Title says it all. When I photograph my AR, which is black as coal when I look at it, the photo shows it as a light-medium gray. For the record I have a Canon EOS 5D, tried various settings including fully automatic and I'm using a bounce flash or natural daylight coming in at an angle.

Try more natural light. Whenever I photograph an EBR using a flash, it washes it out to gray.

I'd need to see more the setup you may be using but it you're using the Auto settings on a black subject the camera thinks that it needs to open up and let more light in. That would wash out or blow out your image. Try using manual mode and adjusting from there. Set the camera up and make an frame using what the camera light meter says is good. Evaluate that and then close the lens down allowing less light into the camera. That being said, what is the background like is it on a table with light fabric or paper under and around? You really just need to try out multiple set ups to see what will work given your situation. That's about all I can say at the moment. I'm sure others will have more thoughts later. Just remember not to rely on the Auto modes on the cameras they aren't always correct.

Could you post a photo showing an example of what you've been getting? That would help with helping you out maybe.

Shooterscott

The light meter in the camera is trying to make the picture 18% gray and overexposing with the black. Take a picture using natural sunlight, ISO speed at f16 and you will get black blacks. Or just shoot manual and close down 2 stops. With flash it gets tougher as the flash meter is TTL and will always seek gray unless you can find a way to underexpose on purpose.

Here's an example, in real life this rifle is black as coal:

This was taken outdoors on a porch with a bounce flash. f5 50mm ISO 1000 1/100s

This one was taken indoors, also with bounce flash, it shows the actual color of the rifle:

f4 50mm ISO 400 1/60s

That's the exact same woolen army blanket as a background in both photos.

I'll monkey with the metering and try going manual to get the black right. I tried bracketing a bit but it was not successful.

This post has been edited by lowracer: December 10th 2009 9:21 PM

thread jack, but what the hell is going on with that rifle?

It's built in a type of CA-legal configuration that allows CA shooters to legally use their 30-round mags. My company makes that specialized grip. The photos are to try to show off the different uses of the product.

Since the original post I've had some success in getting the black to show up better. Seems that the more daylight I use, the blacker I can get the rifle to appear:



If I use a lot of daylight and dial back the flash, I get a better black appearance.

This post has been edited by lowracer: January 4th 2010 2:57 PM

I built a light box out of coroplast and have been experimenting with it. I needed a big box large enough to contain an entire rifle and live in a small apartment so it's been a challenge to build something big that can be disassembled when not in use. Still tinkering with the lighting but I think I can get it to work. Here's a recent shot from inside the box:



I don't have to do any tweaking to get the rifle to show up black when it's in this box. I also some time ago did a complete reset on my camera, and that seemed to help a bit. I may have fiddled with some settings and later forgot I did it.

This post has been edited by lowracer: February 8th 2010 2:52 PM