Terrific video Katie! The visual lessons really helped me grasp a couple issues that keep showing up. Timing is perfect as I am in the midst of re-shooting a very special knife. Have been trying to impress a certain publisher, but haven't nailed things yet! This may just be the advice I needed to accomplish that. I use the putty, but the coins really make sense, so too does squishing things down to secure that acute angle I've been missing! Looking forward to the next video!
Great advice. We are in the process of shooting some pictures for our Japanese knives and this helped a lot! I'll try your tips right away as some of our website's pictures definitely need improvement!
It’s like watching my dining room table 😂 Good video that I think will help a lot of people. I do pretty much the same thing, but have ruined some backgrounds,so that coin idea will come in handy. I use pieces of putty eraser from my art supplies which does the same thing as the synthetic clay used here. Also, particularly for straight down shots it’s very hard not to get some of the camera reflected in the blade, so I use some larger reflector panels (or sometimes black panels depending on the effect and it hides the camera reflection if you get it in just the right position. Photography is very much about problem solving, especially when it comes to lighting reflective items!
Glad you found this useful! Years ago a carpenter told me that "carpentry is just a bag of tricks" -- I think the same is true of knife photography. Once you figure out what you are really trying to achieve and get some sort of workable lighting setup, it's just a bag of tricks.
Excellent question! We have a big stack of backgrounds like the one shown, in a variety of colors and textures. They came from two different books of wallpaper samples that I disassembled. What you want are the ones labeled "TEXTURES" because you really don't want stripes or bold repeating patterns, you want something more random. Other good backgrounds that you might have lying around: large floor tiles, interesting textured paper, and wide pieces of wood. Sometimes the ugliest looking pieces of battered old wood look really great under the camera lens. Good luck!
Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Long time subscriber to the mag , late 80's early 90's , unbroken !!! Thank you !!!
Thank YOU David!!
Cool beans
Terrific video Katie! The visual lessons really helped me grasp a couple issues that keep showing up. Timing is perfect as I am in the midst of re-shooting a very special knife. Have been trying to impress a certain publisher, but haven't nailed things yet! This may just be the advice I needed to accomplish that. I use the putty, but the coins really make sense, so too does squishing things down to secure that acute angle I've been missing! Looking forward to the next video!
Thanks so much, Del! Sometimes having a visual reference makes all the difference.
Very good and informative video. Thank you
Glad this was helpful! Thanks for watching. More to come!
Great advice. We are in the process of shooting some pictures for our Japanese knives and this helped a lot!
I'll try your tips right away as some of our website's pictures definitely need improvement!
Good luck with your photo project!
@@markzalesky8632 thanks!
Good stuff! Huge help!
This was great. Thank you. Do you do videography for product pages as well?
Hi Brandon! Are you looking for someone to edit videos? Feel free to reach out to us (email in about info).
Great tips! I've been doing this a long time and still struggle with lighting and reflection at times. Def picked up some useful tips here.
Lighting is always tricky in knife photography. Glad we could help!
This helped me out. Thank you
It’s like watching my dining room table 😂 Good video that I think will help a lot of people. I do pretty much the same thing, but have ruined some backgrounds,so that coin idea will come in handy. I use pieces of putty eraser from my art supplies which does the same thing as the synthetic clay used here.
Also, particularly for straight down shots it’s very hard not to get some of the camera reflected in the blade, so I use some larger reflector panels (or sometimes black panels depending on the effect and it hides the camera reflection if you get it in just the right position.
Photography is very much about problem solving, especially when it comes to lighting reflective items!
Glad you found this useful!
Years ago a carpenter told me that "carpentry is just a bag of tricks" -- I think the same is true of knife photography. Once you figure out what you are really trying to achieve and get some sort of workable lighting setup, it's just a bag of tricks.
@@KNIFEMagazine agreed. It’s true of all types of photography really. Reflective things just require a few additional tricks.
Great video! Where could I find nice backgrounds like you used? I think a rustic wood looking background would look nice with my knives!
Excellent question! We have a big stack of backgrounds like the one shown, in a variety of colors and textures. They came from two different books of wallpaper samples that I disassembled. What you want are the ones labeled "TEXTURES" because you really don't want stripes or bold repeating patterns, you want something more random. Other good backgrounds that you might have lying around: large floor tiles, interesting textured paper, and wide pieces of wood. Sometimes the ugliest looking pieces of battered old wood look really great under the camera lens. Good luck!
@@KNIFEMagazine Thanks for the reply! You just gave me some great ideas so thank you so much!
@@BallisticTipp You're very welcome