Hey all in all those pictures are pretty good. The knives, as always, look exceptional. If you ever actually screw up a knife you can always send the leftover to me
I'll fix 'em into something nice! Lol ... unlikely I know, but I figured I'd throw it out there just in case!
If you are really bothered by your photos I can offer a couple of suggestions (okay it is going to be more than a couple
). Again I think those look pretty nice, and really I doubt that anybody looking at your photos is paying attention to the photo quality, as much as they are the perfection of your blade grinds and impeccable finish.
I would find better materials to shoot them on personally - the paper towels background theme is a bit drab. A nice pile of small to medium river stone, or even a pie tin of some polished rocks would do wonders. A clean section of garage floor scuffed up with a rotary sander is a nice cheap trick. REMM (rolled - expanded metal mesh) always looks very industrial (just don't use the cheap rain gutter guard). A nice scrap of carbon cloth or denim stretched flat (keep the corners out of frame) would look good. A piece of aluminum with wire brush scuffing (multi directional) and a few titanium/stainless "curly" strewn about always looks great too!
Just tap some of that "knife genius" creativity and let it flow into your photos. Then worry about lighting and shadows and such. It can be hard to shoot metal against a white background, as well as a black background, and the more polished it is the harder it gets. The flat white of the paper towel is probably helping your (Panasonic pointer if I remember - they have great glass btw) camera get the white balance on target, but it is blowing your highlights in spots.
A common issue I am seeing is that you are shooting with the center focus spot right between the two knives. The sensor is nailing the white balance because of the contrast between the handle (black) and background (white) but it is also focusing on the paper towel which is leaving the knives a bit out of focus. Hard to say without being there, but I would bet that the 3rd picture down is the most accurate to life, and because the tang of the knife at the top is crossing directly through the center the camera has focused at that depth - the knives are in sharp focus and the paper towel is slightly softened.
A point and shoot can get you fantastic results, but it is more like using a drill press, and less like a mill (or DSLR is this comparison) The drill press can be made/setup to do many things that a mill can do, but the mill can do more - if you know how to use it right. In some cases however the drill press is fast and easy, while the mill is more difficult and overly complicated. And that comparison holds true as well when it comes to price. Most people will never plunk down thousands for a mill just to drill a few holes, or in this case a DSLR to snap a few knife pics every once in a while. SO make the drill press/point and shoot do what you need it to.
You just need to shoot it more with more color in the back, less light, more light, play with ev+-, play with manual mode (if you have it). Try everything in all lighting - really spend some time with it - A couple hours at a time when you can. Read the manual or look for a video on your camera (I really like the MAGIC LANTERN dvd when I got my Nikon). It is just a tool that records light - it can be no better than the user, and a more expensive tool does not necessarily make a better craftsman. When I started art photography in 1993 we hand spooled our own 35mm BW film in dark bags, and developed them by hand. The teacher made us write a "photo-journal" - every photo by roll number and frame - subject - lens length - exposure time - aperature - film speed - the list goes on but the point is we all got really good, really fast.
So on a final note I present to you this - a reality that is common among any photographers that have been doing this for 10 years or more: The biggest problem with digital format in general is that once you buy the camera there is really very little expense to operate it. In the day of film every shot cost a lot of money in comparison which really forces a photographer to learn from every shot - hence a faster learning curve. With a digital you can plunk away all day until you get something, and literally throw out what you can't use without any regrets (cost). I have found that if I really slow down and pose the subject (be it car, knife, or other), get the setting right, and click the shutter one or two shots at a time between adjustments (as if each shot was a dollar said and done) - My work comes out acceptable or better on nearly every shot.
