Author Topic: Photographing our work  (Read 11731 times)

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Offline Badger

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Photographing our work
« on: October 10, 2018, 12:05:37 pm »
   Some of you guys have gotten really good at photographing bows, setting up the right backgrounds angles ect. If you ever decide to put a book together on this I will be the first to buy one.

Offline upstatenybowyer

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2018, 04:33:55 pm »
I agree it would be a great resource Steve. Maybe in order to make it long enough it could be a book about finishing and photographing bows. You could include things like choosing and applying decorative backings, handle wraps, tip overlays, ect.
"Even as the archer loves the arrow that flies, so too he loves the bow that remains constant in his hands."

Nigerian Proverb

Offline Weylin

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2018, 05:16:40 pm »
Taking good pictures of bows is hard! I'm always jealous of knife makers. One picture, bam! there's a beautiful knife with all it's details on display. I have to take at least 10 pictures of of my bows to capture everything I want to capture.

Offline DC

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2018, 06:37:20 pm »
I've noticed that the guys that make the nicest bows also take the nicest pictures. For a while I thought that it was their picture taking ability that made their bows good. Now I think it's that these people pay attention to details whether they're making bows or taking pictures. They're exceptional craftspeople at whatever they put their hand to. They'll squeeze that extra bit of wow at what ever they do.

Offline Bryce

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2018, 07:50:36 pm »
I think a gallery attached to the users handle would be kinda cool
Clatskanie, Oregon

Offline Badger

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2018, 11:55:24 pm »
   I think if I knew how to take better pics I would spend more time dressing up the bow for a photo shoot. I agree with DC, the same craftsman that put the work into their bows also put some effort into nice photos.

Offline Weylin

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2018, 08:58:14 am »
I think a gallery attached to the users handle would be kinda cool

Make it happen Mr. global moderator!

I've noticed that the guys that make the nicest bows also take the nicest pictures. For a while I thought that it was their picture taking ability that made their bows good. Now I think it's that these people pay attention to details whether they're making bows or taking pictures. They're exceptional craftspeople at whatever they put their hand to. They'll squeeze that extra bit of wow at what ever they do.

If you don't pay attention to detail on your bow and then you take sharp, detailed pictures all you do is show the flaws in high definition!  ;D

It really doesn't take a fancy camera and equipment to take good photos though. Lighting is super important. I take all my pictures with my phone camera. a little editing for light balance and definition goes a long way. I guess that's what a good camera would have done in the first place.

Offline leonwood

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2018, 02:23:33 pm »
I don’t think is is really hard to do, it just takes some time and effort to do it good. Most people spend ages perfecting their bows and then want to take a few phone snaps as quick as possible.

What I do is wait for nice weather and take the bow to the woods and look for a nice place with nice light. Doing this in the morning or evening helps with the mood of the lightning. Try to avoid full sunlight or dark shadow.
I rest my bow on a branch I cut at the site and take pics walking around the bow. I try to picture the profiles of the whole bow and some close ups of the handle and tips ans some features like knots etc.

At first I used my phone but then I decided to get a “real” camera so I could take better quality pictures. For people who are interested, I bought a second hand Canon EOS 350D for 30 bucks. This is a 12 year old digital camera with a standard lens and I use it on auto mode so that is not hard at all.

If anyone is interested I am willing to do a proper photograpy tutorial or video so let me know!

Offline DC

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2018, 02:55:49 pm »
I'm interested :)

Offline TimBo

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2018, 03:47:32 pm »
Weylin did do a bow photography tutorial that can be found as a sticky at the top of the Bows page (not that we can't have another one!).

Offline Mesophilic

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2018, 06:53:49 pm »
There's something artistic that some people have and others don't.   I have an amzing camera, if I'm lucky 10% of the pics I take will turn out good.  Whereas a good friend of mine has an outdated camera, less mega pixels, and an inferior lens...we can both photograph the same subject and his will  come out like it should go in a magazine and my pics are just high def  plain boring images.
Trying is the first step to failure
-Homer Simpson-

Offline Bryce

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2018, 09:08:24 pm »
I think a gallery attached to the users handle would be kinda cool

Make it happen Mr. global moderator!

I've noticed that the guys that make the nicest bows also take the nicest pictures. For a while I thought that it was their picture taking ability that made their bows good. Now I think it's that these people pay attention to details whether they're making bows or taking pictures. They're exceptional craftspeople at whatever they put their hand to. They'll squeeze that extra bit of wow at what ever they do.

If you don't pay attention to detail on your bow and then you take sharp, detailed pictures all you do is show the flaws in high definition!  ;D

It really doesn't take a fancy camera and equipment to take good photos though. Lighting is super important. I take all my pictures with my phone camera. a little editing for light balance and definition goes a long way. I guess that's what a good camera would have done in the first place.


I’ll do what I can:) tryin to fill my bear tag these next few weeks ;)
Clatskanie, Oregon

Offline bjrogg

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2018, 04:53:08 am »
I think a gallery attached to the users handle would be kinda cool

I like that idea to Bryce. Always enjoy looking though Gallery.

I think both taking the pictures, setting up the pictures and editing and cropping the pictures are all very intertwined. I just use my phone. I'm always taking and deleting pictures with it. I've got over 4000 pictures on it. I often find it better to take my close ups not quite as close as I'd like . Then do a IMG. and save that image. Then I crop it removing unwanted area of background further shrinking image size but actually bringing image closer up. It seems to be the only way I can post images anyway. If I don't crop them even a IMG image is to large of a file.
I would also enjoy a tutorial on photographing bows, arrows and points. I read Weylin's and found it very helpful.
Bjrogg
A hot cup of coffee and a beautiful sunrise

Offline Bryce

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2018, 04:46:02 pm »
I use a camera designed for wildlife photography, but most of the time you can use your phone. Phone cameras now a days are unreal. I then transfer all the pictures to my phone, it takes awhile since they’re HD, and on my phone I have a few editing tools. The ones I use to most are ; Aviary, Enlight, Photofox (which is an extension of enlight and has a noise reduction feature that I love), Pixomatic, and of course Adobe photoshop express.
Each one has the same tools but some work differently for each photo. And they also have tools that the others don’t that I take advantage of.
Weather it’s adjusting tint, contrast, or reversing the effects the sunlight has on the true color of the bow wood.
It’s a learning curve. But sometimes every little edit counts and sometimes the picture is beautiful being left alone and just needs the lume brought down -2 degs. And then it’s perfect.

Even with a basic editing tools you can adjust a few things and bring out some color. I played with this blacktail and pulled out as much color as I could without distorting the picture. Now it could definitely be tuned down a bit for better quality, but this just shows you don’t need anything too fancy to have good pictures.








Clatskanie, Oregon

Offline Weylin

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Re: Photographing our work
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2018, 05:25:18 pm »
Cool pic Bryce. I agree, a little editing goes a long way to make an average picture turn into a great picture. I just use the editing sliders that are built into the photo gallery on my phone.