I occasionally receive e-mails complimenting me on the pictures on 7.62x54r.net and asking me for tips in photographing firearms.  While I'm far from a professional photographer, I'll share what I've learned through trial and error.

The camera I use is a Kodak DC340, which is a couple of years old.  There are cameras on the market now with more features and capability for less than I paid for mine.   A quality camera is important, but an expensive one isn't necessary.

When photographing firearms, especially close ups of small and often poorly stamped markings, there are two primary obstacles to overcome.  Glare, or reflection of the flash and ambient lighting, is one which is especially troublesome with deeply blued metal and wood with a glossy finish.  The other is focusing the camera properly at close range.

I have an 8' florescent fixture in my gun room which is great at providing a lot of light for studying and working on firearms, but creates problems when taking pictures.   When setting up shots I leave the florescent light on, but shade the part of the bulbs that are perpendicular to the subject.  I also place the camera between the subject and the light so that the light is coming from each side and not directly at the firearm.  Without good light on the subject the camera isn't able to focus well and to provide this I use a swinging arm type lamp that I can easily move into different positions and angles..  I always put it off to one side so it's not reflecting back at the camera.  The camera flash itself is problematic too.  A powerful remote flash that can be bounced off the ceiling would be the proper way to solve the problem, but that's a luxury I'm not willing to pay for.  I try to position the camera so that flash doesn't reflect directly back at the lens, or if it does at least so that it's from a part of the subject that I will crop out later.  When the subject is a flat surface this isn't too difficult, but round barrels and receivers are challenging.  I've found that a slight angle along the length of the barrel will solve this.  I generally point the camera towards the muzzle as this is the natural perspective that people have when looking at a rifle and the slight angle isn't as noticeable.

As I mentioned before, lighting is important for the camera to be able to focus.  If the subject isn't well lit the camera's auto-focus won't adjust to it.  If you use something like a white crayon to highlight the markings it's much easier, but I prefer not to myself.  My camera has a close up setting and I use it for practically all my pictures except for the full length rifles.  It's important to remember that all cameras have a minimum distance away from the subject that they can focus on.  My camera is 9" and I have to remember to maintain that.  In close up mode the LCD screen on my camera automatically comes on and I use it rather than the viewfinder.   At close distances the viewfinder can be several inches away from what the lens is actually centered on.  I also check for glare on the LCD screen and make adjustments to the lighting as necessary.  I've also found that a "busy" background will cause the autofocus to "lock in" on it instead of the subject.  A woodgrain table top or even the weave of a white piece of cloth will be a problem.  I usually just lay a piece of printer paper under the rifle to give it a solid white background.  If I'm really having difficulty I use masking tape down each side of the barrel shank on the stock to bring the background right up to the subject so no matter what the camera focuses on the markings will be in focus.

To get the best possible picture I use the highest quality setting on my camera.   This creates large files, but they can always be reduced later.  A steady camera is also important, especially with the lag time that is inherent in digital cameras.  I use a monopod that I mounted a swivel head on from an old tripod.   This gives me some flexibility in camera position, but I still get a steady rest.    I also take 3 to 6 pictures of each subject checking them on the LCD screen as I go.  If one looks like it has a glare or is out of focus I try a little different angle or move my light.  I keep taking pictures until I think I've got a good one and then pick the best one on my computer.  I've learned not to put the rifle away until I'm sure I've got the picture I want.  In the long run it can save a lot of time not having to get the same rifle back out to re-take a picture that isn't quite what you wanted.

The software used to manipulate and edit the pictures is important, but like the camera, you don't have to have state of the art to produce an adequate result.  I use a simple program called Microsoft Photo Editor that was a part of Office '97.  It's not on Office XP, but I've loaded it on my newer computers from the old disc because I'm familiar with it and it suits my needs.  After downloading the pictures I make sure the subject is "square" and rotate it a few degrees if necessary.  I often position the subject upside down because of space constraints or lighting issues and simply rotate the picture 180 degrees with the software.  The next step is to crop the picture and remove any unnecessary and distracting background.  I try to only show what I want to illustrate with possibly some surrounding features to indicate the location of the mark or feature on the rifle.  This will also greatly reduce the file size making e-mailing and downloading much faster.   Finally I play with the contrast, brightness, and "gamma" (please don't ask me what this means because I don't know) of the picture.  This is under "balance" in Photo Editor and any image software should have a similar feature.  You can take a very dark picture with almost no detail and lighten it up where everything's visible.  You have to be careful not to get a "washed out" look, but it can make a big difference.   Finally I resize the picture depending on my needs.  If it's a full length shot of a rifle where details aren't important I often make it 800 pixels wide as this will not be larger than the viewer's monitor in most cases.  For small marks or sharp details I don't resize the picture.  If this is too large for a web page layout or efficient downloads I create a smaller thumbnail with a link to the original picture.

I hope these simple suggestions from my limited experience will help you enjoy your firearm collection even more.

The Mosin Nagant Picture Reference Guide can be useful when discussing pictures of various features with other collectors.