full length images

[paulb]

Dear All as some of you may recall I have been playing with camera and lighting. I have generally been reasonably content with the images I have taken illustrating small sections of hada and hamon but have really struggled to get full  sugata pictures. All I wanted to do is produce something that accurately shows the shape to sit alongside the close ups as I attempt to catalogue some of the swords I have been studying.

I have been trying to achieve this without resorting to photoshop or equivalent, Uwe produces incredible images that show everything in one picture. Unfortunately I have neither the skill or patience to do this effectively and feel that unless it is done well it can look very contrived and somehow artificial.

So I am left with experimenting with lighting and I have been doing that quite a lot. Attached are some of the latest attempts which sort of meet my goal and I think are showing some progress. The only modifications I have done is to slight adjustments to exposure and contrast and then converting to greyscale.

Aoe1gs.tif

daido1gs.tif

enju1gs.tif

 

[Bazza]

Paul,

 

Your tif images open in my ACDSee app and look OK, but when I enlarge them the lines and hada disappear in a blur.  I presume you are using a tripod to capture these images??  There are far more capable people than I on this Board to comment about photography, but as one who has tried the same thing by various means one thought occurs to me.  If you are using a zoom lens zoom right into the blade, focus as carefully as you can, then zoom back out to the full length, stop your lens down to say f18 and expose accordingly.

 

The other thing I tried and didn't persist with was to make a simple contrivance out of wood that allowed me to focus closely on a small part of the gun or sword, take the shot, then move along to the next shot with a little overlap, etc etc.  i would put cross hairs on the background, stitch the images together, and finally crop the cross hairs out.  Voila.  As I said, I didn't persist with it, but perhaps I should try it again...

 

BaZZa.

[Bugyotsuji]

Impressed so far, though. 

[Jean]

Very good, but a bit dark on the shinogi side. When I enlarge resonably the picture I can see the hada

[Utopianarian]

Very nice pictures Paul. I found it very difficult to obtain full sugata accurately as well. They look very good in my opinion. Lighting and contrast are key.

[paulb]

Thank you for the feedback gentlemen. I think when doing this it is possible to start feeling you are going around in circles. I have a very good friend who has a phrase which I wish I could take on board "Could be better is the worst enemy of good enough"

What I have done meets the needs I have for them but I just want to keep seeing if I can get a bit better. (Think there may be a history of masochism in the family!!!)

[vajo]

Paul very good. I know what i'm saying, because making full length blade pictures with "normal" stuff is the hell of a job!

[CSM101]

Dear Paul,

 

in the end the right light is the key. And Photoshop.

 

You need a software that is able to work with layers. Gimp would be a another solution. At the moment you are developing your photographic skills.

So, sooner or later you will find the solution. Fortunately Kirill Rivkin is also able to make very good full size photos.

 

Hope to see you soon

 

 

Uwe G.

 

 

[Ken-Hawaii]

I'm also using Photoshop, & it's interesting that, just past a certain zoom factor, all of the details disappear into a gray blur.

 

TIF is a lossless format, but so is PNG, & I wonder if that (being a newer format) might show more details. You might also try PSD, Paul, just for comparison.