Restoring / cleaning old gold menuki

[rkg]

> A polarizer will do you no good, since it doesn‘t work

> on metallic surfaces.

 

I’ve not tried yet, but I’ve never heard anything like that. As I light things, there will be glare from light bouncing off the metal. Why wouldn’t a polarizer help with that? Most shots I see folks take are full of glare... so either they are misplacing lights or something else is happening.

 

> 50 mm and F8 would be my choice

 

I’ll start there. I’m just really looking forward to a day of playing and seeing what I can get. Hopefully I can go from “basic, and technically good” into something more dramatic and arty.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/Light-Science-Magic-Introduction-Photographic/dp/0415719402/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=light+science+and+magic&qid=1567445019&s=gateway&sr=8-2

 

This has been around so long you can also find earlier additions much cheeper...

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

[ChrisM]

https://smile.amazon.com/Light-Science-Magic-Introduction-Photographic/dp/0415719402/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=light+science+and+magic&qid=1567445019&s=gateway&sr=8-2

 

This has been around so long you can also find earlier additions much cheeper...

 

Thanks Richard. I appreciate the pointer.

 

I've got a number of books on lighting, but they're all focused on lighting people (portraits, glamour, etc). I've spent enough time setting up and controlling lights that I've got the basics. The difference with nihonto is that I DO NOT want speedlights or studio lights (aka: "Flash" style lights). Hot Lights are really what I'm planning to use, so I can see the reflections while setting up the lights. 

 

Lighting for product photography (which is how I'm thinking of nihonto photography) is something I've never tried. The only times I've done anything similar is just is buying a cheap light-box to shoot pictures of my Lionel trains for (mostly) insurance and archival purposes.

 

//Chris

[Guido]

> A polarizer will do you no good, since it doesn‘t work on metallic surfaces.

 

I’ve not tried yet, but I’ve never heard anything like that. As I light things, there will be glare from light bouncing off the metal. Why wouldn’t a polarizer help with that? Most shots I see folks take are full of glare... so either they are misplacing lights or something else is happening.

 

Simple physics. Reflections from metal are not polarized, so a polarizing filter does not work - it can’t cancel something out that isn’t there ... 

[ChrisM]

Simple physics. Reflections from metal are not polarized, so a polarizing filter does not work - it can’t cancel something out that isn’t there ...

 

I checked this today, and sure enough.

 

Learn something new every day! Thanks.

[Tanto54]

Dear Chris,

 

Don't know if someone has already suggested it or not, but you should search this site for a few of the excellent threads done by accomplished photographers on exactly how to beautifully photograph swords and fittings to artistically show the aspects that are important (no reason to reinvent the wheel).

[ChrisM]

Don't know if someone has already suggested it or not, but you should search this site for a few of the excellent threads done by accomplished photographers on exactly how to beautifully photograph swords and fittings to artistically show the aspects that are important (no reason to reinvent the wheel).

Thanks George!

 

There are some great resources on this site. I've been reading some of the old threads...

 

I've also found Youtube has some nice primers, with folks showing how they lit the swords/knives, controlled for reflections, and the got nice results.

 

//Chris