I share your concerns.  I am continually frustrated in my picture taking attempts trying to get an accurate representation of the subject.  I envy those who seem to be able to go out in an open area and get good photos even in bright sun light.  RDB

Guys!  I struggle mightily with it all!  Rob coaches me continually and I get frustrated and at times down right difficult to be around!  Rob and Brad make it look so damn easy, too.  Now as to the effects of lighting, with which I totally agree, I am overly nervous about trying to buy anything based on photos.  There are those on this forum who seem to have the programs to play with pictures and vary the exposures, the values of hues, etc, to detect flaws that I just plain don’t see in photos!  And artificial lighting can play tricks as well.  The bluish white overhead lights at Cody, for instance, do not illustrate a lot of the issues with a rifle.  Natural sun light can make a pig out of something at times, yet direct sun is usually a picture killer despite the childhood pictures of folks looking directly into the lights.  My successes, limited as they have been, are outdoors in the shade on sunny days, or better on overcast days.  My two or three cents worth!  Tim

tim tomlinson said
  Natural sun light can make a pig out of something at times, yet direct sun is usually a picture killer despite the childhood pictures of folks looking directly into the lights.

EXAMINE the gun in sunlight, if possible, to see every flaw (before you buy it!), but that’s about the worst lighting for photography without special eqpt. like diffusers & reflectors; it’s the reason artists usually arrange to have their studio windows facing north, to exclude all but indirect light.

steve004 said

 How many have tried or asked sellers at gun shows if you can take a piece outside to look at it?  

Might work if you know the dealer fairly well; otherwise you’d be wasting your breath.  Really, at a gun show it’s not practical, unless the bldg has windows that would allow you to do it without leaving the bldg, & few do.

Hello all,

I will try to help out a bit on this subject as I have been a pretty darn serious photographer for a few decades.  Problem number one is the fact that the cameras “sees” light VERY differently than our eyeballs do.  Our eyes see all light in pretty much the same color rendition.  If you take a red piece of colored paper from near a lamp inside your house and then go into the open shade out doors and then into bright sunlight you brain will tell you it is the same color in all three instances.  Now pick up your typical camera and take a photo in each situation and look at the resulting images and you will see three fairly different looking shades of red.  This is because the light  that is illuminated the three setting is actually VERY different in ITS color and therefore the reflected light from the paper (what we see or what is captured by the camera) appears different to the camera.   The problem is that the camera chip now days, or in the past the type of film was normalized for certain wavelengths of light.  In the “old days” you had outdoor balanced film or indoor film balanced for tungsten light.  To further complicate things all “outdoor” light is not created equal.  Bright sunlight is not the same color to a camera as the light in open shade which is basically lit by the big open blue sky.  And partly cloudy skies is a slightly different color form either.  Bring your rifle and camera indoors and things get even crazier.  A typical tungsten light bulb will look dramatically different to a camera as you adjust the rheostat switch which controls it.  Fluorescent lights are an entirely different color to the camera!  Halogen light are still another color unto itself.  

At this point many of you may have thrown up your hands.  BUT… there is hope.  Go find the owners manual that came with your camera.  It was the multipage little pamphlet printed in multiple languages that you most likely never looked at.  The way to get around all of these light color problems is to “tell” your camera what color of light it is looking at.  My Canon SLR digital cameras have a menu option that allows for that called White Balance.  In the series of attached photos it shows the different color temperatures in degrees Kelvin for various light sources.  Something white in color will look different in each setting if the camera is not set for the correct light source.

The right hand most shows an “Auto” mode in which the camera will assess what color of light is illuminating the scene and try to adjust for it.  Be forewarned that this might not be 100% accurate but it will most likely be much better than using a totally wrong setting like Sunny and trying to photographed the rifle indoors with the lamp at the end of the couch!

Of secondary importance is the relative size of the source of light relative to the subject.  When I shoot portraits and and want a flattering result I typically will use a very large light source that is maybe 2×3 feet in size and it is 6 feet from the model.  This produces a very “soft” light that fills shadows and does not cause unflattering, sharp edged, high contrast shadows.  A small single bulb source the same distance away will give a much different look to the some model.  It is a relatively small and specular light source.  This is like the sun outdoors on a bright day.  It causes harsh, high contrast shadows, but it does amplify details because of how “sharp” and focused it appears.  The same rifle photographed on a totally overcast day will look different as long as the color is adjusted correctly.  There will not be harsh shadows because light will be “filling” those areas from other directions.  

Another point to keep in mind is DO NOT EVER use a white background to use in the images.  Use some soft color such as a green, tan, or blue.  The best thing to do is grab you camera and rifle and go practice.  There is little that will help you than some experience and practice.

Michael

Chuck said
I try to shoot pictures of my guns in the shade.  On cloudy/dark days I also may use a flash.  Often with a diffuser.  Using a flash may cause some other issues like glare or shadows.  Most if not all SLR cameras have the auto white balance but I’m not sure about the cameras in the phones?  Don’t think that professional photographers can just shoot and a perfect pictures occurs.  They take a lot of pictures to just get one good one.  A lot of time is spent using software to fix the picture.  Years go into how to compose and handle the light.  

Chuck,

People so often ask “what kind of camera do you use???”  Good photos just don’t happen.  They are created.  A person MUST understand the tool (camera), how it works, decide what they want the photo to look like, and then control the camera to get the result.  I get so flippin’ tired when I hear “my camera sucks” when it is SO obvious that it is operator error and not the camera that is at fault.  So, it is an easy correlation to see.  Don’t take the time to learn how to take good photos?  Then take lousy photos, and when you try to sell your rifle you will get a lousy value for it.  

Michael