How to: Photograph a Rock

PA Jasper Susquehanna by the Author

Part of being a flintknapper is wanting to show off your work to other knappers. Knap-Ins are great places to do that, but for those times when large get togethers are far off, or those who you wish to share with are even farther away, a photograph is the easiest way to share your work. This post is all about the photographs and how they can be made.

Disclaimer: This is not a tutorial on how camera settings and other photographic gear work. If that is what you are in need of, there are tons of other places on the web that teach just that. This post presents some thoughts and techniques on how inexpensive gear can create good looking photos of your points.

Here are the 4 main pieces of gear that I use to to create the photographs of my arrowheads.

1. Canon 5D Mark II

2. Canon 24-70 2.8 lens

3. 2 to 3 and sometimes 4 Canon Speedlights (flashes)

4. Photoshop 

While not everyone has expensive camera gear; most people do have a simple digital camera or smart phone. 

Dark chert Dalton by the Author 

Its all about the Light:

In order to create a photograph you need light. In order to create a good photograph you need "good" light. What that means is light that is bright enough to allow your camera/cell phone to be able to keep its auto settings in the realm of was is optimal for the device. Brightness is also relative, a small LED is super bright if you look into it, but good luck illuminating something thats a few feet away.

Using Shade:

The simplest approach is to find a shady spot, or to photograph on an overcast day. The light will be nice and even but still bright enough for your camera to function optimally. The photo below was taken with a standard smart phone on an overcast day. Simple and easy. 

Floor Tile Point on a bamboo coaster.

Be sure to keep your backgrounds simple and clutter free. Look around your house for items that you can use such as an old mousepad, piece of cardboard, or a drink coaster. If your significant other is the crafty type, borrow some craft foam sheets or anything else they might have lying around. Stay away from bright colors, patterns, and anything glossy like plastic.

 Making a background:

If you cant find it - make it. The opening picture to this post has a background created after the photo was taken. The same look can be achieved by printing out the background first, then placing your point on top. When using this technique try to raise your point up off the paper.

For this one I used a pop bottle cap to raise the point up off the background.

photo taken on overcast day with an inexpensive digital camera.

If you would like to use the background shown above click this link Background Photo and save it to your computer. For best results print on a heavier low gloss paper.

Lighting for Detail:

Shade creates a nice even light, but the detail in the flake pattern can be accentuated by adding some additional highlights. Adding extra lighting, and having it come from a different direction, will create brighter areas by having the new light source only illuminate a small portion of the point. 

Here's the setup

Here is the result

For this last setup I used a small LED work-light on the right and light from a window to the left of the setup. This created areas that received more light than others. The broad point is sitting on a bottle cap, while the light sits on a book. This puts the light and the point higher up so that most of the light would hit the point and not the background. Notice the unevenness to the background due to being printed on plain printer paper. For best results use a higher quality paper. Below is the same setup but with a plain black background. I had wanted to use a mouse pad but could not locate it so I grabbed a black t-shirt out of my dresser.

Same setup with a black t-shirt background

Hope this "How To" provided some insight on how you can use items lying around your house to create good photos of your points. Be sure to break the rules though. With a digital camera if you do not like the picture simply delete it and try again. Be creative and have fun!

If you would like additional information on photographic techniques drop a comment below, and be sure to subscribe to the right and I will send you more information on other helpful resources.