine except in the last few inches near the tip.
Also, with mirror-polished blades, sometimes you yourself might get in the reflection. Also, depending on the direction of the light source, your own shadow might get into the picture. You may or may not want this. I saw a photo by someone once - excellent in all ways, except his toes were in the shot! I thus had to use Adobe Photoshop to get rid of his toes!
So here is the final shot. The bottom portion of the photo is darkened digitally, and the SFMO logo is added. The orange of the horizontal bar reinforces the orange of the autumn leaves. Again we are dealing with color reinforcement.
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Summary
- Find a background that is reasonably complimentary in color to the sword. The less distracting the better.
- Using outdoor sunlight as your friend, determine which angles give the most "story" on the blade. Too much reflection ruins the shot.
- Photograph the sword diagonally so as to get the entire sword into the picture.
- Perspective is important as you want to show the sword in its proper proportions.
- Focus, Daniel-san, focus!
Special thanks to Mike MacLeod for photographing me while I photographed his sword!
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