Picture gurus, how'd I do?

I prefer not to cut things off, also you need more lighting so your camera can yield more Depth of Field so less of the pistol is out of focus.

Other than not having the entire pistol in the frame I like them. Some prefer more light and a greater depth of field. I like less light (or wider aperture if you have manual control) to create a narrower depth of field and the visual effect you see with part of subject in focus and part out of focus to some degree.

Nice work! I'm a photographer who has started getting into gun photos in the last few years. I think you got a good eye and a creative approach, keep it up!
I really like the bottom image, it doesn't really bother me that the CZ is cut off, I think it still works. The revolver is nice but the background is a bit distracting, the selective focus aspect doesn't really bother me. The top image is really nice but it feels a little bottom-heavy, try rotating the image 90 degrees counter-clockwise so the barrel is pointing down, I think you'll see what I mean.

As far as sharpness goes, you can fix that pretty easily, you have the eye for it already the rest is technical. If you don't use a tripod I would suggest that you do. Experiment with different camera settings and lighting conditions, I tend to use higher apertures (f16-f22) in low contrast light so as to not blow out the highlights. Outdoors can be difficult especially on stainless guns in the sunlight, just experiment and you'll figure it all out in no time. Buiding a light box will certainly help, take some pictures of your setup once you have it complete.

Good Luck!

Here are a couple of my most recent ones maybe they'll give you some more ideas.

they look better than the pics i take, but then again I suck!

Go here: http://lundestudio.com/firearms.html Ken is member of several forums (maybe here as well), and takes some of the best, if not THE best gun photos you'll see. Scroll to the bottom and read his tips. Depending on the equipment you have, you might not be able to implement all of that, but there's a lot of helpfull stuff there.

Here's mine...I need a better camera that does excellent close ups:

Why does your Sony DSC-P73 think it is July 24, 2006?

you took those at 9:20 PM by what your camera tells me

Should I go check the bushes outside?

Click to expand...

Wanna know the shutter speed, aperture and focal length as well?

Relax; it's called Exif data and the info gets buried in the photo data on practically all digital cameras.

lol it is funny making people freak when you tell them that

I love the CZ 75B. Getting one myself just like that as soon as I gel my PAL.

Since you requested advice/critique here goes.

I'm with the others who suggested you increase your depth of field. As it stands right now your muzzle is a little fuzzy. You can fix this a couple of different ways. You can add more light which will allow you to stop down your aperture, this will increase the depth of field. If adding light is not an option you can choose a longer shutter speed, which will require a smaller aperture to obtain the same exposure, thus increasing the depth of field. You can also move your camera further away from the subject and use a longer distance lens to keep the same composition with a longer depth of field. Overall focus is a little fuzzy in addition to depth of field. If you are using the camera's autofocus adding more light will help. If you are manually focusing then use the lettering on the slide as your focal point as that is the first thing a viewer will look at. Another composition consideration. We can see part of the backstrap of the S&W sneaking into the right side of the frame. A little judicious cropping would eliminate that potential distraction.

Overall focus is soft on this one too. The forward edge of the cylinder as a focus point with a large aperture would achieve the effect you are looking for. You can enhance the effect by increasing your shutter speed, which will increase your aperture and decrease your depth of field.

You cropped the CZ partly out of the frame but not the S&W, though it's bumping the frame too. This gives the picture a slightly imbalanced feel. Also the striping on the background, a pillowcase perhaps, adds to that imbalance. If your intention was to crop both guns then do it more so it looks intentional.

Those minor technical considerations aside, you have an eye for composition that will only get better. You chose not to shoot them flat on a surface, but in a more interesting layout that draws the eye to the shapes. Quite a lot of promise in your work, I look forward to seeing more.

Tex

Deleted ~ thread-killer. Or so it seems.

NEVER, EVER, EVER use the electronic flash on your camera to take a gun photo. EVER.

It's true! Some of those evil guns think your shooting at them and fire back!

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