[Jim Lindsey]

Hi Everyone ... I'm beginning to discover that photographing a sword, especially one with a lot of high polish, can be a tall order to fill in getting a really good pic.

I'm trying to avoid shadows, lens flare from the flash and other undesirable effects, so I've been trying to get some "beauty shots" of Discerner using natural light outdoors during the dusk and twilight moments after the sun has gone down, yet still light enough that the flash on the camera would go off. With my digital camera, that sort of light seems the best for capturing all the sword details including the whole fuller, etc. However, I have a unique little phenomenon that occurs each time I try to photograph Discerner during the lower light of dusk and twilight.

When I shoot pics of the sword at dusk and twilight, there seems to be (for lack of a better term) a radiant glow around and through the sword in the pic. I have an example below of a shot I did just as twilight was beginning while it was still just light enough the camera flash wouldn't go off and the way the sword seems to "glow" is very evident. Not that it isn't really a cool effect in some ways, but I'm going for a really clean shot where everything is totally clear and no "glowing" effect.

I'd really like to get the sort of clear, clean and fully detailed shots like Nathan gets when he shoots pics of swords for reviews. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks

[Jim Lindsey]

Oops ... had a mistype in my post ... where it says "yet still light enough that the flash on the camera would go off" should read "yet still light enough that the flash on the camera would not go off".

[Bill Grandy]

Hi Jim,
Well, actually, that's pretty cool... but have you tried taking a picture in the shade? I'm certainly not the photographic expert that Nathan is, but when I take pictures it's on my roofed porch in full daylight. If it's cloudy, all the better. That way it's still bright, but no glare.

[Jim Lindsey]

Thanks, Bill ... actually this photo was taken under my roofed patio at dusk turning to twilight. The sun had gone down already and it was dim enough that if I'd waited just a few moments more, the camera flash would have gone off. And, it was a totally overcast evening (we might even get a thunderstorm or two tonight). It was very much totally in the shade but this weird "glowing" effect happens everytime I take pics of the sword in outdoor low light situations.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's some sort of anomalie related to the lens on my digital camera (it's a Sony DSC-S70 camera). For all I know, it could even be nicotine build up on the lens, but I don't get glowing effects like that in bright light or with the flash ... with bright light or flash I get clear pics but they're always tainted by lens flare or bright glare spots. Unfortunately, I don't have a different camera to experiment with and see if the same thing happens with another lens.

It'd sure be nice to get some really clean natural low light shots of it if I can ... but you're right, though ... it is a sort of really cool effect whenever that "glowing thing" happens.