Taking airgun photos with your phone
- Thread starter MDriskill
- Start date
Photo of my Daisy Powerline 415 taken with an iPhone 13. Natural lightning and no special equipment.
The only secret is adding a few touchups afterward but even then it's nothing complicated.
The only secret is adding a few touchups afterward but even then it's nothing complicated.
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Man, I just looked at several of your pictures again, especially the ones in post 32 and then the landscape ones. Man the talent you have. Soooo envious.
Happy New Year !!!
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Thank you for enlightening me!A friend was asking how I do photos, so I thought I might expand my replay into something I could annoy others with, ha...
Now, I am no pro photographer...so I welcome any ideas for improvements! And many of you already know a lot of this, so apologies in advance for insulting your intelligence. The notes below are for an iPhone (my 2-year-old basic SE model), but I think most Android phones are broadly similar.
When taking the shot:
1. Phone cameras typically default to a wide-angle setting upon opening, which can distort and curve the image. You get a more natural perspective if you zoom in a third or half way.
2. Fill the screen with your subject - find a "quiet" background, and get as close as you can.
3. To my eye, it adds some interest to photograph guns (especially rifles) at an angle, and inclined a bit, rather than straight on. Your mileage may vary!
But the real secret is learning the editing features on your phone (below is a screen shot, of a photo I've finished editing on my iPhone):
1. When you open a pic and hit the edit button, the exposure control window pops up as seen below. The three buttons on the left take you back and forth between that, special effects, and the rotate/crop control.
2. The buttons on the right of this window control a long list of exposure variables (brightness, contrast, shadows, sharpness, tint, and more). But if you click the top button - "auto adjust" - the phone automatically analyzes and tweaks them all at once! I almost always use this with artificial indoor lighting, but less often with natural outdoor light.
3. I usually jack up the brightness a bit more too, to compensate for the bad lighting in my room. (Most of the time, I don't touch any other exposure settings beyond what "auto adjust" comes up with - but experimenting with those is fun. You may find other tweaks you really like.)
4. Switch to the crop/rotate window on the left. Turn the image the way you want it, then crop the shot to get rid of extraneous surroundings (people wanna see my gun, not the other junk in the room, ha).
5. If desired, hit the graphics button at the top to add text, arrows, circles, etc. Choices are limited on my phone, but you can alter size, line weight, color, etc.
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FWIW, the camera and editing on my old iPad work exactly the same as the iPhone, so you can shoot with one, transfer the image, and edit with the other. I do this a lot - my phone is more portable and has a crisper camera, but the tablet's bigger screen eases editing, organizing, and retrieving the images for posting.
IMHO the two biggies are zoom and crop. If you do nothing else, get the perspective right, and cut away the distractions. The other settings will vary, but again, are fun (and free!) to play with. Most phone cameras these days can produce quite remarkable results.
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"where do you find the barrel mounts ? like on the Morini looking pistol ?"
Those are B-Square mounts for Daisy 717/747 pistols, but were discontinued years ago. But you can find other barrel-clamp scope mounts in Cyberspace or Ebay.
Those are B-Square mounts for Daisy 717/747 pistols, but were discontinued years ago. But you can find other barrel-clamp scope mounts in Cyberspace or Ebay.
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Man that’s really kind of you to say! Thank you so much! I get a joy out of documenting things. Bit of a nerd in that regard! Been blessed with great subjects to shoot!
Here is an action grab from a video of mine. Plinking on snail seashells from 25y.
- Brent
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Thank you! That was a lucky GB snag last year. It’s in .375 H&H Magnum which is why I suspect people weren’t bidding. Actually picked it up at $1300 which is phenomenal to me. It’s exactly what I wanted down to the red pad. With a little 1-4 Leupold, it was ready to rock. What a wonderful shooter that rifle is. A true joy. Recoil is there but comfortable, to me (5’10” 170#) in a t-shirt from the bench.
- Brent
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Out in the natural light with attention to shadows and watching out for odd angle reflections ... Samsung A71
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I would only use the cameras in my phone on a whim, otherwise i would go for my mid range Nikon Dslr and its cheap in box lens.
My dislike of phones, is why i would like that little FX display for my FX chrono,,,,,, its that bad, also when my reason to have the phone is gone ( my old mother ) there are a significant chance i will again have no phone ( was without a phone in the pocket from the late 90ties and about 10 years forward )
But i am aware of the rest of the world have a love affair or in many cases a outright addiction with that pocket devise.
My dislike of phones, is why i would like that little FX display for my FX chrono,,,,,, its that bad, also when my reason to have the phone is gone ( my old mother ) there are a significant chance i will again have no phone ( was without a phone in the pocket from the late 90ties and about 10 years forward )
But i am aware of the rest of the world have a love affair or in many cases a outright addiction with that pocket devise.
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Lots of good info here! A minor contribution, the Iphone “portrait” mode is pretty neat. (In pic below I was mindful of the shadow in left quadrant but in this case it doesn’t seem to overly distract - maybe even balance out the bit of glare on the cheekpiece?) Shame the trigger disappeared 
lol!
Had a brief moment to meet and chat with @MDriskill at the Hickory show, top notch gent!
lol!Had a brief moment to meet and chat with @MDriskill at the Hickory show, top notch gent!
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@MDriskill This post is awesome, I have learned a lot and my camera skills have greatly increased. High tide rises all boats!
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I wish my phone had "Portrait Mode". I have the iPhone 8, not the plusLots of good info here! A minor contribution, the Iphone “portrait” mode is pretty neat. (In pic below I was mindful of the shadow in left quadrant but in this case it doesn’t seem to overly distract - maybe even balance out the bit of glare on the cheekpiece?) Shame the trigger disappeared
Had a brief moment to meet and chat with @MDriskill at the Hickory show, top notch gent!
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