Photography assistance, please

[Rooster]

I want to take a picture of my rifles' bore and the danged flash washes out the interior. I'm sure the horde here has at least one expert to help me through the darkness. Also, should it be in macro (the flower icon) or not? Novice shutterbug here, with a public education, JIC that needed explaining.[smilie=s:

[shooter93]

Maybe use a light shining up the bore, possibly at an angle and forget the flash and macro will probably let you focus closer depending on the lens.

[Rooster]

I'm using a white paper towel for a background drop and it's lighted with an old school Maglite 3D. My compact digital camera is made by Nikon, it's a "coolpix" model. Searching on line for instructions now.

Thanks shooter93.

[edler7]

Put a cleaning patch or 2 over the light. They will cut down the intensity and make the lighting less harsh.

Same thing if you use a flashlight to illuminate the bore.

[Rooster]

Cover the camera flash with the patch or the Maglite? I really am green with photography and the camera is a present I'm trying to figure out. I forgot where I put the manual too. Love that CRS disease sooooo much.

ETA: This is informative and specifically written for bore photos

http://votefordavid.blogspot.com/2009/06/photography-photographing-inside-rifle.html

[RogerDat]

.Light coming up the bore but not shining directly up the opening. You can't see (or photograph) squat looking directly at a light. More light is better than less light just not directly at the camera lens.

Putting Kleenex or toilet paper over the flash is an old trick to soften the light, can use more than one layer of paper to get the light level you need. But try using any external light over the flash, turn off flash if at all possible. You need to be close to get the picture of the bore so flash will always be too harsh. Intended for lighting subject a few feet away, too much and too harsh for a few inches.

Try a lamp without a shade, a work light etc. line the barrel so it is aimed to one side of the light pointed at something white such as a white wall or piece of paper. Barrel closer or further from light and reflected light from white paper should allow you to control how much light is in the bore. Take pictures with different distances and angles to the light, delete the ones that don't turn out. You want the bore to be at an angle to the light source but to get a lot of general reflected light coming back from different directions

It is sort of like working up the right load, little more like this, no back a bit..... adjust that a little.... boom on target.

[bangerjim]

NO FLASH!!!!!!! EVER!!!!

Follow the diffusion lighting recommendations above. Diffused light from the other end....and it does not need to be real bright. Softer light is much better. Your camera will compensate for exposure.

[edler7]

I'd use a small pen light or one of those little LED lights on a gooseneck.

[CGT80]

If you have a very light colored background in your pic, surrounding the barrel, the camera may pickup the light from the background and set the exposure for that rather than the bore. Many cameras will let you choose which point to focus on or to use for exposure. My old DSLR will let you focus on a spot and then hold a button and move the camera to capture the area you want in the pic. Manual exposure settings will allow you to get the exposure where you want. A white background may look over exposed/washed out, while the bore would look good. The camera is more likely to pay attention to the background since it will be big compared to the bore.

Find out what the min. focus distance is for each focal length (zoom) on your camera, or set it to macro and start very close and back up until it will focus. On manual focus, you can set the focus for up close and then move the camera closer or farther away until the bore is in focus.

A larger aperture opening (smaller f stop number) will create less depth of field. Dark scenes need more light which can require bigger apertures. Less depth of field means that only a small portion of the scene will be in focus. A smaller aperture, bigger number, will let in less light but give you more distance that is clear, when you focus. If you go to manual mode or aperture priority, where you set the opening and it chooses the shutter speed, you can compare how these effect each other.

Some cell phones actually do a very good job at macro shots. On a digital camera, especially a DSLR which should have better glass than a cell phone, the resolution can be so high that you don't need to do a macro shot or zoom in very closely, but when you zoom in on the camera screen or a computer, you can really see the details in the size you are looking for. I use my DSLR to take pics of things like carbs when I rebuild them and a shot that includes the entire carb can still be zoomed in to show great detail of the very small parts. I will sometimes just view the photo on the camera and use the zoom button to see the details.

There are many settings and options for going about this. Hopefully your digital camera has the capability to capture what is needed and you just have to figure out how to go about it.

[rondog]

A bore is a tough shot with any camera, but especially with a pocket camera. Definitely turn off the flash, and shine a mild light in from the chamber end, but not directly, at an angle. A tripod or some kind of mount for the camera will help a lot, rather than hand held. If you can adjust the focus to center-weighted, that'll help too, so that it only focuses in the very center of the viewfinder. Otherwise it'll try to focus everywhere but the bore.

[Sasquatch-1]

I picked up an endoscope for less then $20.00 on Amazon. It plugs into a USB port on the computer and you can do stills or video of the bore.

[RogerDat]

I picked up an endoscope for less then $20.00 on Amazon. It plugs into a USB port on the computer and you can do stills or video of the bore.

That there sounds like it might be a winner.

In a DSLR or adjustable digital camera the easiest way to guess at settings is to remember each step of shutter, aperture, and ISO is equivalent in terms of letting light in to be collected into an image.

Slower shutter speed of one step is the same as increasing ISO by one number (although some newer digital cameras have half steps) One f-stop larger aperture (smaller number) is the same difference as one step slower shutter.

Each however has its own distinct impact on the photo. More light from slower shutter increases the time your hand can't shake without blur or blur from a moving subject will be results. Aperture (f-stop) larger lets in more light but reduces the depth of the picture that is in focus. With really wide open aperture it is possible to have a nose in sharp focus while the ears are starting to get a little fuzzy. Higher ISO is going to gather light faster but at the expense of fine grained detail. High ISO yields a grainy picture.

Tripod allows slower shutter speed to gather more light without having any hand shake blurring the picture. High ISO lets you get somewhat grainy picture by candle light, Aperture will give you some ability to control how far down a bore is in focus.

Too dark move one at a time one step at a time until you get the picture you want.

[williamwaco]

Decide which end of the bore you will look at with the camera.
Set the gun in a device of some sort to align the bore horizontally. I use sandbags.
Align it at a height above the work surface so the camera is looking directly into the bore.
Set your f stop to the highest setting available.

Place a white cloth about a foot from the other end of the barrel.
Shine all the light at your disposal at the white cloth.
use manual focus if you can. Auto focus is sure to focus on something you don't care about.

I set the camera on a sandbag. I don't have a tripod that will go that low.

Be very careful tripping the shutter. The exposure time will be slow.

Be prepared to try multiple shots. You are not likely to get it the first try

Oh yes. Look first, if you can't see it with your eye you are not going to get it.

I use a Nikon SLR and a Nikon Coolpix. You might be surprised to hear that in general i get better results with the Coolpix.