The Problem With
Firearms Photography
Time for a Rant …
Brent created this photo a few years ago to illustrate a GUNS article. The picture was shot on a picnic table under
a covered porch at the range and it only took 60 exposures to get this single photo!
You wanna know one of the worst things about firearms photography? The fact that it exists at all.
OK, wait, that might be a little harsh, but this is the considered opinion of your favorite editorial despot here at GUNS Magazine. There are days when I really want to scratch my eyes out so I don’t have to see another bad gun picture, but then again, I’m probably just being a little melodramatic — a cupful of sulfuric acid would certainly do the trick with less effort.
Firearms photograph makes me crazy. I love photography and all things camera-related, and guns. Unfortunately, I’ve learned shooting pictures of shooting can be one of the more challenging things on earth.
If you’re one of the countless shooters who have been thoroughly disappointed with your own efforts to capture the magic of a hunt, the drama of a gun competition, the beauty of a special firearm or simply documenting a training session, you’ve come to the right place. This article will be a combination of photography how-to and a philosophy discussion, along with a healthy dose of whining, griping and low-level bitching.
The Problem
From a professional standpoint, I get frustrated because many so-called writers aren’t exactly sure which end of the camera takes the photo. Actually, I’m fairly sure a few of them are using the oatmeal box camera I made for the sixth-grade science fair.
I say “many” and not “all” because GUNS is also blessed with several staffers who do exceptional, professional-grade photo work. Meanwhile, our cover photographer Rob Jones makes art, not gun pictures. If you have ever thought, “Oh heck, I could do that if I had a better camera,” you probably could — on the Planet Zoomba or some other imaginary place. Remember, it only takes 20-30 years to become an overnight success. Top-notch photography is no different, but I’ll give you a few shortcuts.
Want to get those cool white backgrounds like in GUNS Magazine? A roll of butcher paper is the secret!
Larger rolls of photography background paper are standard equipment in our studios.
Brave New World
The photography “establishment” always gets its foundation garments in a twist about the technical aspects and technological minutia of capturing light. Novices, on the other hand, are primarily concerned with what equipment will transform them into Ansel Adams by next week. Here’s the shocking truth: don’t worry about it. In today’s world, you just need to keep a few things in mind. Let me explain.
Back in the Dark Ages, we actually used film. For the youngsters, imagine a world where you not only had to capture the image while guessing at the proper exposure, you then either had to splash around in a bunch of toxic chemicals for hours or wait days by the mailbox to get your photos back. Old-school photographers remember the knife-in-the-guts horror of discovering a week afterward they took 36 blurry, poorly exposed images of a once-in-a-lifetime event. It put a lot of pressure on shutterbugs.
Fortunately, things have reached a stage of technological utopia. Not only does digital photography allow you to immediately verify the image you captured so you can correct errors, but the cameras are so sophisticated they do almost all the work of picture-taking.
Virtually every picture-taking device — camera, cell phone, action camera, video cameras and who knows what else falls into this category — nowadays has built-in exposure compensation, multi-point focusing, various warning systems and even redundant safeties such as multiple-exposures at the single press of a button. It’s almost difficult to take a technically poor photo nowadays, but still very easy to take a lousy one. This is why technique is so important.
Basic “auto” settings will get you through the vast majority of situations. When it won’t, a basic understanding of how to set a manual exposure, along with some trial-and-error, will solve almost all the rest, but you need to know a few things.
Good photograph takes time. Here, a photographer and his assistant work to get a simple “lifestyle” advertising shot
of another man using a portable grill.
Let There Be Light
Right off the bat, your camera — regardless if it’s the latest $5000 DSLR or your cell phone — can’t see light like humans. Cameras don’t have the same range of sensitivity as our old-fashioned eyeball, plus our brain tends to selectively edit the scene. This is the reason why so many photos are blurry: there is plenty of light to see the subject, but the camera needs more. Sometimes, a lot more.
Herein is the first of my Down-N-Dirty Rules of Photography: Use enough light. Make sure you have plenty of light to shoot, then add 2x more. The brighter the scene, the better your picture will turn out. Whether you move into a brighter location or add light with a flash unit, a reflector or even your pocket flashlight, all cameras take nicer pictures when the scene is well-lit. Same for video.
Ever wonder why photos of those trophy fish in outdoor magazines always look so vivid and sharp? The photographer used a flash, even in the brightest sunlight. Yeah, it seems weird to turn on your flash unit while standing on a white boat under a cloudless summer sky in the Florida Keys, but the difference is notable.
This is why pocket flash units used to be considered standard equipment for all photographers. Nowadays, most cameras have a tiny built-in flash, while cell phones have essentially a minuscule LED flashlight. These are usable and better than nothing, but if you’re going to be taking pictures in lower-light situations, having some type of external lighting is worth the trouble.
The reverse problem is that most guns have highly-reflective surfaces. Even if you lay the gun down on a shaded porch, you’ll likely still get some hot blue or white highlights from the sky, which can completely wash out the details. Chrome, nickel and stainless-steel? Good luck. This is where you need to play around, move often and just see what happens. There is a lot of luck involved, too.
Stay Steady
In anything but bright, bright sunlight, you’ll need to support your camera. There are technical reasons, but suffice it to say a tripod, man-purse, phone cradle or your rolled-up hat can help make a better image. It also can make a difference when you’re shooting a still life, such as a gun on the workbench, even if you are using supplemental light.
Support becomes critical if you’re shooting in low light. If you’re trying to capture a buddy as he’s drawing down on that trophy elk as the sun touches the horizon or the last run of the IPSC match, you’ll need to put your camera on some kind of support. That, or use a flash, but it would definitely be hazardous to your health in these situations!
A photo from our recent story on Hamilton Rifles. Unexpectedly, Brent had 5 minutes
to get the shot on a desktop with his cell phone. It’s not bad, but you can see
the piece closest to the camera is out of focus.
Stay Focused
This one drives me crazy. I can fix most bad exposures with photo-processing software but an out-of-focus picture is basically ruined. This is such a big deal in firearms photography because guns, especially shoulder weapons, are long. Even if you don’t understand photography, you know it can be tough to keep both the muzzle and buttstock in focus.
This concept is known as “Depth of Field” and it’s something all photographers chase. Landscape photographers generally want everything from the wildflowers in the foreground to the trees on the farthest peak in tack-sharp focus. Meanwhile, the portrait photographer wants his subject in focus but the background pleasingly blurred. It takes planning to get either.
With an automatic camera or cell phone, using a “landscape” setting can help. This generally tries to keep everything in focus, though you might need to support the camera to avoid blurriness caused by a slow shutter speed.
When taking pictures of guns and accessories, you also need to keep an eye on how close your camera will focus. Every camera can keep the horizon sharp but something very close could be wildly blurred. Moving back is often the saving grace for gun close-ups.
A related problem is the common disappointment of seeing your well-taken picture only has a teeny-tiny gun or person in the middle. This happens because of the selective nature of our eyes and brain — “It sure seemed closer when I took the picture.” It did, so you need to pay attention to how much of your subject fills the frame. If in doubt, move closer.
Blaze Away
While a “mad minute” is fun at the shooting range, it’s pretty unrewarding after a couple of tries once you realize how much reloading versus shooting there is. However, one place you should always let ‘er rip is when shooting pictures.
Digital photos essentially cost nothing after you’ve purchased the camera or device. Therefore, never hesitate to hit the shutter an extra time — or a couple or three dozen. If your subject is an action scene, if you shoot two dozen photos, you might get one capturing the precision moment you intended, the action frozen just right, and the frame properly exposed and in focus. Shoot just a single exposure, and you’re really gambling. Most novices don’t realize the pros burn lots and lots of frames just to get a handful of good shots.
The classic “butt shot.” The photo is technically fine, but you can’t see the guns or what the shooters are doing on the firing line.
Find another (safe) vantage point!
Butt Shots
If you’re taking pictures of shooters, try to avoid “butt shots.” These are pictures of people with their posteriors pointed at the camera while they’re shooting. Most range pictures are taken 15 to 90 degrees off-axis but the most comical are made from straight behind. Stop and think — from straight behind, all you see is a head, shoulder, torso, butt and legs; no gun and certainly no action.
Never, ever go downrange to get photos because — stay with me here — that is where the bullets live. And please don’t ever think being downrange “but off the side” is safe. Everything 180-degrees off the front of the firing line is a death zone. We’ve all seen negligent discharges go in all sorts of directions and even a minor flinch by a shooter could send a bullet your way. Just don’t. Ever. No picture is worth the risk.
Always coordinate with the rangemaster, instructor or competition official before trying to shoot photos from anyplace other than a designated spectator area. I won’t name names, but I’ve seen some pretty bone-headed stunts from otherwise smart people because they apparently thought their camera gave them a magical bullet shield.
You can use a camera on a tripod with a self-timer downrange (making sure all guns are slung, holstered or otherwise not pointed in your direction while setting up the shot) or even a drone. I’ve also clamped cameras to target backstops — very risky, for the camera — and simply set it on the ground and hoped it would capture the action without getting shot or trampled.
Frankly, none of the stuff I’ve done to get downrange shots has really been worth the trouble. If you want to capture that “tacticool steely-eyed dealer of death”-look from a shooter, do it with an unloaded gun in a static situation — and only after a dozen people and one or two members of the judiciary have verified the gun is indeed unloaded. Even then, in the rare instance I take such photos, I never let the gun point directly at the camera because I’m terribly allergic to bullet wounds. You should be, too.
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