Lighting for shotguns and bright steel reenactment weapons

[bghomofaber]

Hallo Folks,

I need to create a catalog for reenactment weapons (guns of shiny steel or burnished in shiny black, swords and lances in steel that can be extremely polished as well in some cases, on average quite bright though).

I was thinking of buying softboxes from ebay, typically they cost an euro 150 per set, but I doubt I could reach for satisfactory results with them.

So I'm looking for suggestions about the minimum lighting equipment required, as well as about techniques to employ.

On this forum I already have found a good book suggestion but that is not cheap as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Light-Science-Magic-Introduction-Photographic-ebook/dp/B00S1DD870/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=

My goal is to make pictures with a good emotional impact, usually in this sector graphic design is overlooked but I think this attitude to be commercially negative.

regards

[RSalles]

Hi,

I had success shooting with a set of speedlights and 2/3 softboxes. the honeycomb models being even better for this.
Some reflectors also helps to enhance shadow detail, and a darks environment pops the metal also.
You can have a nice balance using other materials to compose the image with, as wood or other with texture,

I have the book you pointed to, a very good one going from the basics of light to the real application setup.

HTH,

Renato

[kansalliskala]

I done some computer graphics and there is one principle with the shiny things: reflective surfaces always reflect something. So a uniform lightning produces unform reflection. If you want to shoot a sword in a desert or woods realistically, you must produce the desert or the woods to the reflection.