The information below shows and describes the apparatus and background used for photographing guns. The shoulder guns used for this demonstration are a Remington Maynard Tape Lock Percussion Shotgun made in 1857 and a Percussion Full Stock Blunderbuss. These guns are from Zane Wilson's Collection. The hand guns used in this demonstration are a Boissy Pinfire Double Barrel Pistol and a Belgium Liege Proof Marked Pinfire Revolver.

Apparatus

The photo below shows the apparatus used for photographing guns:

The lighting array consists of eighteen 60 watt light bulbs, is easily lowered and raised, and has rollers for easy horizontal adjustments. The fully adjustable camera tripod sits on the lighting array base. The camera currently used (not shown) is a Hewlett Packard Photosmart 612 Digital 2.3 MP Camera. The Gun Stand has two vertical rods that the gun being photographed rests on and both rods may be independently adjusted vertically. The Gun Stand is painted with Rustoleum Painter's Touch Semi Gloss Black Multipurpose paint. The background used for photographing is the wall shown that is painted with Olympic Premium Silent Night Flat Latex paint.

For those interested, the photograph above was taken in the Home Theater that was designed by Dave. All wood is oak and is finished in Minwax Special Walnut Stain and Minwax Clear Satin Polyurethane. The carpet is Dry Martini and all funiture (not shown) is Lakeview Ebony. The ceiling lighting consists of four rows of two recessed lights located 24 inches from the walls. Each row of recessed ceiling lights is independently adjusted by four dimmer switches.

The photo below shows the Hand Gun Stand as used for photographing multiple barrel hand guns:

The photo below shows the Hand Gun Stand as used for photographing single barrel hand guns:

The photo below shows the Hand Gun Stand as used for photographing multiple hand guns:

Background

The background used for photographing was selected because it produces images that give the most accurate colors, using automatic camera settings, of the subject gun and because it does not distract from the subject. The photographs below demonstrate the use of various backgrounds.

Solid Backgrounds

Olympic Silent Night

Bone

White

Fabric Backgrounds

Lakeside Ebony

Camel

Wood Backgrounds

Oak

Birch

Rough Cut Pine

Brick Background

Brick

For more information on photography, refer to Test Photos.