Taking pictures of Nihonto

[JTLund]

Hi everyone,

this topic has been discussed several times before according to Brian, but I am not able to find any contens about it on the NMB.

 

How to take good photos of a sword?

 

If someone is able to pass me the link it would be much appreciated, thank you.

Kind regards, Thomas

 

 

[Lewis B]

@Brano takes some of the best I have seen on the forum. I'm just putting some equipment together to take better closeup shots of my blades.

So far I have LED lighting (a variable temp and brightness photography panel suggested by Brano), cheap single LED lamps from Ikea that have a good reputation for macro work, a 65mm f2.4 macro lens and a good tripod. Black backdrops work great too as well as total light control to eliminate reflections. I can definitely say its not easy and you will have to play around a lot with settings and positioning of the light to bring out the finer subtle detail.

[Brian]

Check "Photographing Nihonto" by Darcy Brockbank in the downloads section.

[ROKUJURO]

As a general remark on NIHONTO photos presented here by members for comments, I would like to suggest the following procedere .

To be usable, your photos should be:

- well focused and not blurry
- made with a dark, non reflective background for good contrast
- made with light from the side (may not apply for HAMON photos)
- made from directly above (not at an angle)
- made with correct orientation (tip-upwards, especially NAKAGO photos) 
- without HABAKI but showing the MACHI and NAKAGO JIRI 
- made in high resolution to see details
- showing details of the sword like BOSHI, HAMACHI, HAMON, HADA, NAKAGO JIRI etc.
- presented as cut-outs so very little background is shown

If you cannot supply good photos (these photos are all I have from the dealer..../ I do not have a good camera but only an old mobile phone.... ), DO NOT POST THEM. They will not be helpful.

[Brano]

On 7/30/2024 at 3:28 PM, JTLund said:

Hi everyone,

this topic has been discussed several times before according to Brian, but I am not able to find any contens about it on the NMB.

 

How to take good photos of a sword?

 

If someone is able to pass me the link it would be much appreciated, thank you.

Kind regards, Thomas

 

 

Here you will find a few posts on the subject of how to photograph Nihonto