You: Need sweet pix, I: Need to practice

[JMDesigns]

A proposition for those of you that want some sweet art shots of your blades. I am a Industrial Design student at a local (AiC) art school. I've been shooting "Art Photography" since I was 15 - close to 17 years now. I have plenty of tasty Nikon DSLR gear, and lots of Photoshop skills.

What I'm looking for right now is the opportunity to get my hands on some grade "A" steel. Just to examine, not to use or even carry. Particular interests include balisongs, combat framelocks, and medium to large fixed blades (but I can work with all of it). If you have any knives you would like to have photographed I am up to the task.

All I am asking is that you pay shipping both ways, and as far as props/backdrops, we get together (pm's/phone) and discuss the look you want, and how that can be achieved. If you have props/backdrops you would like to have included I can certainly do that as well.

I can shoot your knives at 10mp plus and leave the resulting images in virgin RAW, or high quality JPG. I can also do nearly anything in Photoshop that would like, and excel at HDR imagery as well. The PS/HDR work is not necessarily free, but as this community has already gone a long way to help me in my "knife making infancy" I will certainly do all of it for as little as possible.

My main interest in this is to develop my "steel shooting" skills for use in my future projects, and to throw in a bit of help where I can. As a burgeoning knife maker it has also come to my attention that the more steel/designs I can see and learn about the better off I will be in the future. In the same turn the nicer your photos look, the more $$$ you are going to make.

In addition if any of you would like some information on cameras/techniques involved in shooting high quality art grade product imagery please feel free to ask here as well. I don't claim to know it all, or even a lot, but I do know what makes things look nice and what doesn't (sometimes). I will post up some of my work in a bit so you guys can get a feel for what I do.

 

[JMDesigns]

As promised here are a few pics I've taken/retouched over the last two years.

A HK USP slide I machined and polished.

A nice monotone art print of my car.

This is an HDR photo (combination of 3 shots at different exposures) with a MASSIVE ammount of Photoshop work (added and refined cloud layers, and removed a lot of trash and poles/wires/fences). As a side note for those who are going to ask - this is my Supercharged 2004 Nissan Sentra Spec V. 400whp - and I did all the body work from scratch (fiberglass) and turned every nut and bolt myself to reach that lofty power goal!

Here are a couple of Honeymoon shots I took in January in Kona,HI. -

I call this one Pele's Forge. It was shot in near total darkness for 15 seconds and retouched a bit.

And lastly, Bowie-song. Made with the wood I got in Hawaii. I used a very low Fstop and unidirectional low light source to get the depth of field and make the handles pop, and left the shutter open for 15 seconds.

 

[12345678910]

Nice bali, but I'm seeing a lot of shadows on the left and bottom

& the wood background is in better detail than the blade and it's bevels.

 

[JMDesigns]

I used a unidirectional light source intentionally to get it to come up from the background - hence the shadow. It was a soft lamp in minimal ambient light (so that the shadow wouldn't be black). Since I shot the knife on actually Koa planks I did this to make it stand out. The blade appears "soft" because of the low lumens, and the satin finish. Using a small reflective spot would have solved the issue by adding in a few "hot highlights" though... I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Your comments are spot on for somebody that may not have understood the intent of the image. From reading the only other comment you have posted thus far in this forum I can tell you have an eye for image perfection. It might even be said that you overlook content and go straight for image quality . Being a lifelong student of the arts I have no shortage of "critiquing" available to me, but it never hurts to get another opinion I suppose.

I certainly enjoyed the learning experience of photography over the last 15 yeaars - However my real intent here is to offer free services to other new knifemakers that I may help them further their customer base, and at the same time have the opportunity to examine some custom grinds up close and personal.

 

[12345678910]

my real intent here is to offer free services to other new knifemakers that I may help them further their customer base, and at the same time have the opportunity to examine some custom grinds up close and personal.

I was right there with you on that...until I got to this in your first post...

The PS/HDR work is not necessarily free...

...which came off to me as a bait and switch tactic and soured me on the whole post right away. Afterall, If the original picture is good Photshop shouldn't be required and is possibly misleading (with the exception of the multiple exposure highlight type layouts)

- so if they are paying, then I assumed that the photo work should be perfect. I assumed that the images you posted are your BEST work.

In Coop's no frills light tent thread on Bladeforums, alot of people have achieved great results doing it themselves and the primary focus is good lighting and reduction of shadows.

From your thread so far, I see you like superlong exposures. I have to admit that I am impressed by your results with limited light and long exposure.
and it seems that the wood has a lot of depth in this picture, but reflecting some spots like you suggested would likely make the image more palatable to me and others(including publishers).

I'm curious to see how many takers you get. I would be really suspicious about packing off my goodies to a total stranger based upon a few postings...

 

[JMDesigns]

That is understandable - I would be nervous to send my handcrafts off to anybody too. I have done a lot of aftermarket car parts selling and trading, and have a long and perfect history with paypal. I can always offer that information as a bit of insurance if anybody is interested in that.

As far as the HDR/PS work not necessarily being free - well I should probably be more specific. It can take around an hour to get a really good HDR (it is three images combined in layers at different exposures) and well Photoshop can be much the same. Than isn't to say I won't do a few for free (I will - that is part of what I want to practice after all) but I won't do a dozen of 'em, or make a fully photoshopped 5 page product brochure for free.