Tutorial - how to photograph your lightsaber

[Jedi Ranger]

Okay, first let me make perfectly clear that I am most definately NOT a professional photographer.

Now then.........

As more and more people purchase/upgrade to digital cameras, they often underestimate how different the picture-taking process can be. They often fail to read the entire manual, or just dont' practice using the feature on their camera. Anyway, here we will discuss tips on photographing our lightsabers.

The biggest topic containing photos, is about the hilts. There are plenty of blade picture around, but not a lot to experiment and customize with. So no great need to show off blades.

For photographing your hilts, there are several MUSTS.

1) Lighting is crucial. Natural light is always better than a flash, or other artificial light. Digital cameras have automatic and manual settings for color balance. Most newer ones are fine when left on manual. Anyway, always have the subject well lit. Try to have a contrasting background. Chrome does not turn out very well on a very dark or very light background. Try to find something that will not blend in with the reflections.

2) Close up photos are best for showing off the details, but here is where many people mess up. All digital cameras (at least from the last 3 years) have two obvious modes. There is a basic standard normal mode, and there is a close-up mode. DO NOT USE ZOOM. The close up mode will usually look like a flower. This mode is used when taking pictures about 30cm, or 12inches, away. This mode is great for partial hilt pictures (pommel or emitter ends - one at a time).

3) Posting - I recommend resizing AND cropping your pics down to at least 1024x768, maybe even 800x600. This will help in speeding up the topic page loading. Feel free to LINK to larger resolutions. Cropping the pic will allow for a large image of the hilt itself, while eliminating the wasted space (background).

If you need a program to do these things for you, IrfaView is FREE, and supports nearly EVERY image type.

I hope people use this. Let's show off our work (and other's) as best as we can. If there are questions, post them, and I will do my best to answer them. I'm sure I'm not the only one around here that could answer, though.

Don't be afraid to practise, and good luck.

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http://www.members.shaw.ca/Dahak/

[informalmyx]

i would also say get a simple background maybe lay it on a pillowso you background doesnt mess with the focus of the picture

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[xwingband]

Yes, for a simple background go to a fabric store or Wal-mart and buy a cheap fabric that is a neutral color. Use this to lay on something to photograph your sabers. It's better to have a nice background if you ever happen to want to sell your saber and we don't want to see the junk on your workbench.

For taking pictures of your blades lit up you will have experiment with the flash and exposure levels of your camera. Flash will almost always kill the look of the blade. I find turning up the exposure 1 notch and flash off will get the most accurate look of the blade.

Exposure explaination: Exposure is the amount of time the apeture (opening) of the shutter on your camera is open. The longer it is open the more light is allowed to enter your camera and register on the image sensor inside.

If you mess around with exposure settings know that the chances of the image blurring are greater. The more the shutter is open the more of a chance it will catch you wobling. A tripod is great but simply bracing your arm or camera may be all you need.

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Photo editing with a program:
As Jedi Ranger already mentioned. Resizing helps it show better on our screens and make it so it doesn't take a minute for someone on dial-up to see it. Changing your image size will most likely be under edit and image size. If you have a save for web feature on your program use it.

800x600 is good as mentioned but almost as important is resolution. Most new cameras will save at some resolution 300+ which is great for if you want to blow an image up but not for viewing on the web. Monitors go at 72 pixels per inch so any more than that is overkill.

I haven't used IrfaView but another free program is GIMP. It's an open-source program that has many of the advanced features as pay programs. If your interested in paying for a program Adobe Photoshop is the holy grail of programs but costs out the wazoo. PhotoImpact is another notable program too.

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[Mi Gin Gonn]

One more thing---I've posted this elsewhere so if you've read it already my apoligies---a slow shutter speed can give you a nice movie-like blade if both camera and subject can hold still enough. That's how I was able to get that top green saber pic that's on the hilt thread.

Also, I haven't tried this yet but it's a cool idea I think---if you're doing the classic "X" clash pose of two sabers, having a third person hold a flashlight where the blades crisscross should give a nice clash-flash effect if it's aimed at the camera lens. Just make sure that your flashlight holder is disguised enough to not show in the pic, and that the flashlight is just above or below the polycarbonate saber blades (it'll look close enough in the pic, but won't make the blades physically silhouette).

Hope you guys like my ideas, happy holidays all. []

"Chaka, call off Dawson, will ya?!"

[scaloth]

speaking of photographing lightsabers.....does anyone have a picture of an LED saber with a red blade? i looked on the gallery and wasn't sure if the one red saber there was an LED or an EL. i'm thinking of making my next saber LED but i don't want to attempt it if the best "red" i'll get is just as orange as it is red.

[Mi Gin Gonn]

scaloth-i think there's some pictures over on the jedi council led blade forum. from what i understand, amber and red-orange LEDs are orange and orange-ish red respectively, but red is just as red as it can be.

btw, i forgot, some digital cameras have a setting for "night flash", which looks great for saber pics taken outdoors at night. that's what the person who took my outdoor pics used, i think they came out pretty good.



"Chaka, call off Dawson, will ya?!"

[LAN-ED-TUL]

yes scaloth i posted my newest creation a heiland synchronar converted to darth vader ANH with a red/orange 3 watt star in it along with a sound board/ i posted pics of the blade and the hilt in a seperate post folling the blade pics. theyre in the post your pics section.

[GeluKhanGharr]

scaloth, the red Luxeon led is the same color as the MR Vaders. Usualy they come out orangy looking in pictures, but not to the naked eye.
Here is a good example with comparisson pics between the two:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MESO%3AIT&rd=1

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.

[JediSaberSmith]

He is a comp pick of a red-orange LED next to a Vader FX.

http://www.jedisabersmith.com/led.html

JediSaberSmith
An Elegant Weapon From A More Civilized Age

[Darth Poo Head]

thanks for posting that link J.S.S. I've been wantign to see a side by side comparison of the red / amber like that.


It's not the Jedi way....