Photgraphing Nihonto Pt2

[Toki]

Good evening everyone
I hope everyone had an amazing christmas and got safely into the new year.
Since my last post in october of last year, I was sort off burnt out on the topic of Nihonto. Probably trying to learn everything at once over the past year was not the right choice, like it is with university exams. Now, since a good 2 month break I finally have motiavation to dive back in.

Over the past few days I reread all of the comments below my last post about photographing Nihonto as well as Darcy´s guide to find out what the most key points to improve are. But as last time, the results this time are far from perfect, although a good bit better than last time in my eyes.

Setup
For the setup I tried to copy Darcy´s guide as much as possible, using a glass floor from a shelf as the display base, with a warm white LED bar as the light source laying on it to provide equal lighting over the full lenght of the blade. Also, I covered the floor below it with near black (a very dark blue) cloth and had the glass panel a bit above it to create a sort of clean blackground. This enabled me to move the sword across rather than moving the camera.
Speaking of the camera, it is still a Sony A6400, although this time fitted with a cheap makro lens I picked up not too long ago, namely the Peargear 60mm f2.8 MK2. I have been using it for nature photography over the last week and for the low price I am quite happy with this lens. I also got myself a tripod, giving me more freedom and flexibility in positioning the camera; especially compared to the music stand I had it strapped to last time.

The Nihonto is still my Tensho era Wakizashi attributed to Noshu den Kanesaki. It is unsigned and not a masterpiece by any means, but it is fun to experiment and study with.

This time, I mainly focused on the flaws of this blade. I was aware of all of those as I was informed by the seller during my visit at their shop as well as in our email converstations prior to the appointment, so there weren´t any bad surprises (fortunately).
It is mainly a bunch of inactive rust and lots of little scratches. Although, there is what I think is a big scratch along the hamon on one side, please let me know if it is something else. 
Also, while reviewing the pictures in Lightroom, I noticed those little blue streaks, which I have never seen before, but I think they are longitudinal chromatic aberrations and not a flaw in the blade. I will try to fix those in the future. 

I will leave pictures of the flaws (and some features ) of the blade down below. If you have tips on what to further improve, I am looking forward to any kind of feedback :D 

Best Regards

Erik

[Toki]

Here are some more pictures. The big rust spot is below the Habaki.
 

[Toki]

And some more   

[Brian]

Nice clear and well definite close-ups. Flaws always look so much worse in photos. 

[Lewis B]

Photographing nihonto is one of my most enjoyable aspects of the hobby. A good macro lens mounted on a tripod is definitely the way to go. The lens sees more than the eye although as Brian says the flaws appear far more significant than to the naked eye. 

Try different light sources, incandescent vs LED vs high intensity metal halide or halogen. Each will bring out different features on the blade. 

Having access to high quality photographs of swords only helps us to appreciate the finer qualities. I recommend people to check out FB "Shiotsuna" who regularly posts high quality photos of masterpiece blades and koshirae from major exhibitions in Japan. This koshirae for a Shintogo Kunimitsu tanto owned by the Date Clan is a case in point. Incredible workmanship.

 

[Toki]

6 hours ago, Brian said:

Flaws always look so much worse in photos. 

Yes, exactly they look so big when in reality it is around 1 or 2mm at most. Had me scared for a second when I saw them in the pictures 

 

2 hours ago, Lewis B said:

This koshirae for a Shintogo Kunimitsu tanto owned by the Date Clan is a case in point. Incredible workmanship.

That is a lovely piece, especially the details on the saya.
 

[eternal_newbie]

1 minute ago, Toki said:

Yes, exactly they look so big when in reality it is around 1 or 2mm at most.

The lighting tricks needed to properly photograph a blade also makes them look deeper than they really are.