Photography Experts-I have a question

[Mango]

My dad wants to get a photographic record of all the rifles he has in his collection. It is very difficult to get picturs of the serial numbers and stampings on these rifles because of the color of the recievers and barrels, and the fact that they are just that, stamped. So what would you say is the best way to get pictures of these markings. It's like they are just depressed into the metal. Should we:

A.) Use like white posterboard and place the rifles outside and use the flash on my camera along with natural sunlight?
or

B.) Use flourescent or halogen lighting along with a white background along with the flash on my camera?

[sps16]

yea, i ran into the same problem when i tried to take pictures of me classic valve serial numbers. I would say natural light with your back towards the sun, thats my best guess.

[Remington]

I'm no photography expert but why not get some chalk and carefully fill in the numbers so they show up?

[MantisMag]

the numbers are recessed right? take them in mostly dark with angled lighting and a high exposure time.

[Army]

Originally posted by Remington
I'm no photography expert but why not get some chalk and carefully fill in the numbers so they show up?

Yes, that's what we do to all the MG's in the vault. It easily washes right off again. We also use White-Out for a more permanant highlight.

[RamboPreacher]

Originally posted by MantisMag
the numbers are recessed right? take them in mostly dark with angled lighting and a high exposure time.

yup, yup...
The picture may not be a great "photograph", but you can make the SN very visible, especially if you can shoot it at a macro setting, and easy to read. Something like:

[Webmaster]

First off - if at all possible take your pics outside. Natural light give you thes best photos.

Use a neutral background - like leaned up on a tree, or on bricks. If you use white poster board what can happen is the board reflects too much light back, and the camera under exposes the rifle - making the rifle dark.

Avoid the flash - it will just lead to glares off the rifle.

The chalk trick may work well - but generally if your camera has a MACRO feature (its a little flower on many cameras) you can zoom right in and get a good pic of something close up. IF you have an SLR, a wide angle lens, like a 20mm, will let you get tight too. Many SLR zoom lens will also have a macro feature. Macro is the BEST way to get tight close up like what rambo preacher showed off.

If you do take pics indoors, you may want to use poster board/cloth to help bounce light back and around the subject. You can experiment with bouncing the flash off them to get a good image.

[Mango]

Thanks for all the tips guys! We hope to get started tomorrow.

[Jack & Coke]

What kind of camera will you be using?

Try asking your question here:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1025

(dpreview's Lighting Technique Forum)

[vf-xx]

a trick that I've used is to find yourself a small handheld diffuse light (my dad has this little battery powered florecent light, that works really well). Turn off your flash and shine that on it when you take your pictures.

Generally I'd reccomend avoiding a direct flash at all costs. It just causes too much glare.

[Jack & Coke]

I posted your questions here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1025&message=6088814

Maybe someone will answer it

[Jack & Coke]

You will need to use a small light source off to the side. This will cause the depressions to fall into shadow and they will be very noticible. You can also use the sun as the light source and turn the guns until the texture of the serial numbers is visible.

Good luck,

Ted W.

Like Ted says, you want the light from the side. you want it to rake across the stamp, almost 90 degrees from straight down onto the stamp. That way the light really shows the texture.

Another trick you can use is to wipe shoe polish onto the stamp, then wipe off the excess. If the metal is light colored, use black shoe polish. If it's dark, use white shoe polish. The down side of this approach is that it can leave residue on the piece, and be hard to clean off afterwards.

Duncan C

I have seen other gun collectors solve this problem by filling the stamping with a white grease pencil (from an office supply store). Then take the picture of the weapon with any lighting that makes the overall image look good. The white grease can be removed with mineral spirits (paint thinner) or gun cleaner products. A toothbrush is handy for getting out the last residue.

Good shootin'
John

If you only want to record the serial no.s for insurance purposes; etc. why get fancy. I shot this one hand held with a Nikon CP995, a desk lamp and no problematical 'filling' of the stampings. If I had a tough one where the serial numbers were worn, I might use two desk lamps. HTH. PatiO.

[Mango]

Awsome! thanks J&C! We were going to get started yesterday but my dad had other things. It's a daunting task to start considering we have over 75 rifles. LOL! I printed all the ideas out to show my dad.