Need more contrast

[Andrea B.]

Is the knife blue or silver in the knife/coin foto?
(This might be a letter opener?? If so, I certainly would like to buy one!!)

[Peter Connan]

Thanks everyone.

Hilton and Bjorn, I will definately try some different backgrounds. Fuzz on these small items is definately a problem, and something I tend to only see in post, although I vacumed and ironed the background before setting up.

Andrea, this is not intended as a letter opener, but it can certainly open letters. However, one would need to be careful, as it is very sharp.
The blade is damascus steel, the finger-guard and stand are made from a composite material made by forging copper and brass together, and the hilt and base are mother-of-pearl.

I will PM you my brother (the maker's) e-mail address, you can negotiate with him, either for this (which is for sale) or something specifically made to suit your requirements.

[simsurace]

Nice work on difficult subjects!

Some thoughts:

1) In your last version of the first image, there is a purple cast on the blade and the grip also seems to be affected by a color cast.
2) I second the recommendation of more directional light. If you can make the blade look more shiny in addition to getting better detail in the Damascus pattern, that would be awesome.
3) Have you tried some type of hardwood for the background? Or maybe some kind of rock (e.g. slate). Glass could be another possibility. You can put black cloth or paper under a glass pane for a nice effect (but it can be difficult to handle because of unwanted reflections).
4) In your second shot of the knife on the stand, I think that the overall appearance is too blue. It also seems to be affected by a general softness that may be due to diffraction. If you're shooting this at f/22, maybe you need to find a different solution. For this kind of subject where the plane of focus has to at an angle to the sensor, a tilting macro lens or bellows would be ideal, but is quite a bit of an investment. Maybe you can rent one. Maybe stacking is an option? In any case, I think that at this size the image should appear very crisp and not soft. On the other hand, the pattern on the blade is now very impressive.
5) The blade on the stand has a lot of dust on it and also smudges around the logo on the blade.

P.S. I would definitely make the logo bigger and change the logo background to transparent. This white box makes a bit of a cheap impression (sorry if this sounds blunt in a thread on knives )

[Peter Connan]

Thank you Simone.

[The_Traveler]

I know I come late to this but an additional suggestion.
If the pattern on the actual piece is not as obvious as the sharpened, higher contrast image, buyers might feel misled.
Perhaps the full image with just a bit more contrast to raise interest, then an inset with the higher contrast but with a label that says the pattern has been accentuated in this picture to show the detail that ordinary pictures cannot cpature.

[Peter Connan]

Thanks for the suggestion Lew