Experimental photography

[Veli]

Hi all!

 

I have always wondered whether it is possible to capture a bright flashing yakiba over the entire blade length in a single photo. I experimented with an almost katana length wakizashi, and the results were encouraging. I know there are excellect photographers in NMB, thus I would like to hear if anybody has any tips how to improve...

 

BR,

Veli

[jason_mazzy]

bump for interest

[drbvac]

Looks pretty nice to me - ! Are you going to tell us how>?

[Kevin]

A very wide angle lens and a low angle of incidence light source?

 

I'm still trying to perfect ordinary pictures of swords. :-) Getting there slowly. :-)

 

Kevin

[Veli]

Well, there's no magic in it. I use two incandescent lamps, reflecting at a low angle of incidence, one directed at the tip and one at the hamachi. The secret is that I use a teleobjective to get enough distance, which enables keeping the reflection angle of light almost constant along the blade. I use the smallest possible lens aperture for maximum focus depth. Finally I use a tripod, and take the picture with self timer in order to avoid the vibrations due to pressing the trigger.

 

Here's another example; a more challenging one due to narrower, dimmer yakiba and a longer blade (Nambokucho period tachi, 67 cm nagasa). I failed to capture 100% of the yakiba, got maybe 80%. But ko-ashi are visible, and even some parts of the hada...

 

BR, Veli

[Veli]

...And one more example which was actually the hardest one to capture. A U-no-kubi-zukuri wakizashi (51 cm nagasa) with hitatsura hamon. Now I needed to illuminate the both sides of the shinogi. With two light sources I succeeded in capturing only 50% of the yakiba; should have used 3-4 lamps, but then the position adjustment of lamps would have been very tricky, though by no means impossible.

 

One more detail I forgot to mention: The exposure measurement should be in the spot metering mode, and the exposure level should be measured close to, but not exactly at the center of the spot of the brightest lamp reflection on the blade. That gives the best dynamic range.

 

 

 

Veli

[gudis]

I'm just wondering....

 

Is there anyone here that wants to explain how they are taking pictures of blades ??

I'm a advanced photographer so just shoot at me.

 

I think I can manage my self but if I can spare a couple of shots I would like that.

 

Are you guys using any post processing ??

[Veli]

Well, I am not an expert on photography... I normally do only minor postprocessing: cropping, maybe very slight brightness tuning, resizing... and that is all.

 

Veli