Colt Defender

[Doc Mark]

I recently was asked to engrave a gun for another engraver. This was a bit unusual to say the least. The gentleman in question is suffering from failing eyesight and some hand tremors and no longer does any engraving. I thought it an honor that he trusted me with his one of his own pistols to engrave. He was very specific as to what he did and did not want on the gun. He asked that the lettering remain as is, that there be no background removal (only stippling) and to use "American Scroll" in the design elements. The Colt stainless was a bit of a bugger in that the hardness was somewhat uneven. I had a hell of a time trying to keep smooth outlines and shading. There was a LOT of sharpening involved, even using 100 and 120 degree gravers with a 55 degree face.

I must apologize for the poor photos. I tried everything I could think of, to get the lighting correct to show the stippled background as a darkened area. Even with Photoshop the engraving does not show up in focus. I have an older Canon Rebel with a 105 Sigma macro lens and I have never been satisfied with their ability to get good close-ups with crisp details. Anyone truly happy with their macro set-up please chime in here with suggestions.

Critiques are always welcome.

 

[papart1]

Hi Doc, Rob here. I am looking at the cannon eos rebelt6 in a package for 400, and one of accecentuated paragrapghs was, don't expect after market lens to work on any cannon digitals. I can understand why..........their lens are 3X the amount of the camera in a few sites on the web. I think I'll go to a shop and play with one. Good luck with brass. Rob

 

[Big-Un]

Great Mark, that he would trust you to engrave one of his guns. Is he someone I may know?

 

[SamW]

Mark, I have had great luck in close-up photos using a Canon G9 camera. I have not tried DSLR cameras as I have had no need for improvement.

A sample...

 

[Doc Mark]

Hey Big-un, yes, you may well know this engraver, as he was one of the earliest (maybe even a founding) member of FEGA. I will not give his name as he no longer is active and doesn't even have an internet connection. I think he would rather remain anonymous. He lives in a city not far from me and we have become friends after being introduced by a local custom jeweler.

 

[SamW]

Vibration is most often the culprit for "out of focus" photos. Always use a solid tripod and use time delay on the shutter. Most recommend the 2 second delay but I like to use the 10 second delay so all vibration has plenty of time to damp down. Especially with longer lenses.

On bare metal engraving, lampblack from a candle flame will help with adding contrast.

Depending on what lighting you are using, a simple arc of freezer paper held by a couple of splayed out coat hangers held at the ends with wood dowels will make a really good defuser.

 

[Brant]

Sam, Thanks for the diffuser pic.

I was not sure how to take good pics of larger pieces. Just not enough cloudy days to consistently have good diffused lighting.

 

[sam]

You need to set a custom white balance Mark. Your photos look purplish and that's easy to overcome. I shoot Canon for this type of work and use a 100mm macro. I see no reason why your setup can't produce good photos. It's more the light than it is the camera. You might check out the article I wrote for FEGA a few years ago on Photography For Engravers.

http://masterengraver.com/photography_for_engravers.shtml

 

[Big-Un]

Hey Big-un, yes, you may well know this engraver, as he was one of the earliest (maybe even a founding) member of FEGA. I will not give his name as he no longer is active and doesn't even have an internet connection. I think he would rather remain anonymous. He lives in a city not far from me and we have become friends after being introduced by a local custom jeweler.

Thought so. I miss seeing the "old man." May have to make a special trip down east. Thanks.

 

[Doc Mark]

You're right Sam. I didn't pay attention to the white balance on these shots. My bad! As I said in the first post, I'm using an older Canon EOS Rebel with a Sigma 100mm macro lens. I do have two studio flash units with a soft box and some white umbrella reflectors, along with a good solid tripod. Also, I have used a white photo tent for some shots in the past. I use an electronic "cable release". I shoot in RAW format, at 100 iso and manually focus. All this and I'm still not getting the detail that I feel is adequate. I can get pretty good photos when I'm really close to the subject but not when I try to get the entire gun or knife in the picture.

Any other hints that may help?