Digital Photography or how I wasted a Saturday

I started out today to take a couple of pictures of a few weapons to post. However, I got a little anal and wanted to take a descent picture with out the help of photoshop. I started a digital photography class a while back but dropped it after the instructor spent 3 hours going through a book looking at pictures showing one that was with a 18-55 lens and one taken with  a telescopic lens.

So today I just have a few pieces taken at different F stops, ISO and speeds. I also changed the back ground a little to help if needed.

So first off this is my photo tent being used outside with normal lighting.

The first set was taken with these settings.

Way to dark  so I called a friend who does a lot of picture taking and his recommendation for changes to the camera.

second set
ISO 600
F 8
1/250

So after a little more chatting this is what we came up with for settings.

ISO 400
F 11
1/250

As you can see the pistol frame is looking much better but the rifle receiver is still to washed out.

Same settings but with a darker back ground.

You can see that the trigger guard is still to dark but the receiver is okay. So the setting were changed again and a light diffusion card was place in front of the receiver.

ISO 400

F 10

1/250

You can see the lever and trigger guard much clearer.

The next trip will be to buy back ground paper and try again. There is a lot to taking good pictures and I am a slow learner, but I still keep trying.